Jewish film festival features actors, former Mets player
Annual Virginia event presents six films at five venues
This year’s Virginia Festival of Jewish Film will include appearances by actors Hal Linden and Ryan Ochoa, and former N.Y. Mets player Ty Kelly as it presents six films at five venues.
The annual “Hollywood Night” with local film critic Mal Vincent will feature a big-budget movie about the creation of the state of Israel.
Here’s a look at the schedule: 6 p.m. Monday at the TCC Roper Performing Arts Center in Norfolk. The festival begins with the screening of “An Act of Defiance,” a 2018 drama about the 1963 trial of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and the Jewish lawyer, Bram Fisher, who represented him and 10 others charged with conspiring to commit sabotage and violence against the apartheid government.
In honor of Martin Luther King Day, the film and a discussion afterward are being presented by the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Community Relations Council and the Hands United Building Bridges multi-faith group. The event is free, but registration is required at bit.ly/ujftfilm.
7:15 p.m. Jan. 24 at Cinema Cafe Kemps River in Virginia Beach. Two episodes of a hit Israeli TV series, “When Heroes Fly,” will be shown. The program, which has been picked up by Netflix, was named best series at the CanneSeries Festival.
It’s about four friends — former Israel Defense Forces commandos — who go to Colombia to rescue a loved one. Local military can attend free by presenting their ID.
7:15 p.m. Jan. 26 at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, Virginia Beach. The festival’s headliner movie, “Heading Home: A Tale of Team Israel,” will be screened, with former N.Y. Mets third baseman Ty Kelly attending.
Kelly was a member of the underdog Israel National Baseball Team that found success in the 2017 World Baseball Classic with wins over Cuba, South Korea, Taiwan and the Netherlands. Director Seth Kramer will also attend the screening, which will be followed by a reception with food and drinks. The cost is $35; $18 for younger than 21.
2 p.m. Jan. 27 at the Roper Center. Hal Linden, who starred in the ABC sitcom “Barney Miller,” and Ryan Ochoa, from the Nickelodeon’s “iCarly,” will be in Norfolk to introduce and discuss this night’s film, “The Samuel Project.”
Linden plays a grandfather who reconnects with his grandson when he agrees to tell the youngster a story he had long kept to himself — how he was heroically saved from capture by the Nazis in Germany.
7:15 p.m. Jan. 28 at Naro Expanded Cinema, Norfolk. Local film critic Mal Vincent, who has partnered with the film festival for 10 years, will introduce the 1966 drama “Cast a Giant Shadow” and then talk about the cast which includes John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra, Angie Dickinson, Topol, Yul Brynner, and, in archival footage, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin.
The big-budget action movie is set in the opening days of the existence of the new country of Israel. The annual “Hollywood night” in the festival is designed to suggest how the mainstream movie industry has depicted Judaism in peace and war, tragedy and comedy.
7:15 p.m. Jan. 30 at the
Beach Cinema Alehouse in Virginia Beach. The closing film will be “Budapest Noir,” a 2017 Hungarian murder mystery set in 1936 as the country was aligning with Nazi Germany. An investigative journalist follows the clues to a shocking ending when he looks into the murder of a beautiful prostitute. The film has adult content.
A pass for all events costs $70; films, besides the opener and headliner, are $10. For more information and advance tickets: jewishva.org/filmfestival, 747321-2338. Group pricing is available by emailing Callah Terkeltaub at cterkeltaub@ ujft.org.
The Virginia Festival of Jewish Film is being presented by the Simon Family Jewish Community Center, Alma and Howard Laderberg, and Patricia and Avraham Ashkenazi.