FILMLEAF FESTIVAL COVERAGE THREAD The 2019 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival begins soon. ACTOR ANTON YELCHIN, DEAD IN A TRAGIC FREAK ACCIDENT IN 2016, REMEMBERED IN LOVE, ALYOSHA SFJFF:40,000 attendees, the 39th year, biggest of its kind. It unreels in five Bay Area venues: the grand old Castro Theatre in San Francisco, Cinearts in Palo Alto, the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, and the Landmark Piedmont Theater in Oakland.
Some interesting films of SFJFF 2019: Tel Aviv on Fire (Sameh Zoabi 2018) (Centerpiece Film) It's about a young Palestinian who becomes a writer on a popular Israeli TV dramatic series through a chance meeting with an Israeli soldier. Then different forces involved differ intensely on how the show should end. (July 26)
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (Rob Garver 2019) is a new documentary about Pauline Kael, just about the most exciting and controversial film critic in American history, who wrote for
The New Yorker for many years after a lively earlier career that began in Berkeley, California.
Abe, (Fernando Grostein Andrade 2019) with Mark Margolis of "Breaking Bad" and Brazilian musician Seu Jorge of
City of God) and starring Noah Schnapp of "Stranger Things." Noah plays Abe, a 12-year-old half Israeli-halfe Palestinian kid in Brooklyn who's a precocious cook. He tries to unite the cuisines of the two sides of his background that he unites in his own genes. Problems arise.
Love, Antosha (Garret Price 2019), a biography and remembrance of Anton Yelchin, young Russian Jewish emigrant actor in Hollywood who died at 27 in a freak accident right outside his own house in 2016. Among other things he had played Bobby in
Hearts in Atlantis (2001), Chekov in the "Star Trek" (2009) reboot, Charlie Brewster in the
Fright Night (2011) remake, and Jacob in
Like Crazy (2011). He was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia, USSR, to a Jewish family. Loved by many, he had many years and roles ahead of him.
PAULINE KAEL OF WHAT SHE SAID