A scene from the first film of the season’s Berkshire Jewish Film Festival. “Vishniac,” a documentary named after the photographer, which takes viewers on a journey from cosmopolitan pre-war Berlin to the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the Princeton offices of Albert Einstein. It is set for 4 p.m.
PITTSFIELD–The Berkshire Jewish Film Festival, one of the longest-running film festivals in the U.S., has announced its 38th season. Fourteen films will be shown on six consecutive Mondays, beginning July 8 and ending on August 12. Films will be shown at the Duffin Theater, Lenox Memorial Middle and High School, 197 East St., Lenox, Mass.
The festival opens July 8 at 4 p.m. with “Vishniac,” a film, which takes viewers on a journey from cosmopolitan pre-war Berlin to the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the Princeton offices of Albert Einstein. At 8 p.m., “Seven Blessings” tells of the Jewish tradition that honors a new bride and groom with seven days of festive meals. The comedy focuses on a family’s secrets and the lies at the heart of what is usually a happy and celebratory week.
A screen shot of “Seven Blessings,” a comedy, notes a Jewish tradition that honors a new bride and groom with seven days of festive meals. It will be the first evening film of the Berkshire Jewish Film Festival.
At 4 p.m. on July 15, there will be two films: “The Caretaker” (short) is based on a true story. This suspenseful 18-minute film celebrates the bravery of an otherwise ordinary caretaker in a Hamburg museum in the ’30s who rescues art that is designated “degenerate” and slated for confiscation by the Nazis. “Children of Peace” documents the Israeli experiment of Neve-Shalom or Oasis of Peace — Wahat al Salam in Arabic— and its relevance now. “Supernova: The Music Festival Massacre” will be shown at 8 p.m. This 52-minute film documents in harrowing, minute-by-minute detail the cold-blooded and methodical Hamas massacre of young revelers at the Israeli Supernova music festival on October 7. Made by veteran Israeli documentarian Duki Dror, this may be disturbing to watch but compelling in its demand that history not look away. “I think it is the hardest film I ever made,” Dror has said. Jeffrey Robbins, former U.S. delegate to the UN Human Rights Commission, will speak after the film.
The afternoon of July 22 at 4 p.m. will also feature two films. “The Anne Frank Gift Shop” asks how the gift shop at this iconic house museum in Amsterdam can be reimagined in a way that will appeal more to Gen Z? How do you update the “brand” for Anne Frank? Answering these questions is the charge of the motley crew in the design firm who are at the center of this dark comedy. “Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella” tells the story of a Holocaust survivor’s daughter who becomes Canada’s first female Jewish Supreme Court judge, reshaping the legal world with landmark decisions on inclusivity, diversity, and equity. At 8 p.m., in “Kidnapped,” Edgardo Mortara, is a six-year-old Jewish boy in mid-19th century Italy, who is abducted and forcibly converted to Christianity by virtue of papal decree after it comes to the attention of authorities that his housekeeper has secretly baptized him.
“Unbroken” will be the July 29, 4 p.m. feature. Against all odds, the seven Weber siblings who are the subject of “Unbroken” manage to stay together through the Holocaust thanks to acts of courage, resilience and a series of miracles. After their mother is deported from Berlin to Auschwitz for being Jewish and part of the resistance, the children are slated to follow days later on a different transport. Instead, their father arranges to baptize and then hide them on the farm of a Christian couple outside the city, where they fend for themselves for two years before ending up in a displaced person’s camp. At 8 p.m. “Catskills” provides a loving and nostalgic tribute to the family-run Jewish resort and bungalow culture that became known as the Borsht Belt, the inspiration for iconic films like “Dirty Dancing.”
Aug. 5 at 4 p.m. brings “Shadow of the Day,” a dramatic story of love and redemption set in a turbulent Italy amid the anti-Semitic racial laws promulgated by Mussolini’s fascist government. This is considered, by many, as a beautifully acted and cinematic tour de force by director Giuseppe Piccioni. At 8 p.m., “How Saba Kept Singing” tells the story of David Wisnia, who had never told his family the whole story of how he survived Auschwitz for two-and-a-half years, while his parents and younger brother were murdered. As he travels with his grandson Avi back to Poland to mark the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation, Wisnia, a cantor, recounts how his operatic singing entertained the Nazi guards and saved his life. Hillary Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, were the executive producers of this testament to love and resilience.
There will be two afternoon films on Aug. 12 at 4 p.m. First is “Jack & Sam,” the story of
Jack Waksal and Sam Ron, who met in 1943 as teenagers when they were sent to a Polish labor camp. Day after day they shoveled coal into boilers to power a factory making munitions for the Nazi war effort. Sam escaped in 1944, surviving in a forest, while Jack was liberated by U.S. troops the following year. Unbeknownst to them, they both landed in Ohio after the war, and they did not see each other until a chance encounter at a Florida Holocaust program 80 years after their last meeting. “Less than Kosher” looks at contemporary Jewish life at its most irreverent —hence its “less-than-kosher” title. Thirty-year-old Viv was once a rising singing star but now finds herself back in her Jewish mother’s house, with her career hitting one sour note after another. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she reluctantly accepts a position as a cantor at her family’s synagogue, where she escaped in the middle of her own bat mitzvah many years before and never looked back. There is no film at 8 p.m.
Information may be found at https://berkshirejewishfilmfestival.org. Ticket prices for all films are $15 and may only be purchased at the theater on the day of the film. Season passes are available for $136 and will be sold through July 15. Additional donations may be made at www.knessetisrael.org/filmfestival or sent to Knesset Israel, 16 Colt Rd., Pittsfield, Mass. 01201.All proceeds are directed to support children at the Knesset Israel Hebrew School.
