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<\/a>The LAJFF info.<\/p><\/div>\n
The line-up for this year\u2019s Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival looks fabulous. And after recently seeing the stage musical, Parade<\/em>, (which tells the tragic story of a Jewish man being wrongly charged, convicted, and lynched for a murder he did not commit,) I\u2019m especially looking forward to celebrating my Jewish heritage at this very meaningful and entertaining festival which begins this Thursday night, June 26th, with a Gala Opening at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. No matter your own<\/em> heritage, there\u2019s something here for everyone. (All the details are on their website at the bottom of this preview.)<\/p>\n The Opening Night Gala will feature the LA premiere of Midas Man<\/em>, which tells the story of the Beatles\u2019 manager, Brian Epstein, who was a complex man, especially for those times. And this will be a special date on which to see this tale because the day before is the official Beatles Day, (which I actually know about, because I was a major Beatles fan back in the day! Mr. X has even given me permission to still<\/em> marry Paul McCartney, as I wanted to do when I was little, if the opportunity ever arises.)<\/p>\n Midas Man.<\/p><\/div>\n The movie will be introduced by cast member, Jay Leno, (in a surprise role as\u2014wait for it\u2014the legend, Ed Sullivan!) He\u2019ll also be one of the post-screening speakers. I\u2019m expecting that to be a hoot!<\/p>\n If you can\u2019t make it to the opening night, you\u2019ll have one more chance to see Midas Man<\/em> this weekend in Encino.<\/p>\n Just part of the snack table from last year. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Thursday\u2019s Gala reception and red carpet will be held in the Saban\u2019s spacious lobby, which is perfect for the fun meeting and greeting and mingling. They\u2019ll even have an \u201cAbbey Road\u201d for us to walk. I can\u2019t wait to see how that works. And the organizers always surprise us with something different in the way of pre-screening refreshments every year. I\u2019m not sure what we\u2019ll find this<\/em> time, but I have a feeling that a dessert buffet is in the works. We\u2019ll all find-out together.<\/p>\n The rest of the LA Jewish Film Festival takes place over the next few days and nights of the week-end, in several venues all over town. You can see the entire roster of offerings or just choose whichever one(s) you like.<\/p>\n The festival is made-up of a half dozen films, plus one evening of shorts, each pertaining somewhat to the Jewish experience. Every one of them looks interesting, but these are the two I\u2019m looking the most forward to; both are documentaries, but very different from each other:<\/p>\n The Charles Grodin doc.<\/p><\/div>\n Charles Grodin: Rebel with a Cause<\/em>\u2014With Mr. X and me being fans of Charles Grodin, (as a matter of fact, Mr. X did his first film with Charles, and told me that he was nice,) I don\u2019t want to miss this documentary about his life and career. (He grew-up an Orthodox Jew, which I just learned about this very second! Thanks, LAJFF, for giving me new knowledge!) My first memory of Charles is seeing him in The Heartbreak Kid<\/em>, which was directed\u00a0by comedy icon Elaine May, who is one of the celebs featured in this film. Some others are Robert De Niro, Steve Martin, Carol Burnett, Martin Short, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, and Alan Arkin. As the Festival\u2019s website tells us, Charles Grodin: Rebel with a Cause<\/em> celebrates not only his show biz career, but also his \u201cremarkable, decades-long activism and successful fight to get wrongly convicted people\u2014most of whom were mothers of color with young children\u2014out of prison,\u201d which I had no idea about! I have a feeling few of us did.<\/p>\n The fascinating Jerry Lewis doc.<\/p><\/div>\n From Darkness to Ligh<\/em>t\u2014This will be the LA Premiere of this documentary, which pertains to Jerry Lewis, and I\u2019m anticipating that it will be fascinating. When I learned it would be in the Festival, I showed the title to Mr. X, thinking he might like to be entertained by Jerry Lewis, (my grandmother\u2019s favorite comedian.) But my beau set me straight on the very serious topic of this documentary, which I\u2019ve now done lots of research on, and let me say this about it\u2014OMG! It\u2019s a doc about the making of Jerry Lewis\u2019 unfinished and never-released film, The Day the Clown Cried<\/em>, which is a fictional tale of a non-Jewish clown in the Holocaust! Now I really<\/em> want to see this<\/em> film, From Darkness to Light<\/em>, because I have to know every detail about what could have been in Lewis\u2019 mind to make that crazy drama. (At least it wasn\u2019t a comedy!) This documentary is the closest we\u2019re going to get to discovering the secrets of it.<\/p>\n I hope to see everyone at the Festival, especially the Opening Night Gala, no matter your ethnic persuasion. You just have to be a movie aficionado, which includes just about everyone in our Hollywood-centric town!<\/p>\n For the LAJFF schedule, and all the info on the films and special events, just click here: www.lajfilmfest.org<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LOS ANGELES JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL 2025 PREVIEW This week, the annual Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival will be celebrating their twentieth year! I\u2019m proud to say that I\u2019ve attended about a quarter of them, ever since I\u2019ve been aware of this worthwhile event. I wish I had known about it sooner, so lest you be<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>