Jewish film fest to run Sept. 15-25

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The 2011 Youngstown Area Jewish Film Festival, sponsored in part by Youngstown State University’s Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies Committee, runs Sept. 15 to 25, along with a free bonus show Oct. 11.

The films will be shown at USA Cinema in the Niles Great East Plaza, the Butler Institute of American Art on Wick Avenue in Youngstown and Kilcawley Center on the YSU campus.

Myra Benedikt and Pamela Palumbo, festival co-chairwomen and organizers, have headed the event for several years.

The five films featured in this year’s festival include:

“La Rafle” (“The Roundup”): 7 p.m. Sept. 15 at USA Cinema. Winner of 10 Film Festival Audience Awards, “La Rafle” takes place in France’s Montmartre and re-creates the Nazi regime’s imprisonment of 13,000 Parisian Jews during 1942, as shown from the perspective of three Jewish children and their parents.

“A Matter of Size” (“Sipur Gadol”) 7 p.m. Sept. 18 at USA Cinema. This funny and tender story takes one 340-pound chef and his three equally plump buddies from diet drama to body bliss when they decide to become sumo wrestlers.

“Le Concert” (“The Concert”), 7 p.m. Sept. 21 at USA Cinema. When one Russian conductor prodigy during the Communist regime refuses to dismiss Jewish musicians from the Bolshoi Orchestra, he gets ousted, taking on a new role as janitor for the Bolshoi instead. Thirty years later, he wants to get even. “Le Concert” won Best Score at the 2010 Cesar Awards.

“Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story,” 1 p.m. Sept. 25, Butler Institute. This documentary explores the connection between baseball and Jewish Americans, along with the hardships and heroism that come with it.

“Defiance,” 5 p.m. Oct. 11, Kilcawley Center. Free to the public, this bonus film features three brothers and their journey of resistance to the Nazis by fleeing to the Belarussian forests, building a makeshift village with 1,000 other runaways and fighting for their survival. The film will be followed by a special presentation from Zvi Bielski, son of one of the three brothers in the film.

Single tickets or festival passes can be purchased. The prices for single tickets are: $8 adult, $7 senior, $5 student. Festival pass prices are: $24 adult, $21 senior, $15 student. Tickets can be purchased at the Jewish Community Center Bursar’s Office on Gypsy Lane in Youngstown.