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It’s been more than a year since I last attended the cinema. The box office, big-budget, star-driven, movie theater experience had almost gone full Blockbuster, nearly finished.
The industry impact has been massive with projects placed on hold and few places more potentially contagious than one where people gather close together for extended periods laughing, hooting, hollering, and slouching, eating hand to mouth popcorn before touching everything like Rudy Gobert did before the NBA went full Orlando last year. The cleaning protocols alone made theaters one of COVID 19’s first victims. Airplanes were safer.
Despite this, an entire world watched, fixated on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, and the like. Everyone watched Ozark, The Crown, Tiger King, and The Office till they farmed it out to Comedy Central. Many watched The Queen’s Gambit as chess sets flew off shelves. Many watched Emily in Paris and marveled at Lily Collins’ ability to behave in such a stereotypically eerie American way, dressed in dreamy, teenaged Tik Tok styling, while simultaneously nauseating all Parisians. Literally! Many now watch Bridgerton while monitoring their heart rate. Everyone is watching AT HOME.
So leave it to Igor Shteyrenberg and his Miami Jewish Film Festival team to figure something out. Recently, I got a letter from Igor in which he explained how they had to entirely reschedule their Festival, now around the corner, set to occur April 14-29, to these upcoming dates in order to keep the COVID endangered safe. It is reassuring to know that some leaders in Florida want to help protect a vulnerable population. Governor Igor? Senator Shteyrenberg?
Somehow, the MJFF will present the largest film program ever assembled at a Jewish event, featuring more than 140 film premieres. This year’s Festival will be a hybrid experience, presenting films in various unique platforms, including virtual, outdoor (North Beach Bandshell’s open-air amphitheater), and drive-in experiences. Most importantly, the entire Festival experience will be offered for free for the first time ever. Given the challenges and hardships so many members in Miami are facing because of COVID-19, MJFF elected to make this year’s Festival as inclusive as possible, making all events available to Florida residents for free.
Again, there have been requisite changes; this year’s Festival is three months late. With 100 feature-films and 45 short films, representing 25 countries, 39 first-time feature filmmakers, and an unprecedented 47 films directed by women (32 percent of total program), it is ambitious.
Miami Jewish Film Festival has become the largest Jewish film festival in the world. The Festival’s seven different drive-in screenings will all take place in Wynwood, with RSVPing prior to arrival required.
Shteyrenberg, Executive Director of the MJFF, said it like this: “At this time of incredible challenge and change brought on by the global pandemic, we are proud to continue our mission to bring community together and showcase the best that world cinema has to offer at our 24th Miami Jewish Film Festival…This year has been so difficult for so many, and to be able to persevere and, for the first time ever, bring the Festival as a free virtual experience to audiences all over the state of Florida feels like a gift,”
Opening night will debut Honeymood, a slapstick romantic comedy from Talya Lavie, who returns to the Festival following her blockbuster, Zero Motivation, which broke decades of Israeli box-office records and won six Israeli Academy Awards. MJFF’s closing night film is Howie Mandel: But, Enough About Me, a profile of versatile Howie Mandel that was produced amid the COVID-19 health crisis. Both presentations will take place at The North Beach Bandshell’s open-air amphitheater in Miami Beach.
MJFF is introducing its Breaking Barriers/Building Bridges program, dedicated to presenting stories that align the power that exists in the connection between the Black and Jewish communities in these turbulent times. Films include Nancy Buirski’s A Crime on the Bayou, the concert documentary Dreams of Hope, the coming-of-age drama Tahara starring Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby), They Ain’t Ready for Me about a black rabbinical student who leads a fight against gun violence, and Shared Legacies about the African American-Jewish civil rights alliance that features Harry Belafonte, Jesse Jackson, and the late John Lewis.
The Headliners program that will spotlight acclaimed standouts and selected premieres from festivals around the world, and the Next Wave Competition, will be juried by 21-35-year-old college students and young professionals.
There is more – lots more – which you can harvest here at www.miamijewishfilmfestival.org
