Jerusalem Film Festival opens this week
This Thursday, July 9th, marks the beginning of the Jerusalem Film Festival. Now in
it's 27th year, festival organizers selected Israeli-made Sumo dramedy A Matter of Size to kick off the proceedings at the coveted Sultan's Pool
opening screening. Size makes for a curious selection, since this spot featured Pixar animated
movies for the past two years, but it doesn't really matter what film
opens the festival. Even Waterworld would seem like Citizen Kane against
the backdrop of the Old City walls. The Jerusalem Film Festival runs
through July 18th, with showings at cinemas across the city including
international feature films, documentaries and shorts, with a
strong focus on Jewish and Israeli films.
A welcome addition
to this year's festival is the MGM Nights series, featuring free,
open-air
screenings of musicals in the center of town, preceded by live music
concerts. A full schedule can be found here. Also new this year
is Cinemania, a collaboration with the activist organization Wake Up
Jerusalem!, which showcases screenings by young Israeli filmmakers
in local bars. A full schedule can be found here.
Apropos to a
film festival taking place in Jerusalem,
unique programs that highlight Jerusalem's history will once again be on offer as well. This year, at the
amphitheater in the Mamilla Alrov Avenue will be a free screening of
Days of Mamilla, which includes amazing archival footage of Mamilla of
yesteryear.
There are also many other sub-festivals and
series, the Conference of The Forum for the Preservation of
Audio-Visual Memory in Israel, a Combatant for Peace Reconciliation event,
and several exhibits at the Cinematheque itself. The festival might not
be as important as its planners tout it as being, but this year, many
movies are set to screen here as a stop in-between Cannes and Toronto,
a not unimpressive coup.
And
there's still a downright staggering array of movies of all genres from
all around the world, reaffirming the festival's place as one of the
premiere brand names on Jerusalem's cultural calendar.
2000+ tips and recommendations
Alright, we'll be the first to admit it. Jerusalem's often chilly and often damp winters don't exactly exude...
In a region known for being one of the first in which early humans settled after leaving Africa, and in a city populated...
Looking for a place to begin your morning in luxury and style? Look no further than the American Colony Hotel, which offers...
Jerusalem, the city where kings ruled and sultans sat is no stranger to luxury. Today, even the visiting yeoman can find...
Jewish tradition holds that in the times of the First and Second Temples, all the Jewish people would gather in Jerusalem...
Technically, it's possible to visit Jerusalem without going to the Old City, but it would be hard to say you'd...
Looking for a place to begin your morning in luxury and style? Look no further than the American Colony Hotel, which offers...
The faithful may rhapsodize about the spiritual highs to be reached in the Old City; culture cognoscenti groove on the...
Once upon a time, options for eating out in Jerusalem were limited to local common phenomena such as falafel and schwarma,...
No results to show
|
Text text text
|
||
