7:00PM - Remembering Gene Wilder(In Theatre)

From Leo Bloom to Willy Wonka to The Waco Kid to Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, Gene Wilder's memorable performances as these outlandish, but all-too-believable characters, solidified his place among the movie greats. And when he teamed with Richard Pryor in a series of groundbreaking comedies, the pair formed perhaps the most successful interracial comedy team in history. But Gene's life was not without heartache. From the tragic death of his wife and co-star, Gilda Radner, to his own struggles against the ravages of Alzheimer's Disease, Gene faced the uncertainties of life with the same can-do spirit that was the hallmark of the characters he portrayed onscreen. In Remembering Gene Wilder, this multi-talented performer is dramatically brought to life through the intimate insights of friends and colleagues including Mel Brooks, Alan Alda, Carol Kane, Eric McCormack, Harry Connick Jr., Rain Pryor, Gene's wife, Karen Wilder, and Peter Ostrum, who portrayed Charlie in one of Gene's most memorable roles, "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory." Proudly Jewish and universally loved, Gene forever adhered to the 11th Commandment: ‘Thou shalt be funny.'

Runtime: 90 minutes

October 16-19, 2023

Virtual Screenings

6:00PM - Where Life Begins

An ultra-orthodox Jewish family from France comes to Italy for a brief stay every year to carry out a sacred mission: harvesting citrons. Here Elio, the farm owner, meets Esther, the rabbi’s daughter, who is tired of the constraints imposed by her religion. Through this relationship, Esther will understand the importance of freedom and find her path, and, in the same way, Elio will find the peace he had lost for a long time.

Runtime: 100 minutes

October 16-19, 2023

8:30pm - America

From the director of The Cakemaker, comes the story of Eli (Michael Moshonov), a former champion swimmer from Israel now giving swimming lessons in Chicago. When he learns his estranged father has died, he dutifully returns to Tel Aviv to sort out his father’s affairs. There he reconnects with his childhood friend and former swimming partner Yotam (Ofri Biterman) who lives with his Ethiopian fiancée Iris (Oshrat Ingadashet). There is a palpable attraction between the two men, an attraction they are loathe to discuss in this lyrical and understated love triangle. Ingedashet’s performance won her the Best Actress award at the 2022 Jerusalem Film Festival.

Runtime: 127 minutes

October 17-20, 2023

6:00PM - March '68

Two young students – Hania (Vanessa Aleksander, Wartime Girls) and Janek – meet and fall in love in the midst of social turmoil and Jewish discrimination in 1960's Warsaw. While the young lovers are uninterested in politics, they find themselves unable to avoid it when Hania's father and mother lose their jobs due to the anti-Semitic purge and are forced to emigrate. Hania does not want to leave Janek, and the couple soon participate in a protest rally at the university where they discover freedom comes at a high price.

Runtime: 115 minutes

Tuesday, October 17-20, 2023

8:30PM - The Narrow Bridge

The Narrow Bridge explores the journeys of four people who, after searing pain, develop strengths they never had before. Despite fierce opposition these Israelis and Palestinians, who lost a child in the conflict, are building a grassroots movement and transforming their grief into a bridge for understanding and reconciliation.

Runtime: 76 minutes

Wednesday, October 18-21, 2023

6:00PM - The Man in the Basement

In this taut psychological thriller, a benign real estate deal becomes a sinister standoff between a bourgeois French couple and a dangerous negationist. A Parisian architect sells his flat's unused cellar to a former history teacher, well-mannered and seemingly normal. When he takes up residence, the stranger's secret life as an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist emerges. As the couple struggles to rescind the sale, the increasingly menacing buyer insinuates himself with their naive teenage daughter, turning the family's idyllic world upside down. Provocative and superbly acted, this nightmare scenario based on a true story will keep audiences guessing from one unsettling moment to the next.

Runtime: 114 minutes

Wednesday, October 18-21, 2023

8:30PM - Closed Circuit

Produced by Nancy Spielberg, Closed Circuit is a powerful account that lays bare the devastating heartbreak of the 2016 terrorist attack that took place in the heart of Tel Aviv. Riveting, searing, and heart-pounding, filmmaker Tal Inbar helps us imagine the unthinkable by skillfully weaving together raw footage from closed-circuit cameras at the infamous terrorist attack in Sarona Market with the present-day memories of survivors of the incident.

Runtime: 60 minutes

Thursday, October 19-22, 2023

6:00PM - Schachten

The young Jewish Austrian businessman Victor is a witness to how the prosecution of a Nazi crime perpetrated against his family unjustly fails in the courtroom. The political and legal system in 1960's Austria is still run by former Nazis and there is no avenue for Victor to change matters. When Victor also loses his grief-stricken father and his girlfriend's family opposes their relationship and his being Jewish, Victor completely loses faith in the system and pursues matters via a different path.

Runtime: 110 minutes

Thursday, October 19-22, 2023

8:30PM - Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song

This feature-length documentary explores the life of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen as seen through the prism of his internationally renowned hymn, “Hallelujah”.

Runtime: 115 minutes

Friday, October 20-23, 2023

1:00PM - Karaoke

A comedy about a married middle-class suburban couple in their 60s who are drawn to their new neighbor, a charismatic bachelor who has karaoke evenings at his apartment.

Meir (Sasson Gabay) and Tova (Rita Shukrun) live a middle class life in a sleepy suburb, plagued by an unspoken sense of disappointment and regret. When Itsik (Lior Ashkenazi), a former modeling agent, moves into their building, their lust for life is reignited. The couple is fascinated by the international, open-minded bachelor, who defies social expectations. Meir tries to alter his appearance, in an attempt to transform himself into a modern man, while Tova attempts to turn Itsik into their best friend. But soon enough, they become obsessive towards Itsik as they compete with their neighbors for his affection. In their attempt to win him over, their entire existence is turned on its head.

Runtime: 100 minutes

Friday, October 20-23, 2023

3:00PM - Only in Theaters

Laemmle Theaters, the beloved art house cinema chain in Los Angeles, has an astonishing legacy, with ties to the origins of Hollywood, as grandfather Carl co-founded Universal Studios. This is a story about a 3rd generation family business and their determination to survive through the challenges of film streaming and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Runtime: 94 minutes

Saturday, October 21-24, 2023

6:00PM - The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob - 50th Anniversary

Victor Pivert (Louis de Funes) is a very tolerant man, provided you are white, Catholic, and French. To everyone else, he is a shameless racist, who believes foreigners should go back where they came from. On his way to his daughter's wedding, Victor uncovers a group of scheming Arab revolutionaries. After Victor is discovered, he hides himself by dressing up as a rabbi, leading to one madcap scene after another.

Runtime: 95 minutes

Saturday, October 21-24, 2023

8:30PM - Paris Boutique

Louise, a Jewish lawyer, arrives from Paris to finalize an important real estate deal, using Neta, a driver who immediately finds the economic opportunity and decides to stick with Louise at any cost. When the two visit the Old City, they discover a secret connection between an ultra-Orthodox woman and a Christian man who communicate through notes hidden within the grooves of the Wailing Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. In an attempt to solve the mystery, Louise and Neta follow the puzzling couple through the narrow alleyways of the city. A comedy of mistakes in the heart of magical Jerusalem, and a story about friendship between two women at a critical point in their lives. Nominated for six Israeli Academy Awards.

Runtime: 82 minutes

Sunday, October 22-25, 2023

1:00PM - Israel Swings for Gold

In 2021, Israel’s baseball team competed in the Olympics for the first time. They learn quickly that representing Israel on the world stage is not just fun and games. With no media allowed in Tokyo’s Olympic Village, the players record their own experiences. Mostly newly minted Israelis, they log unexpected battles against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Victory for Israel comes on the playing field, even if not on the podium.

Runtime: 77 minutes

Sunday, October 22, 2023

4:00PM - Simone: Woman of the Century(In Theatre)

This daring biopic from the director of La Vie En Rose, depicts the life and legacy of Simone Veil, the French feminist icon who spent her life championing human rights after losing her family in the Holocaust. This intimate portrait of Simone Veil explores the process and impact of her hard work, and is an intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era and the humanist messages behind it that remain deeply relevant to this day.

Runtime: 140 minutes

Sunday, October 22-25, 2023

4:00PM - Farewell Mr Haffmann

In this acclaimed, engrossing drama set in Paris during the Nazi occupation, beloved French actor Daniel Auteuil (Jean de Florette) stars as Joseph Haffmann, a Jewish jeweler who sends his family away to safety, with the intention of joining them later. Haffmann has decided to hand off the business to his trusted assistant François Mercier (Gilles Lellouche) and Mercier’s wife, Blanche (Sara Giraudeau), who are recently married and struggling to conceive a child—though Haffmann’s plans go awry when he is unable to escape the city under the watch of German authorities. After Haffmann returns home, the Merciers agree to let him stay in their basement, but they strike a deal that will change the course of all their lives. Based on a play by Jean-Philippe Daguerre, Farewell, Mr. Haffmann is a twisting, turning, and satisfying film that reveals the complex and contradictory sides of humanity pushed to its darkest limits.

Runtime: 115 minutes

Sunday, October 22-25, 2023

6:30PM - Savoy

A young housewife becomes a fearless hostage mediator, only to be defamed, in this gripping, hybrid docufiction telling of a Tel Aviv terrorist siege. On a deadly March 1975 night, PLO gunmen enter the Savoy Hotel, seizing hostages and demanding release of Palestinian prisoners. Among the captives is Kochava Levy, a young woman of Yemeni descent, whose fluency in Arabic allowed her to relay messages between IDF negotiators and the terrorists. A later revelation that the married mother was at the hotel with her lover, brings shame and slander. New archival material, riveting reenactments, and stunning direction and editing, bolster Dana Ivgy’s sympathetic, complex portrayal of the maligned heroine who used language and humanity to connect with the enemy.

Runtime: 78 minutes

Sunday, October 22, 2023

7:00PM - Who are the Marcuses?(In Theatre)

"Who Are the Marcuses?" reconstructs the lives of Holocaust refugees Lottie and Howard Marcus, an unassuming couple from Great Neck, New York, who retired to a modest two-bedroom apartment in San Diego, California. Former dentist Howard passed away in 2014 at age 104. Lottie passed less than two years later. In 2016, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev announced the Marcuses had given them over half a billion dollars: the largest single charitable donation to the State of Israel in its history. The film simultaneously traces the development of Israel's vital water technology from pre-state to the present; how the Marcuses" endowment to BGU has ensured its continued leading-edge development in this science for not only the Israeli people, but the world as a whole; sets the family's gift in geopolitical context; and explores both its impact and implications for regional peace through technology exchange.

Runtime: 90 minutes

Monday, October 23-26, 2023

6:00PM - Berenshtein

A Ukrainian Jew now living in Israel, Leonid Berenshtein is the last surviving member of the great partisans who located the hidden facility where the Germans were developing their secret weapon, the V2 missile. This confessional film is brought to life with stunning dramatic scenes, as Berenshtein revisits the memories that have haunted him. As he approaches the end of his life, Berenshtein faces his experiences as battalion commander in the Red Army and the difficult decisions he had to make while staying true to his identity as a Jew. The last of the great partisans, who located Hitler's "wonder weapon", returns to the war that took away his feelings and identity, but failed to rob him of his values as a human being.

Runtime: 110 minutes

Monday, October 23-26, 2023

8:30pm - Four hours a day

Four Hours a Day is the extraordinary and yet untold story of young mothers in the kibbutz movement in Israel. Based on Orian Chaplin's bestselling book, it follows a phenomenon that affects thousands of mothers and their children to this day. Babies who, following kibbutz ideology, were taken from their mothers and lived and raised in a childrens’ home. The mother was allowed to spend time with her child for only four hours a day. The documentary exposes, for the first time, the mental scars left in the hearts of the mothers as well as their children. Mothers who speak with great pain and candor about years of anguish, overshadowing what should have been natural relationships and emotions, but too often caused disconnection and distress. How do these mothers feel today about what they were forced to do years ago? Were they able to overcome the intensity of the emotional distress?

Runtime: 56 minutes

Tuesday, October 24-27, 2023

6:00PM - Exodus 91

In his vital, gripping film, director Micah Smith brings a historical moment to vivid life through a hybrid of documentary and dramatic narrative. Smith returns to the politically complex May 1991 event known as Operation Solomon. Israeli diplomat Asher Naim travels to Ethiopia to act as negotiator for the release of 15,000 Ethiopian Jews, hoping to save them from a country plagued by famine and civil war. This seemingly altruistic mission, however, is thrown into doubt and skepticism when Naim begins to suspect the rescue mission might be a publicity stunt for his home country, and the Ethiopians wonder whether they have been little more than pawns. At the same time that the escalating situation on the ground becomes combustible, Naim’s crisis of faith grows.

Runtime: 92 minutes

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

8:30PM - Reckonings

They met in secret to negotiate the unthinkable – compensation for the survivors of the largest mass genocide in history. Survivors were in urgent need of help, but how could reparations be determined for the unprecedented destruction and suffering of a people? Reckonings explores this untold true story set in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roberta Grossman (Above and Beyond, Hava Nagila, Seeing Allred, Blessed is the Match) Reckonings recounts the tense negotiations between Jewish and German leaders. Under the constant threat of violence, they forged ahead, knowing it would never be enough but hoping it could at least be an acknowledgement and a step towards healing.

Runtime: 74 minutes

Wednesday, October 25-28, 2023

6:00PM - Matchmaking

Moti Bernstein is the son every mother wants, a student every Rabbi loves to teach, the ideal Yeshiva study mate, the perfect match for every bride. He has it all: a good family, a brilliant mind, and he is not bad looking eithe. In search of a wife, he will meet the best girls in the Jewish orthodox world but will fall for the one girl he can never have. The only one he wants. Against everything he knows, Moti will be forced to go out on a limb in the most unexpected and unusual of ways. All that remains is to see who will win: the system or the inner voice.

Runtime: 98 minutes

Wednesday, October 25-28, 2023

8:30PM - The Assembly

The true story of Holocaust survivor Eva Libitzky, who spent her post-war life in America visiting primary and secondary schools throughout the United States. At one school, a diverse group of students who study music but are unaware of the events of WWII, gather at an assembly to “honor” their guest with music. As Eva’s story reveals itself there is a shocking turn of events, where everyone present finds themselves reliving a very terrifying past. Directed by acclaimed pianist, filmmaker, and storyteller Hershey Felder.

Runtime: 90 minutes

Thursday, October 26-29, 2023

6:00PM - Trust

A matriarch’s death reunites her three neurotic children for a chaotic funeral and a shocking reading of the will. The brief amount of time that nursing student Kate spends with her recovering alcoholic brother and hypochondriac diva sister — the trust’s executor — is for the best, since these meetups only collapse into bitter screaming matches. Trust sports a fearless attitude, with a first-rate gutsy cast, while tackling its strong message that sometimes it is best to uproot from a dysfunctional family tree in order to maintain your own sanity. Winner of the Cinequest Audience Award.

Runtime: 97 minutes

Thursday, October 26, 2023

8:30PM - Shamir, His Way

This riveting documentary brings together a who’s who of Israeli politicians and generals who testify about the extraordinary life of Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Hear from key figures involved in the bombing of Iraq’s nuclear reactor and the response to Saddam Hussein’s launch of Scud missiles such as former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, and former heads of Israel's Secret Agencies such as Ya'akov Peri and Shabtai Shavit, in addition to interviews with Shamir's confidants, collogues and family. Shamir, His Way provides a rare glimpse into Shamir's early years in Poland, his family in Israel, his leadership of the Stern Gang (Lehi) through his years as Prime Minister.

Runtime: 60 minutes

Friday, October 27-30, 2023

3:00PM - Musical Tales of the Venetian Jewish Ghetto

Discover Venice's centuries-old Jewish history and celebrate its sumptuous music and food. This travelogue from the acclaimed pianist, filmmaker, and storyteller Hershey Felder tells the personal stories of a global artists, musicians, and historians as they reflect on Jewish identity and art through the music and food of Venice, Italy.

Runtime: 85 minutes

Saturday, October 28-31, 2023

6:00PM - Barren

A childless young ultraorthodox couple faces a crisis, after a traumatic treatment for barrenness. When the difference between good and bad is unclear, the family must deal with unresolved secrets that raise fundamental questions about religion and faith.

Runtime: 108 minutes

Sunday, October 29, 2023

7:00PM - Bella!( In Theatre)

In 1970, when the United States was ruled by men, Bella Abzug challenged the status quo, running a successful campaign from the streets of Manhattan that elevated her all the way to the halls of Congress. With her trademark hat and Bronx swagger, Bella entered Congress swinging, battling for credit cards for women, equality for the LGBTQ community and trailblazing a path for leadership that reflected the broad diversity of the country. But, the most recognizable woman in politics also became the target of a Washington establishment resistant to change. With her eyes set on breaking the boys' club of The US Senate or becoming New York's first female mayor, Bella battled mounting forces from both the right and the left, and the powers of the Nixon Administration, the CIA, FBI, even The New York Times. Using never-before-seen home movies, audio diaries, and a vast trove of newly-discovered news footage, Bella! delves into a colorful and gritty era where one woman sacrificed her own political ambitions for future generations of female leadership.

Runtime: 102 minutes
$40.00   
Venue: Icon Mountain View

Date: October 15-31, 2023

Location: Various Venue

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