Call it a little nosh.
That’s what Peggy Pancoe Rosoff and Beverly Schoninger are saying.
The women behind the inaugural Wilmington Jewish Film Festival are giving a small taste of what is to come with their inaugural event in April 2014 with a screening of the documentary, “Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy,” at 3 p.m. Sunday in Thalian Hall’s main theater.
The movie highlights the many contributions to the big stage made by Jewish actors, writers, composers and comedic entertainers. It includes archival footage of performances by well-known actors, such as Al Jolson, Nathan Lane and Barbra Streisand, and features candid interviews with Stephen Sondheim, Mary Rodgers, Mel Brooks and others.
Following the screening, Michael Kantor, the film’s writer, director and producer, will be on hand for a question-and-answer session with the audience. Kantor will be joined by UNC-Wilmington professors Todd Berliner and Philip Furia.
Berliner, the founding chairman of the university’s film studies department, is the author of “Hollywood Incoherent: Narration in Seventies Cinema.” Furia, who is featured in the film, teaches creative writing and has written biographies of composers Irving Berlin and Ira Gershwin, in addition to works about music of the early and mid 20th century.
The “cinematic nosh,” as organizers are describing it, is quite fitting, considering “nosh” is a word of Yiddish origin meaning a snack or light meal.
This weekend’s screening, Rosoff said, is a way to whet appetites about the upcoming festival.
“The idea behind this is it is a way to introduce Jewish history and Jewish filmmakers to the Wilmington cultural community,” Rosoff, who co-chairs the festival committee with Schoninger, said. “It is a way to share our heritage.”
The concept may be new to Wilmington but Jewish film festivals have been in place–and continue to crop up–in big cities and small towns across the country.
In fact, Schoninger decided to make one happen here after attending one such long-standing festival in Denver.
“She just thought it would be great for Wilmington,” Rosoff noted.
Schoninger enlisted the help of Rosoff and several other Wilmingtonians to help get it going.
In March, the group traveled to Charlotte, where there is an annual Jewish film festival, to talk with organizers there. They also turned locally to Dan Brawley, founder of Cucalorus Film Festival, for advice.
“Dan Brawley has been a great inspiration,” Rosoff said.
After meeting with other film festival folks, Rosoff, Schoninger and other volunteers decided to start off small with four films over three days at Thalian Hall. The event will kick off with one screening on April 3 that will be followed by a reception. Another will be screened April 5 and two will be shown on April 6.
Rosoff said the festival committee is still in the process of selecting specific titles, but they will include American and Israeli documentaries and feature films.
“There are so many movies. And we are still asking, what is our responsibility? Do we show things that are funny? Things about the Holocaust? Things about Israel?” Rosoff said.
No matter which direction they go, Rosoff said organizers see the festival as deeply tied to the roots they wish to teach others in the area about.
In Judaism, there is a concept called tikkun olam, which literally means “repairing the world” in Hebrew. It is the idea that there is a shared responsibility to make the world a better place. A mitzvah–a good deed performed as part of religious duty or out of kindness–is integral to tikkun olam.
“Part of Jewish belief and heritage is tikkun olam, the idea of giving to the community,” Rosoff said. “To be able to have a film festival that creates and dialogue and goes across cultural lines, I consider that a mitzvah.”
More information about the Wilmington Jewish Film Festival is available here.
Hilary Snow is a reporter at Port City Daily. Reach her at (910) 772-6341 or [email protected].
