https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/scaleFit_590_noupscale/57ec2e781a000029065b5854.jpgThe biggest Jewish event of the fall is not a high holiday service, but rather the release of Denial (Directed by Mick Jackson), based on the infamous British libel case brought against noted Holocaust historian Prof. Deborah E. Lipstadt. This film will likely sell more tickets than all of the synagogues combined.
Lipstadt's case brought the Jewish community together as she stood up to a Holocaust denier who claimed she damaged his career by calling him a liar. To add to the drama, in libel cases in the British court system, the burden of proof is on the defendant. Basically, you are guilty until proven innocent. So Lipstadt, played by the fabulous Rachel Weisz, and her team of lawyers, are forced to prove that the Holocaust did in fact happen and that the accuser is indeed the denier Lipstadt claimed he is.
JCC Manhattan scheduled two special screenings of the film followed by a conversation with Lipstadt herself, and you'd think these were tickets to the new Star Wars premiere. Over one thousand tickets sold out before the screenings were officially announced.
Another film getting attention from Jewish audiences this fall is Israel's 2016 Academy Award submission, Sand Storm (Elite Zexer), which also opens this week (at Film Forum). The film tells the story of strong women in a traditional Bedouin community in Israel. This Sundance award-winning film is a very small production that captures an authentic representation of Bedouin life in Israel. When we screened the film at JCC Manhattan before it won Israel's Ophir Award for Best Picture, it still sold out way in advance.
The Bedouin community is a relatively safe topic on the Israeli-Arab political spectrum. Although Bedouins are Muslim-Arabs living as citizens in a Jewish country, with social barriers to overcome, they do not identify with the Palestinian struggle and some even serve in the military. A memorable night for most Birthright Israel trips is having a Bedouin experience in the desert sleeping in tents. I remember thinking how wonderful it was that the Bedouin learned to monetize their culture - only to learn that this experience was actually run by Jewish Israelis.
The Bedouin minority is a window through which the American Jewish community can take interest in Arab life without feeling like they are entering a major controversy. There is nothing Jewish about Sand Storm, it is completely in Arabic and about Arab life, but since it is an Israeli production, the Jewish community gets a peek into a fascinating community that impacts the Jewish state. The Jewish community loves to explore foreign cultures as they relate to Jewish life.
Later this fall, The Pickle Recipe (Michael Manasseri) opens theatrically. The film plays off the success of a film like Dough (John Goldschmidt), which received a small release, but made over one million dollars in the limited box office, by playing mostly to sold out Jewish crowds in south Florida. The Pickle Recipe follows a family trying to steal their Grandmother's secret pickle recipe. The niche Jewish audience is hungry for sweet comedies that relate to their world -- throw in some food and you have a recipe for success. Before its theatrical release, Dough built buzz through a successful run in the flourishing Jewish film festival market, and I expect The Pickle Recipe to do the same.
Jewish audiences traditionally flock to the Jewish box office for Holocaust films, or films that allow them to debate Israeli politics, but these films represent is a genre of “safer” films that can attract this niche as well. The important lesson here is that, at a time when so many people watch films on VOD and on the go, there still exists a strong audience that will come out for films in the theater if they are on the right topic. The theatrical experience need not only exist big budget explosions. To some audiences,a Holocaust historian from Emory University, a desert-dwelling woman, or goofy pickle recipe thieves are equal to any super hero.
