July 2020
Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: Mrs. G and Life Through a Lens
This is an online event. Mrs. G The incredible story of how one woman created the world’s most famous swimsuit company. Mrs. Lea Gottlieb, known as ‘Mrs. G,’ started Gottex in her tiny Tel Aviv apartment. A Holocaust survivor with endless creativity, unbridled passion, and a dominant personality, Lea Gottleib was able to climb to the pinnacle of the glamorous fashion world. The film explores the challenges she faced navigating complex relationships with her two daughters, making complicated personal decisions,…
Find out more »Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: Golda
This is an online event. Shortly before her passing, Golda Meir was interviewed for Israeli television. After the filming ended, the cameras kept rolling, recording an intimate talk with the first and only woman to ever rule Israel. As she lit one cigarette after another, Golda spoke freely, pleading her case for her term as Prime Minister. Based on that never-seen-before talk, testimonies of supporters and opponents, and rare archival footage, Golda tells the story of Meir’s dramatic premiership, from…
Find out more »Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: Give It Back! and Ma’abarot
This is an online event. Give It Back! New to Israel, Olivia is bullied by her classmates and ends the first day at her new school on a surprising note. Directed by Ruchama Ehrenhalt Narrative, 14 minutes • Hebrew (English subtitles) Ma’abarot Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa reveal the intrinsic bigotry and harsh conditions they found upon landfall in 1950s Israel. Arriving during a time of poverty and austerity, Jews seeking shelter in the Promised Land…
Find out more »Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: Belle and Sebastian
This is an online event. A heartwarming story of the friendship and daring of a young boy and a stray dog against the backdrop of their village in the French Alps where residents secretly organize the passage of Jews into Switzerland. Directed by Nicolas Vanier Narrative, 99 minutes • French (English subtitles) Visit https://berkshirejewishfilmfestival.org/ for more information and to buy tickets.
Find out more »Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: Hunting Elephants
This is an online event. Two shady Israelis living in an old people’s home plan to rob a bank with the help of one of their precocious if estranged grandchildren and a penniless English lord in Reshef Levi’s crowd-pleaser Hunting Elephants, a comedy caper full of incorrigible old geezers that’s as broad as a barn door. (Courtesy Hollywood Reporter) Writer-director Levi, also a stand-up comedian, supplies some terrific one-liners and lines up a stellar cast that includes local greats Sasson…
Find out more »Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: Broken Mirrors
This is an online event. From the outside, the Adler family lives an enviable life, but underneath Giora’s great love for his family lays an obsession with his eldest daughter Ariella. This strict military disciplinarian follows his teenage daughter’s every move, and he inflicts severe methods of punishment.When Ariella commits a grave error, her father won’t punish her for it. Seeking a punishment of her own, Ariella embarks on a dark quest where she will discover a secret to her…
Find out more »Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: Latter Day Jew
This is an online event. This humorous and gratifying documentary follows H. Alan Scott, a gay, former-Mormon, cancer-survivor as he discovers his spiritual path in Judasim and embarks on his journey toward conversion. Known for his appearances on Ellen and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, this die-hard Golden Girls fan has had many ups and downs to contend with in his life. Determined to be the best Jew he can be before becoming a man in the eyes of Jewish law, Scott’s…
Find out more »Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: The Rabbi from Hezbollah
This is an online event. Ibrahim Yassin was born in a small village in Lebanon and destined to follow in his father’s footsteps as a farmer and shepherd, but fate had something else in store. As the course of his life turns against him, death becomes his only wish. But just when it seems as if the story’s over, a new one begins that sounds like a work of suspense fiction, placing Yassin at the heart of some of the…
Find out more »August 2020
Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: Rewind
This is an online event. Sasha Joseph Neulinger’s heroic and devastating autobiographical documentary opens with questions familiar to many people: Why are home movies always so haunting? What is it that tinges even the happiest footage with a touch of melancholy? What is it about them that makes someone’s own life feel like a ghost story? Early in the film, Neulinger’s father says that people historically shot home movies to remember happy occasions, not to capture bad ones. But in…
Find out more »Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: Holy Silence
This is an online event. The Catholic Church’s response to the Holocaust is examined via historic film, rare documents and current interviews, revealing a failure of moral authority. Pope Pius XI overtly decried the anti-Semitism of 1938 Germany, but his successor took a starkly different stance. What more might the Church have done to halt the Final Solution and help Europe’s Jews? Directed by Steven Pressman Documentary, 72 minutes • English Visit https://berkshirejewishfilmfestival.org/ for more information and to buy tickets.
Find out more »Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: Oliver Sacks: His Own Life
This is an online event. Oliver Sacks: His Own Life explores the life and work of the legendary neurologist and storyteller, as he shares intimate details of his battles with drug addiction, homophobia, and a medical establishment that accepted his work only decades after the fact. Sacks, known for his literary works Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, was a fearless explorer of unknown cognitive worlds who helped redefine our understanding of the brain and…
Find out more »Virtual Berkshire Jewish Film Festival: Igor and the Crane’s Journey
This is an online event. Igor and the Crane’s Journey touches the core of the migration experience. A charming film about a young boy facing new challenges and finding his own voice and strength by connecting to the world of nature. Directed by Evgeny Ruman Narrative, 90 minutes • Russian, Hebrew (English subtitles) Visit https://berkshirejewishfilmfestival.org/ for more information and to buy tickets.
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The Red Lion Inn
The Jewel of the Berkshires
Hotel on North
Briarcliff Motel
Porches Inn