On that same evening, prolific director Peter Bogdanovich will receive The Marvin Paige Hollywood Legacy award. He\u2019s actually part of that Laemmle documentary and will be one of the people speaking after the screening. I have a feeling that he\u2019ll be entertaining\u2014he has so much show biz history to discuss!<\/p>\n Of course, as always, the Opening Night Gala will feature food and celebs, (and\u00a0me<\/em>\u00a0in the audience,) so you don\u2019t want to miss it, no matter your ethnic persuasion. It will be held in Beverly Hills at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theater, with the rest of the festival taking place in several venues all over town. (The link to all the info on the LAJFF is at the bottom of this preview.)<\/p>\n The LA Jewish Film Festival features many films of eclectic interest. I actually want to see them\u00a0all<\/em>! Here are some of what I consider to be the highlights:<\/p>\n And the festival will also feature the biological drama,\u00a0Skin<\/em>, which I predict will be an important film this upcoming awards season; it stars the excellent Jamie Bell. Oscar Winner Guy Nattiv, who wrote and directed it, will do a Q&A afterwards. I\u00a0have a question for him\u2014why did he name\u00a0both<\/em>\u00a0his recent films\u2014one short, one long\u2014Skin<\/em>, even though, while both dealing with bigotry, they\u2019re totally separate entities?! (Because of that duplicated title, some people erroneously think that one is just the longer version of the other. I understand the confusion.\u00a0 So why could not Guy???)<\/p>\n I hope to see you all at the Festival. Come up and say hi, unless I\u2019m biting a bagel at the time!<\/p>\n For more info and the schedule of\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0the screenings, please go to www.lajfilmfest.org<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LA JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL 2019 PREVIEW Even though this is the\u00a0fourteenth\u00a0year of the LA\u00a0Jewish Film Festival, it\u2019s only the\u00a0third\u00a0one for me. But better late than never because they always come up with fascinating fare. And this year is no exception. The\u00a0Opening Night Gala will feature a new documentary about Carl Laemmle, who founded Universal Studios.<\/p>\n![\"Carl](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Carl-Laelmmle-Film-.jpg\")
<\/a>And this year is no exception. The\u00a0Opening Night Gala will feature a new documentary about Carl Laemmle, who founded Universal Studios. (And yes, that\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0his fam\u2019s name on movie theaters all over LA.) Laemmle is of significance to Jewish people because he was a WWII hero; he brought hundreds of Jews out of Germany during that horrible time in history. I can\u2019t wait to learn how he accomplished that. On a personal note, I just spent an afternoon with a few members of his family a few weeks ago, so now the doc will be even\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0interesting to me.<\/p>\n<\/a>There\u2019s\u00a0Shepherd: The Story of a Jewish Dog<\/em>, which stars\u2014guess what?\u2014a\u00a0dog<\/em>. So Mr. X would love this one, even though he\u2019s far from Jewish. (I know\u2014all of you who have watched him on TV over the years just assumed that he\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>because he always plays Jewish characters! But that\u2019s just how good an actor he is.)<\/p>\n<\/a>And for foodies such as myself, there\u2019s\u00a0Chewdaism: A Taste of Jewish Montreal<\/em>, which looks like fun. Mr. X and I actually lived in that city twice, for a few months each, when Mr. X did shows up there, and, trust me, I could not find so much as a\u00a0bagel\u00a0in the category of foods of my ethnic persuasion. So I\u2019m\u00a0extra<\/em>-curious to see what these guys have come up with; I have a feeling the culinary scene there is much different nowadays. And that film is preceded that day by a short film that I expect to love because it\u2019s about my mother\u2019s favorite beverage\u2014the iconic E-word Cream! I\u2019m hoping to finally discover the derivation of its moniker since it contains neither e-words nor cream! To make the whole presentation even\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0festive, they\u2019re serving comped bagels and e-word creams to the entire audience that night!<\/p>\n<\/a>The LA Jewish Film Festival closes with something very special. It\u2019s the filmed version of Tovah Feldshuh\u2019s classic show,\u00a0Golda’s Balcony<\/em>, which has the distinction of being the longest running one-woman play in Broadway history. In it, she portrays Israel’s former Prime Minister, Golda Meir, and will attend this screening. (Can you guess why\u00a0I\u2019m<\/em>\u00a0familiar with her?\u00a0 Because she plays the mother of the\u00a0Crazy Ex-Girlfriend<\/em>, of course!)<\/p>\n