Celebrating 27 Years of the San Diego Film Festival

Celebrating the San Diego Jewish Film Festival's 27th Season, presented by the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS, will run February 8-19, 2017.

On February 13th, as part of the 27th San Diego Jewish Film Festival, an outstanding group of twenty-three short films from around the world will be presented in a day-long program beginning at 10:00 am to 10:00 pm at the ArcLight La Jolla Cinemas in La Jolla, CA. The program of film shorts, known as The Joyce Forum: A Day of Short Film, is named after Film Festival's founder Joyce Axelrod who created the short film program in 2003 and continues to chair the jury who selects the short films. Axelrod noted that for this year's Festival, "new film technology keeps raising the bar on the caliber of short films."

The Joyce Forum, which is a juried competitive program awards films in the following five categories: Best Short Film; Best Short Documentary; Special Jury Award; Best Director; and Best Short Narrative.

The group of jury members are made up of film industry professionals, this year the panel consists of Filmmaker, Irina Isaeva; Professor Emeritus at SDSU, Lawrence Baron; and Israeli Film Star, Dana Ivgy who is a visting artist at SDSU Jewish Studies Program. The awards will be presented at the ArcLight La Jolla Cinemas in La Jolla, CA after the last program.

As with all short films, none is longer than 30 minutes. Films have been grouped into four different programs of approximately two hours, with showings at 10 AM, 2 PM, 5 PM, and 8 PM. Filmmakers will be present for talkbacks at many of the films, including the director Shayna Cohen of A Children's Song who has strong San Diego ties and will be bringing in cast members as well. At 12:30 PM there will be a Filmmaker Panel of guest filmmakers who will convene on stage for a conversation moderated by Joyce Axelrod at the ArcLight La Jolla Cinemas. A film ticket or pass is required for admission.

Among the exceptional variety in this year's line-up is a film about a woman in Kaifeng, China, who preserves her Jewish heritage despite the challenges that surround her (The Lost Tribe); another film that tracks 95-year-old Holocaust survivor, Anny Juneck's competitive zeal in preparing her newest Purim costume (Spring Chicken); and one about a father and son fleeing Germany to Shanghai in 1937 and, while the father is nursed back to health by a Chinese doctor, the boy befriends the doctor's daughter and finds friendship through music (A Children's Song). Finally, we will be showing Joe's Violin that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Short.

About The Film Festival

The 27th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival presented by the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS, will run February 8-19, 2017. The 12-day Festival is the largest Jewish cultural event in San Diego and draws over 17,000 attendees annually to more than 70 film screenings. The Festival features San Diego film premieres, international guest artists and filmmakers local and international. Screenings will be shown at five locations throughout San Diego County.

The mission of the Film Festival is to offer outstanding world cinema that promotes awareness, appreciation and pride in the diversity of the Jewish people to attendees of the community at large. Festival programs aim to educate and illuminate through evocative, independent fiction and documentary films that portray the Jewish experience from current to historic global perspectives.

For tickets or information call 858-362-1348 or visit www.sdjff.org.

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