Westchester Jewish Film Festival 2010

The ninth annual Westchester Jewish Film Festival will be held at the Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) in Pleasantville from April 8 through 29. This year’s festival is the largest ever assembled and once again covers a broad spectrum of films from around the world.

The film selection process starts almost a year before the festival with over 100 films being screened. One of the programmers of the festival is Scarsdale resident, Karen Sloe Goodman, Programming Associate at the JBFC.

“This year’s festival celebrates Jewish culture and history with an extraordinary group of narratives and documentaries that inspire, inform, and entertain, while taking us to places as diverse as Argentina, Czech Republic, Russia, and Tunisia,” Goodman said. “We are thrilled to be presenting ten evenings with special guests during the festival, and we encourage you to visit our website to read more about these wonderful events and the many moving films we have selected.”

A few highlights of the festival are the opening night film, Ahead of Time, on April 8 with foreign correspondent, photojournalist, author, and humanitarian, Ruth Gruber who will be interviewed by Ann Curry, News Anchor and Correspondent of the Today Show and Dateline; Killing Katzner on April 12 with filmmaker Gaylen Ross and JBFC Programming Director Brian Ackerman, and on April 20 with professor and author Deborah Lipstadt, followed by a reception; and Against the Tide on April 15 with David Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee, and Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of The Jewish Week. The American Jewish Committee is the sponsor of the festival.

The complete schedule of films, speakers, special events, and receptions can be viewed on the JBFC website at http://burnsfilmcenter.org/films/film-series/detail/19631.