For first time, Mobile Jewish Film Festival embraces live drama

For first time, Mobile Jewish Film Festival embraces live drama

Mobile’s Jewish Film Festival returns for its 22nd year this month, with a slate of activities that includes live drama for the first time, thanks to a partnership with Joe Jefferson Players.

After two years of exclusively virtual screenings, the festival returns to in-person presentations – though a virtual option remains for the seven films being shown. As was the case before COVID, those films will be screened in several different venues and will cover a variety of genres and subject matter, from documentaries to dramas.

Screenings start Jan. 8 with the WWII drama “Farewell, Mr. Haffmann,” and conclude Jan. 29 with “Exodus 91,” a political thriller about the evacuation of thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1991. Individual tickets are $9; the price is the same for virtual and in-person viewing. A festival pass covering all seven films is $55. Passes can be purchased via the festival pages at www.mobilejewishfederation.org.

The live drama on this year’s program comes in collaboration with Joe Jefferson Players. From Jan. 11-16, the troupe is presenting “Anne and Emmett,” a one-act play by Janet Langhart Cohen that depicts an imagined conversation between historical figures Anne Frank and Emmett Till.

As JJP describes the work, the two “meet in a place called Memory, where they share their experiences with bigotry and injustice, highlighting the striking similarities between their horrific deaths.” According to JJP the production is supported by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts as well as sponsorships from the Mobile Jewish Federation and the group People United to Advance the Dream.

A limited number of free tickets are available through the festival to a performance of the play at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12. The playhouse is at 11 S. Carlen Street. Information on the remaining general run of “Anne and Emmett,” including showtimes and online ticketing, can be found at joejeffersonplayers.com; tickets are $20.

In “Farewell Mr. Haffmann,” Gilles Lellouche portrays a jeweler who conceals — and exploits — his former employer, a Jew whose failed attempt to escape the German occupation leaves him trapped.Courtesy MJFF

The film schedule for the 2023 Mobile Jewish Film Festival:

Sunday, Jan. 8 – “Farewell Mr. Haffmann,” 2 p.m., Springhill Avenue Temple. A jeweler in occupied Paris arranges for his family to flee before being rounded up by Nazi authorities. When his own escape proves difficult, he is concealed — and exploited — by the employee he left in charge of his business.

Tuesday, Jan. 10 – “Why the Jews?” 7 p.m., Springhill Avenue Temple. A documentary that explores the dichotomy between Jewish achievement in the arts and sciences on the one hand, and centuries of persecution on the other.

Tuesday, Jan. 17 – “The Man in the Basement,” 7 p.m., University of South Alabama’s Fairhope campus. A psychological thriller in which a French couple rent the cellar of their Paris apartment to a former history teacher who turns out to be an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist.

Thursday, Jan. 19 – “Bad Nazi Good Nazi,” 3 p.m., Mobile Museum of Art. A documentary about German officer Wilm Hosenfeld, a morally complicated figure who helped around 60 people escape Nazi captivity – including renowned composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, subject of the dramatic film “The Pianist.”

Tuesday, Jan. 24 – “The Man in the Basement,” 7 p.m., University of South Alabama Laidlaw Performing Arts Center. (See Jan. 17 listing.)

Wednesday, Jan. 25 – “The Narrow Bridge,” 7 p.m., University of South Alabama Laidlaw Performing Arts Center. A documentary about four people, Israeli and Palestinian who have lost loved ones to violence and who seek reconciliation through the group Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families.

Thursday, Jan. 26 – “Rose,” 7 p.m., University of South Alabama Laidlaw Performing Arts Center. Francoise Fabian portrays a widowed matriarch who begins life anew at 78.

Sunday, Jan. 29 – “Exodus 91,” 2 p.m., Ahavas Chesed Synagogue. A “docu-narrative” about Asher Naim, an Israeli diplomat who helps negotiate the evacuation of thousands of Ethiopian Jews threatened by famine and war, but who fears it is in part a cynical political stunt.