Second annual Jewish Film Fest returns March 30-31
Explore the rich offerings of Jewish film over the weekend with fellow film fans.
Congregation Kneseth Israel and Gail Borden Public Library are hosting the Jewish Film Festival Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, March 30-31.
The film fest will be 2 to 4 p.m. each day in the Meadows Community Rooms, 270 N. Grove Ave. in downtown Elgin. A discussion will follow each film.
On Saturday, March 30, the 2007 Israeli comedy-drama "The Band's Visit" will be shown. A band of Egyptian musicians head to Israel to play at the grand opening of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves lost in the wrong town. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times selected it as one of the 20 best films of 2008. The film was later adapted into an award-winning stage musical of the same name and opened Off-Broadway.
On Sunday March 31, it will open with the 2013 film "The Lady In Number 6: Music Saved My Life" about Aliza Sommer-Herz, the world's oldest Holocaust survivor at age 109. It tells the inspiring story of how music saved her life: both during her time at the Theresienstadt concentration camp and in the years afterwards. Is the 2014 winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary/Short Subject.
It will be followed by the 1998 American short film "Mah-Jongg: The Tiles That Bind." The ancient game of Mah-Jongg has been played by Asian and Jewish-American women alike, who enjoy the strategy of the game as well as camaraderie and conversation.
For more information about the film festival, contact the Congregation Kneseth Israel office, (847) 741-5656 or www.ckielgin.org.