Documentaries, movies, Q-and-as on the menu for 26th Jewish Film Festival
With films from around the world premièring, the Edmonton Jewish Film Festival is returning for its 26th season and will once again be hosting people in-person while also offering films online, all free of charge.
Opening at 7 p.m. on May 10 at the Muttart Theatre in the Stanley A. Milner Library, Neighbours kicks off the festival, which runs through May 18 and closes with one of Ed Asner's final films, Tiger Within.
One of the festival's highlights is Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen, a documentary about Fiddler on the Roof being transformed from the stage to the big screen, which has had more than one billion viewers since its debut 50 years ago. The film will screen at 7 p.m. in-person at the library or online between noon and 10 p.m. on May 15 and a Q -and-a with award-winning filmmaker Daniel Raim will take place on Zoom the following day at noon.
A full schedule with complete details and registration for the films can be found at jewishedmonton. org.
CIRCLE OF EAGLES
Also marking 50 years is a documentary about the Circle of Eagles Healing Lodge, an alternative halfway house program rooted in Indigenous cultural practice and ceremony.
Circle of Eagles opens with a staggering statistic: Indigenous people make up 4.7 per cent of Canada's population yet more than 31 per cent of our prison population.
Featuring Majorie White, the first Indigenous person appointed as a Citizenship Court Judge in Canada, who helped found Circle of Eagles (Naa-na-himyis) which provides an urban sweat lodge, healing retreats with canoe journeys and reintegration programs from the incarceration institutions across the country, including Edmonton.
The 50-minute production has already won numerous awards, for the film and theme song I Had A Dream by Mary Garnet Edwards, and written by John Holbrook.
Watch the documentary free on May 27 at coels.ca/50thfilm or as part of this year's Dreamspeakers International Indigenous Festival running May 27-29. You can find more details at dreamspeakers.org.
BACK HOME AGAIN BACK AT THE TELUS WORLD OF SCIENCE
The animated film Back Home Again telling the story of the 2016 Fort Mcmurray wildfires through the eyes of forest critters is back, this time screening at the Telus World of Science.
The all-star Hollywood cast that donated their time to the film includes Jeremy Renner, Martin Short, Kim Basinger, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'hara, Michael J. Fox, Howie Mandel, Ed Asner, Lorne Cardinal, Gordon Pinsent, Mena Suvari, Bill Burr, Tom Green, Norm Macdonald, Harland Williams, Sherri Shepherd, Marlon Wayans, Scott Thompson, and Tantoo Cardinal.
The film's writer, director and creator Michael Mankowski based the story on real testimonials from residents and front-line responders and continues it through to the community efforts to rebuild again together.
The 30-minute film is rated G and screens at 11 a.m. and noon on May 7. For more details, go to twose.ca/backhomeagain.