The 2020 Atlantic Jewish Virtual Film Festival

A message from the Chair, Lynn Rotin

The seventh annual Atlantic Jewish Film Festival (AJFF), like most everything this past year, suffered the effects of COVID-19 but, like other festivals and cultural events the world over, the AJFF quickly pivoted, taking the films to the virtual world.

We were the first in Canada to use the Cineplex platform and though it was a learning curve for both the AJFF and the theatre chain with a few glitches here and there and some mild confusion (Edna LeVine manned the phone helping those, like me, who couldn’t quite figure it out), we pulled it off. Committee members congratulate yourselves on a fine job. Edna, give yourself a big hand for doing the bulk of the organizing and outdoing yourself during this year of unprecedented challenges. We salute you!

Sure, we missed meeting in person at the theatre, and mingling, and schmoozing, and dressing in all our finery for the Gala but there are some advantages to a virtual film festival. It meant that, for the first time, viewers from across the Atlantic provinces could participate in the AJFF (so nice to have you with us!); that subscribers could stay home on those nasty, blustery late November afternoons and evenings. Every Friday afternoon for the past six years, the weather assaulted us with driving rain and stormy winds. Audience members arrived dripping wet as they raced from their cars to the theatre. I forgot to take note of the weather—I was comfy and warm in my own home, sitting in my reading/viewing chair by the woodstove.

This year our Cast Member sponsors (lounging in their own chairs) could inhale the junk food and imbibe the wine hand-delivered in colourful gift bags by AJFF committee members. Others could nosh unrestricted by Cineplex rules (no outside food!) on their own treats. And we could all invite friends from within personal bubbles into our homes to share a movie night or two. This way many more people than usual were able to see and discuss the films.

Speaking of discussing the films, the virtual platform also allowed the AJFF committee to add statements and introductions from producers, directors, and others—an added bonus that one could watch or not. Next year, (if we’re still an online festival!) we’ll figure out a way to have moderated break-out rooms on Zoom at the end so that, together, we can parse the films and share ideas.

True, there’s an energy and a certain communion that passes through a crowd sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a darkened theatre; a mutual expectation as they wait for the lights to go down; a frisson of excitement when they recognize, at the same time, a wonderful film; there’s a bonding when they break out as one into laughter; a communal release, too...especially when it’s our Jewish community of friends and neighbours gathering together for our annual AJFF.

We will experience that excitement again when the world is healed. And I don’t just mean COVID-19. We all have to take stock of our lives and values and decide what kind of world we want to live in then work diligently towards that. Never giving up. We owe it to our children, our grandchildren, and those that follow us and them...

Let’s hope that next year we can sit together, sharing the magic of movies.