By Mary Damiano

When the 10^th annual Miami Jewish Film Festival begins on January 18, it will kick off a 11-day celebration of film, complete with parties, discussions, awards, and lots of big-name guests, including Judd Hirsch, Theodore Bikel and Judy Reyes.

	A scene from A Love to Hide, about a gay love affair, one of the films that will be screened at the Miami Jewish Film Festival

According to Ellen Wedner, who has served as director of the festival for four years, the 2007 edition of the Miami Jewish Film Festival will have a lot of new aspects that previous festivals didn’t offer.

“There’s not one single film that we play that will be just a film,” says Wedner.  “There will always be something wrapped around it, whether it’s me giving back story, or a Q&A with a filmmaker—we just have so much happening.”

Take the special guests, for example.  In addition to the directors of many films flying in from all over the world to be a pert of their film’s screening, several performers will be on hand, including Judd Hirsch from Brother’s Shadow, Theodore Bikel, from A Bridge to Peace, and Judy Reyes, from Glow Ropes: The Rise and Fall of a Bar Mitzvah Emcee.

	Ellen Wedner, director of the Miami Jewish Film Festival

“We felt that the thing that would make a film festival more special is not another party, but more guests and people from the international film world,” says Wedner. 

Another new feature is that the Miami Jewish Film Festival will present a mini version of the New York Sephardic Film Festival on Sunday, January 21 at the Sunrise Cinemas in Sunrise. Wedner invited the New York fest to bring a representation of their festival to show South Florida audiences.

“We always show Sephardic films,” says Wedner.  “There is a rather large population of Middle-Eastern nationalities here, not just Jewish, but Iraqi, Iranian, North African and Latin American, so it made sense.” 

	Theodore Bikel from A Bridge to Peace will attend the Miami Jewish Film Festival

Another first for the Miami Jewish Film Festival is honoring a filmmaker with a lifetime achievement award.  Joan Micklin Silver, the director of Hester Street and Crossing Delancey, will be so honored this year.  Both Hester Street and Crossing Delancey will be screened during the festival.  For 1975’s Hester Street, which stars Carol Kane as a young immigrant wife who joins her husband in America at the turn of the century, the festival will immerse its audience in the Lower East Side immigrant experience.  There’s a trivia quiz on the festival website, which culminates in a scavneger hunt at Gusman on the night of the screening.  There will also be klezmer music and traditional Jewish food in the lobby of the theatre, which will be decorated with photos of Jewish immigrants.  The award will be presented to Silver by humorist Dave Barry, and there will also be an on stage interview with Silver, her producer-husband Raphael Silver and local star Avi Hoffman.

One documentary making its world premiere at the Miami Jewish Film Festival should be of special interest to South Florida audiences.  Where Neon Goes to Die, by director David Weintraub, examines life on Miami Beach before its glitzy gentrification began in the 1980s, when the boutique hotels along Ocean Drive housed older Jewish residents and tourists, not the jetsetting pretty people prowling for the next party.

	A scene from Hermanas

Wedner remembers the days when Miami Beach’s Jewish population held dances at the 10th Street Auditorium and the hotels in South Beach had rocking chairs on their porches.   

“The film really explores the golden age of Yiddish Miami Beach, with the cinemas and the stage shows and the radio programs and the newspapers and all the things that were,” says Wedner.  “There are great pictures of people in Loomis Park playing music and singing Yiddish songs. It was the language of the street; it wasn’t something archaic that we were trying to preserve.”

	Nina’s Home, one of the films at the Miami Jewish Film Festival

Weintraub will attend the screening of Where Neon Goes to Die, and those who remember the times his film examines will have a chance to share their memories during the question and answer session.

The Miami Jewish Film Festival is presented by the Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education.  Wedner views several hundred films with an important directive in mind in order to choose the several dozen that are features in the festival.

“What I say to myself is, is this interesting in Miami, not is this interesting to Jewish Miami,” says Wedner. 

	Judd Hirsch from Brother’s Shadow, will attend the Miami Jewish Film Festival

Which is an important thing that Wedner wants filmgoers to remember: You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy the films at the Miami Jewish Film Festival.  Many of the films will appeal to those with certain interests: If you like music, check out A Bridge to Peace, a documentary about a 2005 concert that brought together a group of international musicians from diverse religious backgrounds. If you’re interested in architecture, check out Moshe Safdie: The Power of Architecture, a documentary about the life and career of famed Israeli architect Moshe Safdie.  If you like chick flicks, there’s Crossing Delancey.  For a look at some new, independent films, there’s Brother’s Shadow and Glow Ropes: The Rise and Fall of a Bar Mitzvah Emcee, which was made by Latin non-Jewish filmmakers and based on personal experiences.  For a first look at rising talent, check out the “Shorts on the Beach” program, which features short films by new filmmakers, many making their first films. 

“You don’t have to be Jewish to come to these films,” says Wedner.  “The universality of all themes is there.  When we go to the Latin film festivals, or the Italian film festivals or French film festivals, we go because we think the movies might be good, and we have to look at this festival the same way.”

The Miami Jewish Film Festival runs Thursday January 18-28.  For a complete schedule of films and events, visit www.caje-miami.org.