IT’S A WRAP! Mazal Tov to MJFF

Posted on 01/28/2022 @ 07:00 AM

Tags: Miami Jewish Film Festival

Congratulations to Igor Shteyrenberg & the Miami Jewish Film Festival Team—Judith Vigil, Douglass Gavilan, and Daniel Vasquez-- as well as Barbara Black Goldfarb & the MJFF Advisory Board for an extraordinary 25th Festival, which concluded yesterday with its most successful season to date!
 
  • Over 140 film premieres, including 9 world premieres, 21 international premieres, 17 North American premieres, and 9 US premieres
  • Education through over 40 conversations with film talent and experts on various topics
  • A record setting 60,000 attendees (virtually and in person)

What were some of the highlights of the Festival for many of us?
 
Learning! In Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen, we learned that Director Norman Jewison wasn’t Jewish (despite his name) but was so enamored of Judaism that for his second marriage, he and his fiancée were married under a chuppah with Jewish symbols. And that he was scrupulous in trying to bring back the life of Jews before the Holocaust in an effort to help the world understand what was lost— including recreating a wooden synagogue on set, which most Jews had never seen or heard about. 
 
Awareness! In Tree of Life, the panel discussion brought to light the importance of seeking help for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder through EMDR therapy and the necessity of being trained in how to react when a potential shooter is in a building. Sadly, in the middle of the Festival, American Jews once again watched as a shooter entered a synagogue in Texas, thankfully with a different ending. 
 
Community! iMordecai, which won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Film, was such a hit that at the encore performance, when it started pouring rain during the closing credits, no one wanted to leave. Everyone joined Igor and first-time Director Marvin Samel under the overhang outside the Cultural Arts Building for the post-film Q&A about this made-in-Miami movie.
 
Celebration! Friends saw Donyoni, a film about a local family raising a son with tuberous sclerosis, a rare condition from which only his raw, uncanny works of art provides solace. They marveled at the family’s strength, the young man’s artistic ability, and the wonderful conversation that Nancy Zaretsky, Inclusion Specialist at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.

This year’s Festival was particularly challenging with all of the logistics for multiple outdoor venues as well as an overwhelming response to the virtual films, leading to sell outs. Our Film Festival team has earned a well-deserved rest for a while.
 
We at CAJE and MJFF hope (and pray!) that next year we’ll be able to return safely back to inside theaters, where the magic of film can continue to educate, inspire and bring our diverse community together!!!


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