The second annual Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival will begin this Thursday at the Manship Theatre.
Ethnicity and religious background don’t matter. The festival is for the benefit of the entire Baton Rouge community.
“The motive of the festival is to provide an entertainment opportunity for people of this area to better understand the Jewish experience,” said Harvey Hoffman, co-chairman of the event.
Hoffman and his wife Paula have combined their efforts with those of the Jewish community for a festival in which the themes and subjects are universal.
“We have dramas. We have documentaries. We have short subjects. We have comedies. The subjects that are presented are subjects that anybody and everybody will relate to,” Hoffman said.
Ari B. Krupkin, music and business junior and president of Tigers for Israel, emphasized the lack of understanding of Jewish culture because of the small population of Jews in the South.
“By having a film festival here, film being a universal way to express oneself, the Jewish community is able to make the rest of the community much more aware of our presence and to educate them on Judaism, which is very much a significant part of what the film festival stands for,” Krupkin said.
Other members of the Jewish community agree with Krupkin. “Our community can be brought together by our cultural differences. We can learn to interact better in the world by learning to interact better with each other, and by experiencing others’ cultures, we can learn more about them,” said Moshe Cohen, mathematics graduate student and program director for Hillel, the foundation for Jewish campus life.
Hoffman said University students should attend the Thursday night film, “The Rape of Europa,” a documentary about Hitler’s role in World War II.
“Hitler was not only the greatest murderer of all time, he was also the greatest thief. He looted and destroyed not just thousands…but millions of art objects,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said the point of the destruction of art was to eradicate any evidence of cultures with which Hitler disagreed.
Hoffman said the Sunday matinee will be about a type of music played by musicians known as Klezmers, whose upbeat style was brought back to America in the late ’70s.
“You can’t sit quietly watching this kind of music. You’ll be clapping. You’ll be jumping up out of your seat. You’ll be dancing. This documentary is all about the history of this music and how it came to this country and influenced the great song writers of the United States,” Hoffman said.
After the movie, one of the best Klezmer bands in the area, the Panorama Jazz Band of New Orleans, will perform.
All the films have reserved seats. Tickets are available for $8.50 at the Manship Theatre box office and online at the Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival Web site, brjff.com. The Web site also provides a list of the movies to be presented at the festival.
The films will be shown Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m. There will also be a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.
Hillel will provide a complimentary meal before the Thursday night film.
—-Contact Cathryn Core at [email protected]