2 directors to guest at Jewish film fest

Movies from nine countries will be featured in the fourth annual Kirk Cashmere Jewish Film Festival, opening Friday at the University of Hawaii Spaulding Hall auditorium.

Two filmmakers will lead audience discussions of their work. Honolulu resident Marlene Booth, director of "Yidl in the Middle: Growing Up Jewish in Iowa," will speak at 5 p.m. Feb. 19 about the film, on Jews who adapted their behavior to a small town's social patterns.

Renee Sanders, Dutch director and producer of "Resisting Forces," will speak at 5 p.m. Feb. 20 about the documentary, on successful escapes from Nazis in World War II. Her visit is sponsored by the UH Fund for Jewish Life and Studies.

Temple Emanu-El sponsors the annual event named for Cashmere, an attorney involved in civil rights cases who died in 2002.

Tickets will be $6 at the door. A five-film Flash Pass for $25 can be purchased at the door or in advance at Temple Emanu-El. Tax-deductible contributions can also be made to support future film festivals.

Kirk Cashmere Jewish film festival movies

» "Paper Clips," a 2004 U.S. documentary about a Holocaust education project in a rural Tennessee school that transformed the students and their community, will open the series at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

» "Go for Zucker," a 2004 social satire about a modern dysfunctional Jewish family, is the first German-Jewish comedy made in Germany since World War II, according to the sponsor's announcement. 7:30 p.m. next Saturday, noon Feb. 20.

» "Le Grande Role" is a 2004 French drama about a Jewish actor's dream of a lead role in a Yiddish adaptation of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice." Noon next Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19.

» "Resisting Forces," made in Holland in 2003, tells about the Jewish Council of Enschede, whose members risked death to save Jews from the Nazi campaign of annihilation. Feb. 20, 5 p.m.

» "Only Human" is a 2005 Spanish comedy of a Jewish family in turmoil when a daughter brings home her Palestinian fiance. 5 p.m. next Saturday, noon Feb. 19.

» "Rasheviski's Tango," produced in Belgium and France in 2004, tells of family members on a search for their Jewish identity after their grandmother's death. Feb. 19, 2:30 p.m.

» "The Burial Society" is a 2004 U.S. drama of an inept criminal whose plan to stage his own death runs afoul of a traditional society of devout Jews who prepare the dead for burial. Feb. 20, 2:30 p.m.

» "The Legacy of Rosina Lhevinne" is the story of a master pianist and teacher whose students included famous musicians and who debuted at age 82 in a performance with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. 5 p.m. next Saturday, noon Feb. 19.

» "Yidl in the Middle: Growing Up Jewish in Iowa" was made in the United States in 1998. Feb. 19, 5 p.m.

» "Walk on Water," a story of intrigue about a Mossad agent's mission to track down an aging Nazi war criminal and the changes in his life along the way, was made in Israel in 2004. Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m.

» "A Bridge to Peace" is a British documentary of a 2005 concert tour in Poland by international artists, including actor Theodore Bikel, performing traditional Yiddish, Sephardic and Bosnian folk songs. Next Saturday, 2:30 p.m.