Washington Jewish Film Festival 2008

The 2008 Washington Jewish Film Festival has released its schedule. Opening night is a film I have really been looking forward to, Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger. The festival, now in its 19th year, will have 59 features, documentaries & shorts representing 10 countries. Other films on the schedule include “Lemon Tree,” based on A the true story of a Palestinian widow who must defend her lemon tree field when a new Israeli Defense Minister moves next to her and threatens to have her lemon grove torn down, and “Like a Fish Out of Water,” a romantic comedy about an Argentinian immigrant to Israel who falls for his Hebrew teacher. One of the highlights of the schedule is a salute to the late documentarian Charles Guggenheim, featuring a presentation from his daughter, particularly apt as the schedule features a number of new documentary films. New Film Fest Director Susan Barocas explains this year’s trend, “We had so many good films to choose from, but the docs were exceptional. It’s exciting to see more and more filmmakers turning the cameras on themselves and the worlds around them, revealing untold stories in their own unique voices.”