Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival includes several films of interest to the Jewish community
The regional premiere of Sharon Isbin: Troubadour, produced by Susan Dangel, will be screened as part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 4, and 1:45 p.m. Sunday, April 6 at the St. Anthony Main Theatre, 115 S.E. Main St., Minneapolis. Isbin will appear at both screenings.
The film is the first full-scale documentary of Sharon Isbin, the world’s premier classical guitarist and St. Louis Park native. It is narrated by NPR’s Susan Stamberg and combines performance and documentary to focus on Isbin’s unusual and inspiring journey.
MSPIFF will feature several other films of interest to the Jewish community.
Among those co-sponsored by Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council, an initiative of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, are:
• Aftermath, 7 p.m. Thursday, April 10, and 5:10 p.m. Wednesday, April 16 (see review below).
• The Soap Myth, 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 9, and 4:20 p.m. Thursday, April 10 (also co-sponsored by World Without Genocide and the National Jewish Theater). The filmed version of the play focuses on a young investigative reporter who finds herself caught between numerous versions of the same story: that the bodies of Jews were used to make soap. Playwright Jeff Cohen will attend both screenings.• When Jews Were Funny, a survey of the history of Jewish comedy, 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 8 at St. Anthony Main Theatre, and 1 p.m. Sunday, April 13 in the Best Buy Theatre at Northrop Auditorium, 84 Church St. S.E., Minneapolis.
• The Last of the Unjust, 1 p.m. Sunday, April 13. Claude Lanzmann returns to a series of 1975 interviews he made with Benjamin Murmelstein, the last president of the Jewish Council in the Theresienstadt ghetto.
Other films with Jewish or Israeli themes are Ari Folman’s The Congress, Errol Morris’ The Unknown Known and Cecilia Peck’s Brave Miss World.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival runs April 3-19, and all films will be screened at the St. Anthony Main Theatre (unless otherwise noted). For tickets and information, visit: mspfilm.org.
(American Jewish World, 3.28.14)
