By Maria Esteves – February 7, 2012 The 21st New York Jewish Film Festival 2012 (NYJFF2012) presented by the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center special film screening of TORN, by Israeli filmmaker Ronit Kertsner commenced Tuesday, January 17, 6:00 PM at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, New York. TORN is a powerful documentary that follows the life of Jacob Weksler (Romuald Waszkinel) a true Messianic believer, a completed Jew on a spiritual journey to Israel wh...

HAUGESUND, AUGUST 2003by Alex Deleon After two visits to Tromso (2002 and 2003) and two as well to the the Rouen Festival du Cinema Nordique in Northern France, I have been developing a taste for Nordic Cinema, so, based on these connections I applied for accreditation to the Haugesund ferstival in the Fjord country of Western Norway, which takes place in August, and was accepted -- probably because Signe Overgaard, a major figure of the Norwegian Film Institute knew me from these other No...

YIDL MITN FIDL Complete Plot Synopsis by Alex De Leon (Chaim Pevner) The film opens with a series of establishing shots establishing the small town of Kazimierz nad Wisla, (Kazimierz. on the Vistula) a town between Warsaw and Lublin which, at the time (1937) had a large and very old Jewish community. The camera holds on the castle on the hill and then pans to the left over many tiled rooftops coming to rest at last on a high crane shot of the central market square. We see several quick sh...

ROME: The Corriere de la Sera reports that reclusive, camera-shy American director Terence Malik showed up as scheduled for an audience with the festival press corps during the current second edition of the Rome International Film Festival with his specified precondition in place – No Photographs. During the session he steered clear of any commentary on his personal life, talking only about his film work while simultaneously demonstrating a surprisingly extensive knowledge of Italian film hi...