Below is 2023 information – check back in September for 2024 info!
2023 OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
DAUGHTER OF VILNA: THE LIFE IN SONG OF MASHA ROSKIES
THE LIGHT AHEAD / FISHKE DER KRUMER
IN THE FIDDLER’S HOUSE
MY HASIDIC BRETHREN, LET’S TALK!
Curated by Josh Waletzky, YNY’s annual film festival showcases the best in contemporary and archival films presented in Yiddish and explores topics of interest to the Yiddish velt. This year we are excited to feature FOUR FILMS streaming on-demand as well as talk-back sessions with directors, actors, composers, and scholars. You can stream the films at home and join us in-person at Hebrew Union College for the talk-back sessions or watch them at home over Zoom.
Here’s how to watch:
- REGISTER: Attendees whose registration allows access to ANY of the Talk Back Sessions taking place at PM2 on Sunday-Wednesday (with a Full-Festival Pass, any Sun-Wed Day Pass, PM2 Course Pass, or any PM2 Single Session Pass) will be provided with links to to watch all four of this year’s Official Selections online.
- CHECK YOUR EMAIL: Once registered, go to your email to check your Eventbrite confirmation. Scroll all the way down in the email to find a link to a Pass Page and a Password. During the Watch Window (see below) a link will appear on the Pass Page for the film screening page, where you can view all of the films. You’ll additionally find links to the Talk-Back Sessions with the rest of the PM2 links.
- WATCH THE FILMS DURING THE WATCH WINDOW: Using the link provided by your Eventbrite confirmation you will be able to stream the films over the internet. However, one of this year’s films– The Light Ahead/Fishke der krumer— will ONLY be available online during the Watch Window (Monday, December 18 – Monday, December 25). The other selections may be viewed until January 10, 2024.
- ATTEND THE TALK-BACK SESSIONS: YNY is presenting online talk-back sessions with directors, actors, composers and scholars during PM2 Sunday-Wednesday (check the yellow boxes below for talk-back information for each film). Again, the link will be at the bottom of your Eventbrite confirmation email.
- HAVING TROUBLE? No worries! Contact YNY Coordinator Clara Byom ynycoordinator@gmail.com or 563-379-9020. We’ll make everything work out for you!
Question: If I purchase a Tuesday Day Pass can I see a film being talked about on Monday?
Answer: Yes – you will be given access to all of the films. However, you will only be able to attend the Monday Q&A Session if you registered for a pass covering attendance on PM2 Monday.
Question: I only want to see the films – I don’t want to attend the Q&A Sessions. What should I do?
Answer: You’re in luck! YNY has a Film Only Pass for $10 that will allow you to watch the films online (subject to the Watch Window).
Question: I am very busy at the end of December, is there any way to watch the films before or after the Watch Window?
Answer: Unfortunately Yiddish New York is only licensed to present one of the films (The Light Ahead/Fishke der krumer) during the Watch Window (Monday, December 18 – Monday, December 25). So please be sure you have adequate time set aside to watch this film. The other three films may be watched until January 10, 2024.
See Descriptions of Films & Talk Back Sessions Below!
DAUGHTER OF VILNA: THE LIFE IN SONG OF
MASHA ROSKIES
בת-װילנע: דאָס לידער-בוך פֿון מאַשע ראָסקעס
BAS-VILNE: DOS LIDER-BUKH FUN
MASHE ROSKIES
(44 min., 1999)
Directed by Josh Waletzky. In English and Yiddish (with English subtitles).
A documentary film, directed by Josh Waletzky, presenting the life in song of Masha Roskies (1906-1999), a 20th-century Yiddish song specialist, with liberal samples of Masha singing, historical photos, insightfully narrated by two of her children, Ruth Wisse and David Roskies (who join in singing along with Masha’s recordings), both distinguished scholars in the fields of Yiddish literature and culture.
The recordings of Masha singing were made in 1973 as part of a YIVO Institute research project: East European Jewish Folk Song Performance In Its Social Context; and indeed through Masha’s singing, we are treated to a rich, vibrant portrait of her social milieu, the vital secular Yiddish culture of pre-War Jewish Vilna and post-War Montreal. We present the newly restored version made in 2023 by Josh Waletzky, John Bowen (sound), and David Leitner (picture), in which the clarity of Masha’s vocal performances will astonish even those who have watched the original film.
A Q&A for Daughter of Vilna will take place PM2 (4:15PM-5:30PM) on Sunday, December 24 at Hebrew Union College (1 W 4th St. in Manhattan). You can also participate online on Zoom. For more information click here. The Q&A will be moderated by the film’s director Josh Waletzky and will feature Dr. David Roskies and special guest Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, who conceived of and directed the 1970s YIVO Folk Song Project, whose fruits provide the basis of this film.
THE LIGHT AHEAD
פֿישקע דער קרומער
FISHKE DER KRUMER
(94 min., 1939)
Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. B&W in Yiddish with English subtitles. Film, restoration and subtitling courtesy of The National Center for Jewish Film.
Underground auteur Edgar Ulmer broke the unwritten rule of American cinema portrayals of the Eastern European shtetl, which dictated a rosy, nostalgic lens. Ulmer’s film, based on the stories of Mendele Moykher Sforim, the 19th-century “grandfather of Yiddish literature,” offers a scathing depiction of the shtetl and its
leaders: corrupt self-dealers, mired in superstition, and utterly inadequate to protect the town from the present danger of cholera.
Against this backdrop, a love story emerges, between two of the shtetl’s most vulnerable—Fishke (David Opatoshu, in his film debut), a young disabled indigent who is hopelessly in love with a blind orphan girl, Hodel (Helen Beverly). The romantic pair dream of escaping the backward shtetl and seeking a better life in the enlightened big city. As Yiddish film scholar and critic J. Hoberman writes in Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds,“Central to the film is a riveting performance by Helen Beverley… Beverley and Opatoshu are perhaps the most beautiful couple in the history of Yiddish cinema, and their scenes have a touching erotic chemistry.” Watch the recently restored version (by the National Center for Jewish Film) of this Yiddish classic to find out how screenwriter Chaver Paver resolves the lovers’ dilemma.
A Q&A for The Light Ahead/Fishke der krumer led by film scholar Eve Sicular will take place PM2 (4:15PM-5:30PM) on Monday, December 25 at Hebrew Union College (1 W 4th St. in Manhattan). You can also participate online on Zoom. For more information click here.
ITZHAK PERLMAN: IN THE FIDDLER’S HOUSE
(55 min., 1995)
Directed by Glenn DuBose and Don Lenzer.
The Emmy Award-winning PBS Great Performances special that documents Itzhak Perlman’s plunge into the world of klezmer music. A behind-the-scenes look at how the world’s acknowledged master of the classical violin began a beautiful friendship with a folk-popular musical tradition, a continuing friendship now well into its third decade.
In 1995, Perlman is the good-natured, eager beginner, trying to catch on and absorb insights from powerhouse klezmer ensembles: Brave Old World, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and The Klezmatics. For those who have enjoyed the music of these groups over the years, this documentary will treat you to a taste of the way they were in their mid-career primes. Also featured are delicious appearances by Leopold Kozlowski, Red Buttons, Fyvush Finkel, Kapelye, Deborah Strauss, and more.
The film Q&A session for In the Fiddler’s House will take place PM2 (4:15PM-5:30PM) on Tuesday, December 26. at Hebrew Union College (1 W 4th St. in Manhattan). You can also participate online on Zoom. The Q&A will feature the film’s creative team: co-producer and writer Sara Lukinson, musical director Michael Alpert, and editor Josh Waletzky. For more information click here.
MAYNE KHSIDISHE GESHVISTER, LOMIR REDN!
!מיינע חסידישע געשוויסטער, לאמיר רעדן
MY HASIDIC BRETHREN, LET’S TALK!
(2023, 44 min.)
A curated series of short videos. In Yiddish with English subtitles.
The multi-faceted Hasidic world, where Yiddish is the predominant language (particularly among men), has a growing web presence. Special for Yiddish New York, our film curator Josh Waletzky has selected two recent Yiddish talks (shiurim) from the internet, both targeting a similar audience—(young) Hasidic men—but from two very different
points of view and very different subject matters. Jewish scholar Motta Frank, addresses a gathering celebrating purim kotn (Minor Purim) with an inspirational talk on the power of music (koyekh hanign). It’s a virtuoso and heartfelt performance, steeped in learned references and mystical associative procedures, and with an occasional throw to the wider, secular world. In stark contrast are the innovative (excerpted) talks by Izzy Posen on the subject of science, and physics in particular (including Einstein, of course)—defiantly non-traditional topics for a shier! Posen was raised in the world of Hasidic scholarship, which he left at the age of 20 to pursue secular learning (university degrees in physics and philosophy). He insists that modern scientific study can enrich, and not contradict, the life of the Hasidic communities. Put on your thinking cap for a surprising and fascinating journey around Hasidic-world perspectives on music and science! With new English subtitles created for YNY by Rabbi Sruli Dresdner, Posen and Waletzky
A Q&A for My Hasidic Brethren will take place PM2 (4:15PM-5:30PM) on Wednesday, December 27 at Hebrew Union College (1 W 4th St. in Manhattan). You can also participate online on Zoom. For more information click here. The Q&A will feature Izzy Posen, whose videos are included in the selections, as well as translator Rabbi Sruli Dresdner.