Jewish Film Festival in 2 local venues

SYLVANIA – Within its arts scene, one of the Toledo-area’s underrated gems is its creation and curation of filmmaking. 

Several independent features have been shot here over the years, such as the 2022 Tom Hanks movie called A Man Called Otto. Examples of curation includes the Maumee Indoor Theater hosting special screenings, like its ‘Cult Classics’ lineup or the premiere of the low-budget feature Burt in mid–June. And the Valentine Theater runs its Silver Screen Classics in the fall, of which I try to make at least one screening. 

The city has also hosted its own film festivals in the past, as well. The Glass City Film Festival took place in 2017 and 2018, for example. Between organization and funding, it takes a hell of a lot of work to put on such a show – the Black Swamp Festival cost over $100,000 to screen and promote its slate of international films.

This is why I was sincerely surprised to hear that Toledo had a Jewish Film Festival. Its first film, Bad Shabbos, was shown yesterday, June 30. The other four films will run every Monday until July 28. The festival will feature one film each screening, portraying the modern Jewish diaspora.  

“We want to give light to films that will relate to and reverberate within the local Jewish community,” said Abby Hoicowitz. Hoicowitz serves as the marketing and communications manager of the Jewish Federation and Foundation of Greater Toledo. Along with the Stu and Jojo Goldberg Advised Fund at the Toledo Jewish Community, the Jewish Federation is one of the major funders for the film festival, which is promoting it on their website at JewishToledo.org.

Southview High School will host four of the five screenings, with closing night taking place at the Lourdes University Franciscan Center. All screenings are at 7 p.m. and are $10 per screening. Coffee bar, popcorn and candy available.

“Both locations have given us great accommodation, not only for the screeners but the families who attend,” said Hoicowitz, “We’ve had a great turnout and even better response from the community with the iterations of the festival we’ve had in the past.”

The festival’s highlights featured in this year’s lineup are Everything’s Kosher, from Adam Fried, and Forked (a Culinary Disaster Film), via musician Liz Lachman and chef Susan Feniger. 

The former portrays a Chicago father who seeks to fulfill a promise to his daughter. In the midst of his journey, he unturns and confronts the ugly history that has beset his own bloodline. What begins as a search for connection between Adam and his daughter turns into a confrontation with the past, even as Adam attempts to cut out a way of living for himself. 

The latter film is, as promoted, a “verite-style documentary” of Feniger’s attempt to bring her passion of global street food – from Vietnam to LA – under a single cover of a Los Angeles restaurant. 

Gauging from its main promotional tag of “It’s about not if one fails … but How,” the film should be an open-up discussion in the monumental steps which lay before any passion project comes to life, let alone go through being selected as worthy to show. 

“We have a select panel from the Toledo Jewish Community that view and select the films,” Hoicowitz said, “We receive a lot of press releases from films which don’t have the accessibility to a narrow release, even on our current streaming services,” she said.

Paired with the highlighted screenings will be a Q&A featuring the filmmakers: Fried on July 21, then Feniger and Lachman on July 28 – the only screening taking place at Lourdes Franciscan.

The Films: