For three decades, the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival — Canada’s longest-running celebration of Jewish cinema — has rolled its flicks for downtown audiences.
Now, for its 30th anniversary, it’s screening productions in suburbs to the west and east.
This weekend, the fest will have five films in the Kay Meek Studio Theatre in West Vancouver and, starting next Monday, six movies at Port Moody’s Inlet Theatre.
“It’s been a goal of mine for the last number of years to have the festival in areas where the younger families are living,” said Robert Albanese, the festival’s executive director. “We want to offer the same programming to people who don’t come to Vancouver’s centre.”
Launched Nov. 7 at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas in Vancouver — with the west coast premiere of Mr. and Mrs. Aldeman, a 2017 film by director Nicolas Bedos — the fest also showed six screenings at the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre on West 41st Street last weekend.
Albanese said his committee picked Port Moody because of its “lovely theatre” and the Tri-Cities’ large expatriate Israeli population.
The six film selections for the Port Moody audience are family-friendly and “among our favourites,” he said.
The Cousin — a story about a left-leaning actor who hires a Palestinian handyman accused of committing a crime — won numerous nominations and awards last year including Best Actor for Tzahi Grad at the 2018 Israeli Film Academy Awards.
The Caretaker, an Israeli/German production by Ofir Raul Grazier, follows grief-stricken Thomas as he travels to Jerusalem to find closure over the sudden death of his lover. The critically acclaimed work picked up Best Director and Best Israeli Film accolades at this year’s Berlin Jewish Film Festival.
Standing Up, an American documentary by Jonathan Miller, weaves a yarn about three comics trying to make it in New York while Redemption charts a former rock singer who becomes part of the orthodox Jewish community.
Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel is a baseball documentary following Israel’s team — competing for the first time — in the World Baseball Classic and The Last Suit, an Argentine/Spanish movie in Hebrew with English subtitles sees the elderly protagonist — and Holocaust survivor — plan a journey to the other end of the world.
In between the last two films on Dec. 2, there will be a lighting of the first candle of Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
Albanese, who will be at each Port Moody screening, said he hopes the festival will continue annually in the city.
“We want to bring awareness that we are not just limited to Vancouver. We intend to become a presence in the Tri-Cities from now on,” he said.
• Tickets to the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival in Port Moody can be purchased at the door to the Inlet Theatre (100 Newport Dr., inside PoMo city hall) or online at vjff.org.
