Held for the 7th time at Manhattan’s Marlene Myerson Jewish Community Center from June 3-12 this year’s edition continued its celebration of the New Israeli Cinema including a special section with Israeli Television programs. The program consists of eight feature films, an Avi Nesher  retrospective with two of his films, three TV programs,   a special discussion session at  Temple Emanu-El with screening clips from the acclaimed television series SHTISEL, a two da...

Where does The Ballad of the Weeping Spring take place? The question hovers over Benny Toraty's Wild East fable, which may unfold in yesteryear's Levant, or perhaps just in fantasyland. Either way, music forms its center. So it's only fitting that Mark Eliyahu's soulful, nostalgic composing uses the "maqam" system of musical modes: "maqam" means "place" in Arabic. In the Eastern classical tradition, modal scales are used to influence one's spi...

24th ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL IN MIAMI   CELEBRATING THE INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS OF ISRAELI CINEMA   February 17-25, 2010 at Sunrise Cinemas Intracoastal Mall   Opening Night Honors Presented To  Yehoram Gaon 2010 IFF Lifetime Achievement Award The Peres Center for Peace 2010 IFF Humanitarian Award Shaul Rikman 2010 IFF Founder’s Award David Keinan ~ Akiva Segal ~ Ron Reshef 2010 IFF Community Leadership Award ...

  The horrors of war and the toll that it takes on both civilians and the soldiers themselves are film topics that, unfortunately, never go out of style. While it can be argued that audiences tend to stay away from such strong fare, a film that brings the audience to the center of the action and that involves it emotionally has a better chance to transcend the grimness of the material and make an impact with what is often a reluctant public. LEBANON, the new Israeli film by Samuel M...