The Austin Jewish Film Festival is marking its 24th year with a lineup that runs Thursday through next Thursday, pairing documentary screenings with live music, a Steinway piano brought in just for the occasion, and conversations with filmmakers. Most of the in-person events take place at the Dell Jewish Community Center in Northwest Austin, with a handful of additional events on or near the University of Texas campus, before the festival shifts into a virtual section running Nov. 20 through Nov. 29.
A Festival Built on Music and Memory
Festival director David Finkel joined We Are Austin to preview the lineup, according to KEYE. The festival showcases Jewish and Israeli films spanning shorts, features and documentaries, and organizers describe it as a gathering point for movie lovers drawn to storytelling and post-screening conversation, per the same report. This year's program features films, live music, filmmaker conversations and screenings threaded together across more than a week of events, according to kxan.com.
Opening night, scheduled for Thursday, centers on the documentary “We Met at Grossinger's,” which explores the history of the famed Grossinger's Resort in New York's Catskill Mountains, according to the kxan.com report. The resort was part of the historic Borscht Belt and served as a gathering place for generations of visitors, per the KEYE report, which also notes the resort helped launch the careers of comedians and performers, including Jerry Seinfeld. Finkel described the film as a beautiful, nostalgic film, per the same KEYE account, and festival organizers note the documentary is connected to the 1980s film “Dirty Dancing.” Opening night also includes a reception before the screening with live music from the 1950s and 1960s and deli-inspired food included with admission, according to KEYE.
A Kindertransport Story Set to Live Piano
Among the festival's centerpiece screenings is “Hold On to Your Music,” which follows Lisa Jura, a young pianist who escaped Nazi-occupied Europe through the Kindertransport program, according to the kxan.com report. The Kindertransport brought Jewish children to safety in the United Kingdom before World War II, per the same account. The film traces how the young girl's love of music shaped her future, with her musical legacy later inspiring her daughter, Mona Golabek, an acclaimed Steinway pianist, per KEYE's reporting. The story was previously adapted into the stage production “The Pianist of Willesden Lane,” according to KEYE.
Golabek is scheduled to perform a 20-minute piano set before the screening and take part in a question-and-answer session with attendees afterward, according to austinjff.org. Organizers worked with Steinway Gallery to bring a Steinway piano to the event for the performance, per KEYE's report. Finkel said the story is ultimately about music's power and about achieving dreams, according to the same account. A comparable pairing played out recently at a Bay Area screening of the same documentary, where Golabek performed live before joining director Josh Aronson and producer Susan Libitzky in conversation after the film, as reported by jweekly.com.
Closing Night Brings a Guthrie Family Connection
The festival concludes Thursday, Nov. 19, with a screening of “Dust Bowl and Jewish Souls,” which explores connections between Woody Guthrie and Jewish culture, according to the kxan.com report. Guthrie had a Jewish second wife, and the film traces his family ties through his mother-in-law, the acclaimed Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt, per the same account. Guthrie and his mother-in-law had a creative relationship that helped inspire a broader musical and cultural connection, KEYE reports.
Closing night will feature a nightclub-inspired atmosphere alongside the film screening and a panel discussion, according to KEYE's reporting. Attendees will enjoy a live performance by Sarah Lee Guthrie, Woody Guthrie's granddaughter and a musician in her own right, before the screening, per kxan.com. The closing-night panel is set to include Guthrie, the film's director, and a Yiddish-language guest from the University of Texas, according to KEYE. Finkel said the closing-night event came together after he learned Guthrie lives in Austin, per the same report.
Short Films, World Premieres and Festival Logistics
Beyond the two headline screenings, the festival features multiple filmmaker Q&A sessions and two short-film showcases spotlighting emerging filmmakers, including some world-premiere screenings, according to kxan.com. One of the short-film programs will showcase graduating films from an Israeli film school, with selections including animation and live-action projects, plus a guest from the hair and makeup industry, per KEYE's reporting.
A Monday afternoon program will feature five short films, including two Texas productions — one from Austin and one from the Dallas area — and will host a stop-motion animator, according to KEYE. Two films across the festival's slate are set to have world premieres, per the same report. Organizers are providing full schedule, screening and ticketing details through austinjff.org, according to KEYE's reporting, and most films shown in-person will also be available afterward in the festival's virtual section, which is geoblocked to Texas, according to austinjff.org.
