The Jewish Film Festival has it all

And in between, there will be a movie about hefty Israelis taking up sumo, A Matter of Size; a documentary, Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, about the Oprah of her day, Getrude Berg, a radio and TV pioneer, who wrote, starred in and produced her own show; and a claymation feature, Max and Mary, with the voices of Toni Collette and Philip Seymour Hoffman.  There's also a program about social justice, Reel Change, that features Rachel, a documentary about a 22-year-old American peace activist killed in Gaza, Rachel Corrie; William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, a film about the controversial civil rights lawyer made by his daughters; and The Yes Men Fix the World about the environmental activists who pose as corporate executives. There will also be a panel discussion at the Castro Theater on “Social Justice as a Jewish Value” on Sunday, July 26.

Nancy Fishman, the program director for the festival, says she’s excited about the 71 films from 18 countries in the lineup this year.

“I know program directors at festivals always say that,” Fishman said. “But I think the quality this year is really high. We have some very high profile films.”

One of those movies is Adam, a romantic drama with Rose Byrne, Hugh Dancy, Peter Gallagher and Amy Irving.

The heavy hitting star power of the film is one of the things that thrills Fishman, but she says it’s more than that.

“I really, really like it,” she said. “I think it’s really well made and it won the Alfred P. Sloane prize at Sundance for films with a science theme.”

Fishman is also pleased with the documentaries at the festival, such as Refugees, about Africans in Israel, and the three documentaries by Israeli women about Israeli women: Chronicle of a Kidnap, Lady Kul El-Arab, and Desert Brides.

“They provide people with an opportunity to learn more about other countries,” she says about the documentaries. “If we read something online or see it on network news, we just get 90 seconds or so, and a lot of these issues are complex and difficult to boil down to 90 seconds.”