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 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.
The First Annual Northeastern Pennsylvania Jewish Film Festival will be held on Saturday evening, October 20th and all day Sunday, October 21st, at the beautiful, comfortable 1,046-seat Mellow Theater at Lackawanna College in Scranton, PA.
The kinds of films that will be showcased at the NEPA Jewish Film Festival are primarily by and about Jews, and will touch on many aspects of Jewish life - humor, the home, relationships with non-Jews, Jewish art and identity, music, Israel, the Shoah (Holocaust), and the like. Of course, you don't have to be Jewish to enjoy and appreciate the award-winning films that will be screened next October (just as you don't have to be Jewish to enjoy mixing with stars and celebrities. the fabulous food, gala parties, and special features that are part & parcel of any film festival).
The obvious question that comes to mind is: why have a Jewish Film Festival, and why in Northeastern Pennsylvania?
Equally obvious is the short answer: why not?
But the real answer is, like most things in life, somewhat more complicated. That's because, to cinema aficionados, the idea of a Jewish film festival is an oxymoron. Ever since Thomas Edison invented the motion picture camera, Jewish men and women have been closely associated with and involved in every facet of the motion picture industry. Hollywood has always been represented by a disproportionate number of highly successful, creative Jews, from Cecil B. DeMille to Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen to Mel Brooks, Stanley Kramer to Stanley Kubrick, Barbara Streisand to Shelley Winters. Just a handful of the many blockbuster films covering Jewish ideas, themes and history include Marjorie Morningstar, Gentleman's Agreement, The Ten Commandments, Schindler's List, Exodus, Ben-Hur, Chariots of Fire, Goodbye Columbus, The Jazz Singer and The Diary of Anne Frank.
What attracted Jews to the film industry (as well as publishing, medicine, the theater, music, fine arts, and most other creative fields)? Historians and social scientists tell us that there are two primary reasons why Jews have gravitated towards the arts, science, and medicine. One is that Jewish culture has always cherished learning and knowledge, and specifically encourages artistic expression and intellectual endeavors. Equally significant, centuries of anti-Semitism has forced Jews to embrace the creative arts because many other fields have traditionally been closed to them. In other words, it was a matter of survival as much as one of cultural predisposition.
Film festivals are immensely popular venues where film buffs come together, see and discuss new, exciting, even controversial films. Festivals come in all sizes and shapes, - regional, ethnic, experimental, etc. So, is only natural that Jews, too, would want a film festival where the very best Jewish-themed and Jewish-made theatrical, documentary, and short films would be celebrated and shown.
In fact, there are annual Jewish film festivals in held in San Francisco, Baltimore, Atlanta, San Jose, Miami, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle, and scores of other American cities. For the past century and a half, Northeastern Pennsylvania has been the home of a small but vibrant (and growing) Jewish community, so it is both natural and inevitable that there would be a desire to have a Jewish Film Festival right here. We fully expect that this will become an annual event marked by sellout audiences, gala stars, and some of the best films ever made.
To purchase tickets, become a sponsor, and/or volunteer to be part of the backstage action, call (570) 961-2300, extension 4, or go to www.NEPAJFF.org.
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