On behalf of all of us at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center (MACC), Jewish Community Center of Denver (JCC), and this year’s Film Selection Committee, we would like to welcome you to the 28th Annual Denver Jewish Film Festival. This year, although there will be opportunities for some virtual screenings, we are emphasizing community connection through in-person showings. We aim to bring to you the very best in Israeli and Jewish cinema from around the world with this year’s exciting lineup. A little bit about our process: shortly after the end of each year’s festival, we solicit submissions for the following year from filmmakers whose focus is on Israeli and Jewish subjects and themes. A dedicated group of pre-screeners view hundreds of these submissions to determine which will be seen by our Film Selection Committee. From May through November, we view and review the entries that are highly rated by the pre-screeners, and then, our favorite part – we meet to engage in lively debate about the merits of each movie. By the end of November, we have reached a consensus about the films we will feature, which balance fiction and documentary, historical and contemporary with an additional consideration towards geographic, demographic, and political diversity and inclusion. Despite our differences in opinion, we tend to agree on the quality of the truly outstanding films and are happy to bring them to you. In addition to the aforementioned curated movie set, the Mizel Center incorporates other dynamics into the mix, such as conversations with filmmakers and even special programs. For example, the film, How to Make Challah, will be followed by a challah-making class for viewers, on Thursday, March 14. Once the films and programs have been set, the talented and dedicated MACC and JCC staff take the reins completely, communicating with filmmakers and distributors, setting up the box office, arranging for the delivery of film content, contributing to the design and distribution of marketing materials, and so much more. A special thanks to Emily Diaz Brenes, Jenna Gragg, Ari Shahbazi, Dan Rib, the MACC and JCC executive team, and the JCC Denver marketing team. In addition to our professional staff and volunteer committee members who have spent countless hours filtering through film content to bring you the best of Jewish and Israeli film, we also must thank our sponsors, without whom this festival would not exist. A special thank you to JEWISHcolorado for your support in funding our Israeli Film package and programming. And finally, we thank you, our audience, for showing up year after year to watch the films and engage in lively discussions!
The Film Selection Committee
Supported by
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Denver Jewish Film Festival
March 9 - 17, 2024
TICKETS ON SALE
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, at 10:00 AM Sponsor and early bird pass holder reservations begin Monday, January 15. J Perks Pass holders receive 18% off all purchases, excluding the opening night reception. Contact JPerksPass@jccdenver.org for more information.
All-Access Festival Pass: $290 ($495 retail - Best Value)
One individual admission to all in-person and virtual events, including the Opening Night VIP reception. (Reception starts at 6:00 pm, film begins at 7:30 pm.) Unused tickets are not transferable. This year the films are strategically scheduled to ensure the ability to see every film available in-person.
10 - Pack Pass: $140
($170 value – Best Flexibility) 10 total admissions to use as you see fit. Bring yourself to 10 movies, or 10 friends to one movie, it is up to you! Tickets can be used for in-person or virtual screenings.
Israeli Film Package Pass: $54 ($102 value)
In-Person Tickets: Israel Swings For Gold Hope Without Boundaries Mourning in Lod
Virtual Tickets: The Three of Us Our Son Holy Closet
This package is supported by our partners and supporters at JEWISHcolorado.
Opening Night Reception $54 One admission to screening and reception.
In-Person Individual Film Tickets $17 Adults; $15 Student & Senior
Virtual Individual Film Tickets
DJFF Encore Our new program, Denver Jewish Film Festival’s Encore, will offer virtual screenings after the main film festival concludes. Encore will virtually offer the top 5 films voted on by you, our audience.
$17 per Ticket
info & tickets: jccdenver.org /film
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box office: 303.316.6360
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Festival Overview Saturday, March 9 Phillips Social Hall 6:00 PM
The Pluss Theatre 12:30 PM P9 Vishniac
The Elaine Wolf Theatre 7:30 PM
P6 Remembering Gene Wilder
7:30 PM
P9 Madrasa (Episodes 1-3) Palestinian and Israeli teenagers studying together at a unique bilingual school. They fight to maintain their friendship, hopes, and faith in finding a common language in a divided society.
Sunday, March 10 The Elaine Wolf Theatre 10:30 AM P7 The Soap Myth Jeff Cohen’s landmark Holocaust drama, The Soap Myth, tells the story of a passionate Holocaust survivor and his crusade to have the Nazi atrocity of “soap” included in Holocaust memorials and museums. The film also explores the scourge of anti-Semitism masquerading as sophisticated Holocaust denial.
Monday, March 11 The Elaine Wolf Theatre 5:30 PM
P1O Last Man Standing:
2:30 PM P8 Israel Swings for Gold In 2021, Israel’s baseball team competed in the Olympics for the first time. They learn quickly that representing Israel on the world stage is not just fun and games.
5:30 PM
P8 My Neighbor Adolf
The Chronicles of Myron Sugerman The true crime life story of Myron Sugerman, 2nd generation gangster, son to Barney Sugerman, member of the National Crime Syndicate & partner of Meyer Lansky. After his father & the Jewish mob stood up to the Nazi violence in the streets of the United States from the American Nazi Party, he adopts a taste for Nazi hunting & makes strategic ties with Simon Wiesenthal, who finds Dr Joseph Mengele.
The Pluss Theatre
South America, 1960. A lonely and 7:30 PM grumpy Holocaust survivor is convinced Finding Light P1O that his new neighbor is none other than Adolf Hitler. Not being taken Illuminated through the story of seriously, he starts an independent Holocaust survivor Naomi Warren, investigation to prove his claim. Finding Light takes the audience on a journey that is simultaneously situated in the past while making relevant connections to the present through the lens of dance.
P4
The Elaine Wolf Theatre 5:30 PM
From the cosmopolitan streets of prewar Berlin to the shtetls in Poland and P11 Matchmaking Lithuania to the Princeton offices of When Moti Bernstein, an Ashkenazi Albert Einstein, Vishniac takes viewers from a “good family”, handsome on a journey through the lens of one and smart, reaches the right age, he of the foremost photographers of the begins to hear that he is the ultimate 20th century. match. However, Moti wants the one he can never have.
P6 Opening Night Reception
Told in part through Wilder’s own voice, Remembering Gene Wilder is a treat to watch with its generous helpings of film clips from across Wilder’s career.
Tuesday, March 12
Denver Jewish Film Festival
March 9 - 17, 2024
The Pluss Theatre 7:30 PM
P11 Journey to the Past Five actors embark on a journey to Poland. The personal and shared journey turns into a powerful experience they will never forget.
Wednesday, March 13 The Elaine Wolf Theatre 5:30 PM
P12 Savoy
In a new hybrid documentary, filmmaker Zohar Wagner tells the story of Kochava Levy, who served as mediator between terrorists and IDF while being held hostage in Tel Aviv – during the night of the deadly 1975 Savoy hotel terror attack. Over the course of one night, she transformed herself into a fearless heroine. The film intertwines rare archival materials that were never released as well as re-enacted scenes from the night of the attack.
The Pluss Theatre 7:30 PM
P12 Hope Without Boundaries A war-torn Ukraine sets the stage for an Israeli field hospital where medical teams navigate challenges and emotional struggles while offering compassion and hope to refugees.
Festival Overview Thursday, March 14 The Elaine Wolf Theatre 5:30 PM
P13 Barren
A childless, young, ultraorthodox couple faces a big crisis, which raises fundamental questions about faith, after a traumatic treatment.
Phillips Social Hall 7:30 PM
P13 How to Make Challah
1:00 PM
P14 Simone: Woman of the
Century
The fates of three families are inextricably intertwined in a vicious cycle of violence in the city of Lod, Israel, where Israelis and Palestinians live side by side. The outpouring of love, anger, and forgiveness that follows offers a glimpse of morning light to offset a collective state of seemingly endless mourning.
P17 The Rhapsody The Rhapsody is the astonishing story of composer Leo Spellman (born Leon Szpilman), a Polish Holocaust survivor who sets out on a riveting and emotional journey towards artistic liberation at the age of ninety-eight. The film features a musical masterpiece lost for more than fifty years; the revelation of a secret wartime diary; a harrowing tale of survival told through animation; powerful live concert performances by orchestras in North America and Europe; and an uplifting finale as Spellman’s legacy is finally recognized in the town where he so narrowly escaped death.
Simone Veil’s life story through the pivotal events of Twentieth Century. An intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era defending a humanist message still keenly relevant today.
Sunday, March 17 The Elaine Wolf Theatre
Over the course of two days – one 10:00 AM in 1975 and one in 2022 – two P16 The Devil’s Confession: older Jewish women bake bread in New York City. One has made challah The Lost Eichman Tapes millions of times before. For the The Devil’s Confession: The Lost other, her granddaughter, it’s her first Eichmann Tapes sheds light on time. As they bake, they both reflect the hidden forces that concealed on what they’re passing on to the next the recordings, altering the arc of generation. history as we have understood it for more than 70 years, and provides irrefutable proof against Holocaust Friday, March 15 denial and the pernicious antisemitic hatred from which it springs. The Elaine Wolf Theatre
10:00 AM P14 Mourning in Lod
5:30 PM
The Pluss Theatre 12:30 PM
P16 The Catskills
2:30 PM P17 Less Than Kosher When self proclaimed bad Jew Viv lands ass-backwards into a job as a Cantor at her family’s synagogue, she’s thrown into a wild ride of illicit affairs, drug trips, tense family drama, self discovery and some serious Jewish bops.
info & tickets: jccdenver.org /film
With a trove of lost-and-found archival footage and a cast of characters endowed with the gift of gab, “The Catskills” journeys into the storied mountain getaway north of New York City that served as refuge for Jewish immigrants fleeing poverty as well as a lavish playground for affluent Jewish families.
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box office: 303.316.6360
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March 10
Remembering Gene Wilder Documentary
Saturday, March 9 6:00 PM Opening Night Reception 7:30 PM Film Screening THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE Director: Ron Frank 2023/USA/92min English Mountain States Premiere Sponsor: Mark and Krista Boscoe He was born Jerome Silberman to an assimilated Milwaukee Jewish family, and his childhood buddies called him Jerry—but the world would come to know Gene Wilder (1933 – 2016) as an endearing comic genius through an extraordinary string of film roles that seem to grow deeper, funnier and more humane with time: from the timid Leo Bloom in Mel Brooks’ The Producers to the strange and magical title role in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, from his inspired on-screen
partnership with Richard Pryor in movies like Silver Streak to the comedy classics of Blazing Saddles, The Frisco Kid and Young Frankenstein. Now, in Ron Frank’s affectionate and touching biographical documentary, the full measure of Wilder’s gifts is on display, not only as a comedic actor but as a writer, director and a mensch. Told in part through Wilder’s own voice (luckily he recorded the audiobook of his memoir, which serves as narration), Remembering Gene Wilder is a treat to watch with its generous helpings of film clips from across Wilder’s career. Yes there are the ever-fresh line readings (“Put…the candle…back”) and his manic physical antics (his pre-verbal meltdown when Zero Mostel’s Bialystok separates Bloom from his little blue blanket) -- but there are also uproarious outtakes from the set of Young Frankenstein and poignant home movies from his marriage to Gilda Radner. Get ready to binge-watch Wilder’s whole career you’ll want to after seeing this tender and eye-opening tribute.
HEALTHPOINT PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH BRIGHTFOCUS FOUNDATION “REMEMBERINGGENE WILDER” WITH MELBROOKS, CAROLKANE, HARRY Jewish ALAN FilmALDA, Festival March 9 -CONNICK,JR., 17, 2024 ERIC MCCORMACK, RAIN PRYOR AND KAREN WILDER P6 EXECUTIVEDenver EDITED DIRECTORS OF WRITTEN DIRECTED PRODUCERS JULIENIMOY & DAVIDKNIGHT BY RONFRANK PHOTOGRAPHY KEVINO’BRIEN & WESDORMAN BY GLENNKIRSCHBAUM BY RONFRANK
March 10
The Soap Myth
Holocaust Drama, Live Concert Reading Sunday, March 10 10:30 AM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE Director: Annie Benjamin, Pam Berlin 2020/USA/87 min English Mountain States Premiere
Jeff Cohen’s landmark Holocaust drama, The Soap Myth, tells the story of a passionate Holocaust survivor and his crusade to have the Nazi atrocity of “soap” included in Holocaust memorials and museums. The film also explores the scourge of anti-Semitism masquerading as sophisticated Holocaust denial. This PBS film captures a live concert-reading performance of the play starring 7-time, prime-time Emmy Award winning actor, Ed Asner in one of the last great performances of his career, and 4-time Tony Award and 4-time, prime-time Emmy Award nominated actress, Tovah Feldshuh.
info & tickets: jccdenver.org /film
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box office: 303.316.6360
P7
March 10
Vishniac
Israel Swings for Gold
Documentary
Documentary
Sunday, March 10 12:30 PM THE PLUSS THEATRE
Sunday, March 10 2:30 PM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE
Director: Laura Bialis 2023/USA/90 min English
From the cosmopolitan streets of pre-war Berlin to the shtetls in Poland and Lithuania to the Princeton offices of Albert Einstein, Vishniac takes viewers on a journey through the lens of one of the foremost photographers of the 20th century. Roman Vishniac is best known for having traversed Eastern Europe from 1935 through 1938, on assignment for the American Joint Distribution Committee, to photograph Jewish life in Eastern Europe. The purpose of the photographs was to raise funds for impoverished Jewish communities. Few predicted that less than a decade later, these communities would be wiped out, and that Vishniac’s photographs would provide the last visual records of an entire world.
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Denver Jewish Film Festival
March 9 - 17, 2024
Directed by: Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger 2023/United States/ 77 min English Mountain States Premiere
In 2021, Israel’s baseball team compete d in the Olympics for the first time. With no media allowed in Tokyo’s Olympic Village, the players record their own experiences. Mostly newly minted Israelis, they log unexpected battles against anti - Semitism and anti - Zionism. Victory for Israel comes on the playing field, even if not on the podium. Israel Swings for Gold follows the 2018 hit, Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel, about Israel’s Cinderella run at the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
March 10
My Neighbor Adolf
Madrasa (Episodes 1-3)
Comedy
TV Series, Comedy-Drama
Sunday, March 10 5:30 PM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE
Sunday, March 10 7:30 PM THE PLUSS THEATRE
Director: Leon Prudovsy 2022/Israel/96 min English,German Colorado Premiere
Director: Guri dov Alfi Aharon 2023/Israel/75 min Hebrew, Arabic Colorado Premiere
Udo Kier (Downsizing, Lili Marleen) and David Heyman (Hope and Glory) star in this bitter sweet comedy.
Episodes 1 - 6 will be available on-demand for those who purchase tickets to this screening until March 24. Madrasa is a comedy-drama television series set at a bilingual Jewish-Arab high school in Jerusalem. This unique setting serves as the background for many challenges, dilemmas, and conflicts that the students, teachers, and parents deal with throughout the episodes. These are critical times, tensions between Jews and Arabs in Israel and Palestine are at yet another peak, and our wounds from the latest violent clashes have not yet healed. Especially at this moment in time, we feel it is our mission to use the tools that we have acquired in order to display an alternative picture and suggest a new way of coping.
Colombia, May 1960, just a few days after the abduction of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann by Mossad agents in Argentina. Polsky, a lonely and grumpy Holocaust survivor, lives in the remote Colombian countryside. He spends his days playing chess and tending his beloved rose bushes. One day, when a mysterious old German man moves in next-door, he suspects that his new neighbor is... Adolf Hitler. Since nobody believes him, he embarks on a detective mission to find the evidence. But, in order to gather evidence, he will need to be closer to his neighbor than he would like. So close that the two could almost become friends.
info & tickets: jccdenver.org /film
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box office: 303.316.6360
P9
March 11
Last Man Standing: The Chronicles of Myron Sugerman
Finding Light
Documentary, Dance, WWII Monday, March 11 7:30 PM THE PLUSS THEATRE
Documentary, True Crime Monday, March 11 5:30 PM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE
Director: Paul Michael Bloodgood 2022/USA/60 min English Colorado Premiere
Director: Jonny Caplan 2022/USA/75 min English A true-crime, feature-length documentary, showcasing the factual life story of Myron Sugerman, a member of the Newark, New Jersey Mob. Myron’s father, Barney Sugerman was a lifelong partner of Meyer Lansky, Benny “Bugsy” Seigel, Lucky Luciano, and Joe “Doc” Statcher. Myron is the last standing original gangster from that iconic era and the Sugerman’s were the largest manufacturer, importer, and exporter of illegal slot machines, pinball machines, jukeboxes, and cigarette machines from the 1930s onwards. Distributing contraband to more than 80 countries worldwide, Myron’s endeavors span all four corners of the globe. After fighting against the onslaught of fascist violence in the streets of New Jersey & New York from the Nazi Bund Party, he adopted a taste for Nazi hunting. and soon after made strategic ties with Simon Wiesenthal, the famed Nazi hunter, and together they located the notorious Nazi scientist Dr. Joseph Mengele, which apparently led to his early demise. Myron is a one-of-a-kind character and the production is an iconic piece of American History showcasing the rise of fascism inside the US and globally.
P1O P10
Denver Jewish Film Festival
March 9 - 17, 2024
Illuminated through the story of Holocaust survivor, Naomi Warren, FINDING LIGHT takes the audience on a journey that is simultaneously situated in the past while making relevant connections to the present through the lens of dance. FINDING LIGHT is a multi-faceted film, which at its core seeks to use dance as a convener of conversation around issues related to the protection of human rights against bigotry and hate.
March 12
Matchmaking
Journey to the Past
Romantic Comedy
Documentary
Tuesday, March 12 5:30 PM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE
Tuesday, March 12 7:30 PM THE PLUSS THEATRE
Director: Erez Tadmor 2022/Israel/98 min Hebrew
Moti Bernstein is the son every mother wants, a student every Rabbi loves to teach, the ideal Yeshiva Bucher, the perfect match for every bride. He has it all: a good Ashkenazi family, a brilliant mind, and a nice face!
Director: Ayelet Heller 2023/Israel/60 min Hebrew Mountain States Premiere
Five actors embark on a journey to Poland. The personal and shared journey turns into a powerful experience they will never forget.
In search of a wife, he has the choice of the best girls in the Jewish Orthodox world, but Moti only has eyes for his sister’s friend Nechama, who hails from a Moroccan Mizrahi family. Throwing caution—and taboo—to the wind, Moti moves to win the hand of his Sephardic love. From the director of Magic Men and A Matter of Size comes Matchmaking; a Haredi take on Romeo and Juliet with plenty of laughs. This romantic comedy is Israel’s biggest 2023 box office hit and won the Audience Award for Narrative Film at this year’s Miami Jewish Film Festival.
info & tickets: jccdenver.org /film
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box office: 303.316.6360
P11
March 13
Savoy
Hope Without Boundaries
Docudrama, History
Documentary
Wednesday, March 13 5:30 PM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE
Wednesday, March 13 7:30 PM THE PLUSS THEATRE
Director: Zohar Wagner 2022/Israel/78 min Arabic, Hebrew Mountain States Premiere Sponsor: DJFF Selection Committee Member Bobbi Ewelt and her friends: Robin Doerr, Kathy Gugel, Andrea Marcone Herrara, Susi Holm, Suzanne Maineri, Terri Martinson, Erin Murray, Luella Ozawa, Mark Sisun, and Cheri Young
In a new hybrid documentary, filmmaker Zohar Wagner tells the story of Kochava Levy, who served as mediator between terrorists and IDF while being held hostage in Tel Aviv – during the night of the deadly 1975 Savoy hotel terror attack. Over the course of one night, she transformed herself into a fearless heroine. The film intertwines rare archival materials that were never released as well as reenacted scenes from the night of the attack.
P12
Denver Jewish Film Festival
March 9 - 17, 2024
Director: Itay Vered 2023/Israel/65 min English, Hebrew, Russian, Ukrainian Colorado Premiere
Amidst the war in Ukraine, an Israeli field hospital is established to care for those affected by the conflict. The medical teams face challenges as they treat Ukrainian patients who have lost everything. The film highlights the inter section of history, culture, and compassion as the Israeli teams, some descended from Holocaust survivors, offer help and hope to those in need. Aa touching portrayal of humanity and the power of small acts of kindness to bring people together.
March 14
Barren
How to Make Challah
Drama
Short, Documentary
Thursday, March 14 5:30 PM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE
Thursday, March 14 7:30 PM PHILLIPS SOCIAL HALL
Director: Mordechai Verdi 2022/Israel/108 min Hebrew Colorado Premiere Sponsor: Diane Waldman
Director: Sarah Rosen 2022/USA/12 min English
Feigi and Naftali are a 25-year-old Ultra-orthodox couple. After 4 years of marriage, despite their efforts, there still have no children. They live temporarily with Naftali’s parents, 50-year-old repentant Jews from Zefat - Simon, a writer of Scripture, and Bilhah, is a matchmaker. Naftali goes to Uman for Rosh Hashana to pray for a child, hoping that this month they will be able to conceive. The following day Simon invites Elijah as a holiday guest. He introduces himself as the healer by shofar. Elijah recognizes Feigi’s distress as a barren woman and offers her a “mouthpiece repair”. Feigi finally wants to try mouthpiece therapy after hearing from Elijah that he has already been able to cure people of cancer and help infertility. After Feigi goes through the treatment and Naftali returns, the tension between the couple raises to a boiling point. Now the couple must repair their marriage.
In 1975, my aunt Jane filmed her 97-year-old immigrant grandmother baking challah in her tiny kitchen on the Upper West Side. In 2022, I continued this ritual by filming my aunt Jane (now 80) baking challah herself for the first time. The film moves between the 1975 tape of my great-grandmother and the 2022 tape of my aunt Jane, plus archival footage from Jewish life at the turn of the 20th century. The film documents generations of women performing this cultural-religious ritual a half century apart, highlighting the age-old significance of conversation between generations of women in the kitchen. It shows how much a day of baking bread can reveal about class, culture, family, history, and women’s expanding freedom in America. Most of all, the film is about what we pass on to the next generation and what we leave behind. Join us for a special DJFF first as baker Luisa Hagemeier with Challahrado Hearth teaches us how to make challah while we watch this film!
info & tickets: jccdenver.org /film
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box office: 303.316.6360
P13
March 15
Mourning in Lod
Simone: Woman of the Century
Documentary
Biography, Drama, History Friday, March 15 10:00 AM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE
Wednesday, March 15 1:00 PM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE
Documentary Director: Hilla Medalia 2023/Israel/74 min Arabic, Hebrew Colorado Premiere
Director: Oliver Dahan 2022/France/140 min French
The fates of three families are inextricably intertwined in a vicious cycle of violence in the city of Lod, Israel, where Israelis and Palestinians live side by side. The outpouring of love, anger, and forgiveness that follows offers a glimpse of morning light to offset a collective state of seemingly endless mourning.
P14
Denver Jewish Film Festival
March 9 - 17, 2024
Simone Veil’s life story through the pivotal events of Twentieth Century. An intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era defending a humanist message still keenly relevant today.
March 16
Saturday, March 16 The Denver Jewish Film Festival will not be scheduling any film showings this evening. Instead, you can join us at JCC Denver’s Purim Drag Queen Bingo!
info & tickets: jccdenver.org /film
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box office: 303.316.6360
P15
March 17
The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichman Tapes
The Catskills Documentary
Documentary
Sunday, March 17 12:30 PM THE PLUSS THEATRE
Sunday, March 17 10:00 AM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE
Director: Lex Gillespie 2023/USA/85 min English
Director: Yariv Mozer 2023/Israel/115 English, German, Hebrew Mountain States Premiere Sponsor: Mark Goldstein The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes, unearths secret recordings of Adolf Eichmann, one of the chief architects of the Holocaust’s Final Solution, which definitively shows his active involvement in the planning and implementation of one of the greatest atrocities in world history. Recorded in Buenos Aires in 1957 by Dutch journalist and former SS-Officer Willem Sassen with the intention to prove the Holocaust did not happen as portrayed and without Hitler’s knowledge, these tapes show the opposite and expose Eichmann, in his own voice, stunningly contradicting claims he made during his eventual trial for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes against the Jewish people. The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes sheds light on the hidden forces that concealed the recordings, altering the arc of history as we have understood it for more than 70 years, and provides irrefutable proof against Holocaust denial and the pernicious antisemitic hatred from which it springs.
P16
Denver Jewish Film Festival
March 9 - 17, 2024
With a trove of lost-and-found archival footage and a cast of characters endowed with the gift of gab, The Catskills journeys into the storied mountain getaway north of New York City that served as refuge for Jewish immigrants fleeing poverty as well as a lavish playground for affluent Jewish families. As bungalow colony proprietors, guests, waiters, comedians, hoteliers, and beauticians share colorful tales of Catskill farms, boarding houses, and luxury resorts, they paint a picture of vibrant American Jewish life and culture in the 20th century.
March 17
Less Than Kosher
The Rhapsody
Sunday, March 17 2:30 PM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE
Sunday, March 17 5:30 PM THE ELAINE WOLF THEATRE
Musical Comedy
Documentary, Music, Mixed Media, WWII
Director: Daniel AM Rosenberg 2023/Canada/65 min English Mountain States Premiere
Thirty-year-old Viv is a self-proclaimed Bad Jew who loves to get high, eat bacon and snack on Yom Kippur. Back at her parents’ basement with nothing to do but contemplate her once promising, now stalled music career, she reluctantly agrees to take a cantor job at her local shul. Her stint at the synagogue soon proves to be her most adventurous phase yet: with an illicit affair with the rabbi’s married son and an overnight TikTok success, Viv manages to maintain her reputation for being a lousy Jew while giving her parents some long overdue nachas. Less Than Kosher has been hailed as Shiva Baby meets A Star Is Born (with a sprinkle of The Jazz Singer, too), but as Jewish comedy goes, it truly is in a class of its own.
Director: David Hoffert 2022/Canada/104 min English Mountain States Premiere Sponsor: Gary and Marsha Blum *Featuring Live music of Leo Spellman’s compositions
The Rhapsody is the astonishing story of composer Leo Spellman, a Polish-Canadian Holocaust survivor who sets out on a riveting and emotional journey towards artistic liberation at the age of ninetyeight. The film features a musical masterpiece lost for more than fifty years, a secret wartime diary revealed for the first time, a harrowing tale of survival told through animation and narration by Stephen Fry, powerful live concert performances by orchestras in Toronto and Europe, and a return to the Polish town where Spellman spent eighteen terrifying months in hiding from the Nazis during World War II.
info & tickets: jccdenver.org /film
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box office: 303.316.6360
P17
Virtual Israeli Package Sponsored by JEWISHcolorado
The Three of Us Drama
Director: Henya Brodbeker 2023/Israel/80 min Hebrew In a society governed by tradition, a young Orthodox couple defies norms to integrate their autistic son. As they risk everything, their journey explores the delicate balance between love, faith, and self-discovery. Through their struggle, they challenge preconceived notions, embracing parenthood and searching for their place in the world.
Our Son
Short, Narrative Director: Henya Brodbeker 2022/Israel/7 min Hebrew A young Haredi woman is called into her son’s school. She comes, determined to fight for his place and her own.
The Holy Closet
Diversity, Jewish Life, LGBTQIA+ Director: Moran Nakar 2023/Israel/58 min Hebrew What does the wedding ceremony of two religious Jewish gay men look like? Or a family of two mothers and 4 children? Or the pregnancy of a trans religious man? These are some of the questions raised in the series. It tells the stories of LGBTQ people who chose to remain religious Jews and to build their lives, relationships, families, and everyday activities according to the Jewish religion.
P18
Denver Jewish Film Festival
March 9 - 17, 2024
28th Annual DJFF Print Sources Barren
How to Make Challah
Madrasa
The Rhapsody
Go2Films outreach@go2films.com
Sarah Rosenberg sarahsgrosen@gmail.com
Go2Films outreach@go2films.com
Lost Rhapsody Productions Inc. brenda@hoffert.ca
The Catskills
Israel Swings for Gold
Matchmaking
Savoy
Lex Gillespie lexgillespie@yahoo.com
Menemsha nielf@menemshafilms.com
Israeli Films israelifilms@gmail.com
JTM Films jm72t@hotmail.com
The Devil’s Confession
Journey to the Past
Mourning in Lod
Menemsha nielf@menemshafilms.com
Asaf Yecheskel asaf@costanza-films.com
The Film Collaborative kathy@thefilmcollaborative.org
Simone Woman of the Century
Finding Light
Last Man Standing: The Chronicles of Myron Sugarman
My Neighbor Adolf
Bloody Good Pictures bloodygoodpictures@gmail.com
The Holy Closet
Tech Talk Media jc@techtalkmedia.tv
Our Son
Go2Films outreach@go2films.com
Less Than Kosher
Asaf Yecheskel asaf@costanza-films.com
Hope Without Boundries
Menemsha nielf@menemshafilms.com
Remembering Gene Wilder
Go2Films outreach@go2films.com
Oded Horowitz oded@odedhorowitzfd.com
SBC Global booktalk@sbcglobal.net
Israeli Films israelifilms@gmail.com
The Soap Myth Burke Cohen Entertainment burkecohen.jc@gmail.com
The Three of Us Go2Films outreach@go2films.com
Vishniac Oded Horowitz oded@odedhorowitzfd.com
28th Annual DJFF Sponsors JANE E. ROSENBAUM
STREAR FAMILY FOUNDATION
JEWISHcolorado has sponsored a significant portion of our festival to provide our Israel package as well as Israeli films and programming.
Special Thanks & Community Partners
Thank you to our individual film donors for their contributions. 2024 DJFF Film Selection Committee
2024 DJFF Pre-Screener Committee
Mizel Arts and Culture Center Board of Directors
Alex Amchislavskiy Susan Krems
Beth Schneider
Maureen Beigel
Andrea Mallen
Leslie Schwartz
Fran Berry
Judi Marcus
Stephanie Shpall
Renee Brilliant
Jonathan Miller
Casey Shpall
Elisabeth Evans
Beth Miller
Jenene C. Stookesberry
Stacey Fleishman
Amy Mills
Lisa Thompson
Belina Fruitman
Amy Morris
Shelly Toltz
Mark Goldstein
Olga Guerra
Lesley Oransky
Donald Turken
Isla Lader
Linda Heller
Lisa Padilla
Julie Turken
Paula Machlin
Sharon Hill
Elaine Padilla
Alexander Van Riper Gelb
Marci Penner
Ginger Kennedy
Leah Peer
Ethel Varadi
Mark Rossman
Sandra Korn
Jeff Peer
Janie Weiner
Maxine Rossman
Sara Caine Kornfeld Daniel Pepper
Diane Waldman
Marjorie Kraus
Kipp Adler Gary Blum Mark Boscoe Paula Breese Bobbi Ewelt
Linda Weiss
Ed Nekritz Kathy Neustadt, Emeritus Steve Replin Terry Rubin Julie Turken
JCC Denver Board of Directors Ed Nekritz, Board Chair Garrett Barter Goldie Cohen Katie Frisch Jimmy Gulick Kendra Harrison Paula Herzmark
Mike Kboudi Aaron Kremer Rachel Kurtz-Phelan Cantor Elizabeth Sacks Mike Sophir, CEO Lisa Walko
Ilana Reis
Mizel Arts and Culture Center Team
JCC Denver Collaborators
Stephanie Herm, Chief Operating Officer
Rachel Wool, Director of Engagement & Jewish Learning
Ari Shahbazi, Interim General Manager of Mizel Arts and Culture / Fine Arts Program Manager
Blair Becker, Engagement Program Manager
Shawna Colville, Technical Director
Daniel Siegel, Engagement Program Manager
Emily Diaz, Patron Services and Arts Programming Coordinator
Charlie Sommers, Graphic Designer
Kevin McVeigh, Theatre Technician Dan Rib, Production Manager
P2O P20
Megan Seff, Board Chair Scott Blau Mark Goldstein Jody Grossman Jarrod Markman
Denver Jewish Film Festival
March 9 - 17, 2024
Shlomit Ovadia, Content Marketing Manager
2024
Series
Spring Events The Neustadt JAAMM series rolls into spring with another lineup of events and performances!
Box Office Make your reservations early to ensure the best seat selection! All seating in the Wolf Theatre is reserved. View the seating chart online to select your seats when you purchase your tickets. All seating in the Pluss Theatre is general admission (see seating policy below). Ticket and seat exchanges are allowed prior to screening.
Box Office Hours Monday - Friday 12:00 - 5:00 pm
During Festival 1 hour before earliest screening that day – 30 minutes after the final screening starts.
303.316.6360 jccdenver.org/film
Seating Policy: Seats for all in-person films in the Wolf Theatre can be selected at the time of purchase. Seats are reserved, first-come, first-served at the time of purchase, and will not be held for any other reason. Seats for all in-person films in the Pluss Theatre are general admission and are available first-come, first-served, once the theatre doors open. Health and Safety Policy: Ticket holders will be responsible for affirming their commitment to following any and all health & safety policies upon purchasing seats for in-person screenings. Refund Policy: In the event of a cancellation of an event, all tickets will be automatically refunded in their entirety. For festival pass holders, a prorated refund will be provided based upon the type of pass and the number of cancelled events relative to the overall number of events still offered (i.e., not cancelled). Should an event, or events, be postponed, all tickets and passes will automatically be honored for the rescheduled date(s). No refunds will be provided in this case. DJFF reserves the right to “pivot” to a schedule of some or all virtually screened films with notice to patrons, should Mizel Arts and Culture Center and JCC Denver leadership determine - either due to public health mandate, safety concerns, or conditions in the facility. In this eventuality, tickets and passes will be converted to “virtual” and links for all applicable film screenings to which patrons hold those passes will be distributed as able. In the event the Mizel Arts and Culture Center is unable to screen a film virtually as an alternative, refunds will be provided.
J PERKS PASS
This annual membership program provides many opportunities including member-only experiences, access to special events at the JCC and Mizel Arts and Culture Center, and priority registration for Camps and Engagement programs.
• 18% off Neustadt JAAMM Series and Denver Jewish Film Festival • 10% off select Engagement classes • Priority registration on select programs
JOIN OUR GROWING JCC FAMILY TODAY! 303.399.2660 | JCCDENVER.ORG/JOIN
Mizel Arts and Culture Center at the JCC 350 South Dahlia Street Denver, CO 80246-8102
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage
PAID Denver, CO Permit No. 2027