>> good morning. welcome to mosaic. i am honored to be your host this morning. we are about to start a wonderful conversation about this year's jewish film festival. i would like to introduce you to the executive director of the film institute and the program director. welcome lexie and jay. >> thanks for having us. >> it's wonderful to have you every year. what's new with the film festival? you have a new name, jewish film institute. >> yes. for many years we have been doing much more than our signature annual summer film festival. we do year round programs.

we do online global exhibitions. we really felt that in celebration of our 35th anniversary year, it was time for a little reinvention. the jewish film institute is now the umbrella name for media arts organization that brings the jewish film festival to san francisco. >> 35 years. what are some of the sub themes? i know every year you have a freedom of expression award for director. fill us in on what this year's festival looks like. >> this is actually a really wonderful year for our 35th anniversary. we have some new things. one of our new things is we have added a new local spotlight, and unbelievably the star of the local spotlight is one of the cofounders of the jewish film festival. janice plot kin is coming with her film she produced called plastic man, arts and life of

jerry wash barish, one of the first donors to the film festival. he also makes wonderful art out of plastic. that's something new happening this year. >> beautiful. every year you are armed the bay area -- around the bay area but this year you are at a different location. >> we have a new oakland venue. it's really beautiful. it's the lakeside theater which over looks beautiful lake merit. we have added oakland opening night which will be a great film. peggy guggenheim art addict. it features peggy guggenheim who had a wonderful collection of modern art. she was also very eccentric and forward thinking, a woman of her day. so we'll be doing that on august 7 at the lakeside theater in oakland along with a new party in the reception area

overlooking lake merit. >> in other words you are in pal alto at center arts, in san francisco at the castro. >> yeah, and we're in marin at the rousell. we're at the california theater in berkeley. >> remind us again of the dates. >> we kick off on thursday, july 23. our closing night at the castro is sunday, august 2. then we are in marin, berkeley, and oakland through august 9th august 9th. >> wonderful. we are going to end this particular segment with a clip from one of the films. before we get there, can you talk a little bit about how do you decide the themes? how do you decide what films to present to the public? >> our first criteria is the quality of the work that's coming in each year. through that process, themes start emerging.

this year we have several kind of spot lights. we have a spotlight on judith health, the documentary film maker. we have also a kind of side bar that deals with conflict films which we will talk about a little bit later. some film gets submitted through a box and others we pursue. we go to different festivals and find films. we track film makers through their careers. film makers we have shown, we know what they're working on. we see how they're doing and try to get an early look at work. >> we will bump out of this with a clip from a film. >> this is a really delightful film. it's our opening night film at

the castro on the 23rd of july. it stars jonathan price who many people will probably remember from the film brazil. he is also right now one of the stars of game of thrones. he plays a jewish baker in england whose business is kind of going down. he takes an apprentice into his bakery. the apprentice accidentally spills some substance, marijuana, into the dough. and the business really takes off. >> let's look at a clip of dough dough.

>> there you are. today you bake. hey, hey, don't bash it. firm but gentle. now, press. you've got to learn the feel, touch, smell. good, good, that's it. yeah. >> what do i do at the end? >> scrunch it together.

see? ♪ now baby you should know, i said once, twice, say it nice and low, yeah. listen real close ♪

>> welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about this year's jewish film festival with the jewish film institute's executive director lexi and program director jay. let's continue with the conversation about the sub themes. >> part of our mission is to really inspire dialogue about today's most relevant issues and always relevant in the jewish community is the israeli palestinian conflict. we have a side bar this year called bridges and barriers, israeli and palestinian film makers frame the conflict. and eight films are a part of this side bar. people can see the films throughout the festival. then on sunday the 31st of july -- sorry. i think it is saturday the

first of august. we have a panel discussion featuring three of the film makers. the panel discussion is going to be moderated by janine zachary who is a middle east analyst. people can come with their questions for the film makers. part of this spotlight is a film called sensorred voices. this is a film we saw at sun dance about the veterans of the 1967 war. amos oz recorded audio conversations with some veterans immediately following the war. this film features the older men now listening to their young voices talking about their experiences and reflecting. >> this is the way that we commonly now -- six day war. >> yes. >> what clip are we going to look at? >> this clip is east jerusalem, west jerusalem. this is the closing nights film. it's also part of this

spotlight. it's a great music film about an israeli folk singer who brings israelis and palestinians together, musicians to record together. an american folk singer comes to help with the effort. i think this clip is when he arrives in israel. >> let's take a look at east jerusalem, west jerusalem. >> i had heard that he was talking about this. he has been talking about this for a long time. >> it turns out it is an album called jerusalem, was always fascinated with the israel palestine. >> i have never been to jerusalem. it was a chance go to jerusalem and i wrote jerusalem.

♪ >> you know you are changing the cords. do you know that? >> you know the film festival is so powerful in the way it educates community using an art form to issues that are potent and complex and in some ways use art form as a way to actually let people talk about the depth and breadth of these really important issues and in this case what's happening in the middle east. i know also that you every year have a freedom of expression wade for a director who has contributed from that art form to those kinds of issues in the world. so what's new with this year's freedom of expression award? >> this year, we have many films directed by women, women

in the directors' chair. both are center piece films directed by women. one is abigail disney, a very famous documentary producer who made a film called the armor of light. it's a fantastic film dealing with the issue of gun violence. we have our center piece narrative film called my shortest love affair by karen albu who did closing night film several years ago. >> with center piece, what do you mean in the context of the film? >> kind of midway through the castro run. it kind of highlights two films, a documentary and narrative that we want to call attention to. then freedom of expression which you brought up were very honored this year to give the award to the actress and director lee grant who many people will remember from the film shampoo. she won an academy award. that was with warren batey. she plays one of the women that he gets involved with.

she also was in patent place, in detective story, in the heat of the night, and she was black listed in the '50s. for ten years she didn't work. later in her career, she became one of the first women directors. she directed a film that we're highlighting because it's the 35 35th anniversary of that film as well as our festival. that film is called tell me a riddle. it stars melvin douglas. we're showing that. we're having lee grant here. she's going to sign copies of her memoranda with a "i said yes to everything" and we'll have close to an hour discussion on stage with her. she'll be in conversation with one of the producers of "tell me a riddle." >> how wonderful. when we come back from break, we can talk a little bit about some educational aspects you mention that lee grant was black listed.

it is interesting that douglas' wife at one point ran against at that point in time richard nixon in southern california for congress and that election at that particular time was caught in the contemporary world of black listing. it will be very interesting. join us in a moment when we come back here to mosaic.

>> this semester in my university i had a project to do, designing a synagogue and mosque. i went to the site of the museum and there was a huge banner saying help us build a roof of the synagogue. i just pressed that and from

that moment i knew that i had to come here. hard work is the thing that joins us, makes us feel like kind of a big family actually. i also have this feeling that, you know, in a few years this roof will be in a museum or let's say in 10 or 15 years i will hopefully have kids and bring them along to the machine and show them, that part was made by daddy. that will be kind of awesome for me because i will have the feeling that i created part of history. >> beautiful. we just saw a wonderful film clip from a film called raise the roof. what was that film clip? >> that's one of the most beautifully shot films in the program this year. of course the music is also fabulous. this is kerry and yarly wall insurance key's -- walinsky's

film feature. they actually go to poland and work with over 300 students from all over the world to reconstruct the roof of one of the synagogues that was destroyed during world war ii in poland. all the synagogues were destroyed by the nazis. this was an effort to really preserve history. one of the amazing things about the documentation of this effort is that all of the techniques and tools that they used to rebuild the synagogue roof are the old school techniques and tools that would have been used at the time that they built it. so they create all of their own dyes. they hand paint sections of the roof. it's just a really beautiful film. both directors and the subjects of the film will be here and this is going to be our pal

palo alto opening night film. it will play in san francisco but this will be opening nature night for palo alto on july 26. >> the art form is so powerful and in this case it's a documentary. do you know by chance in this particular case did the project guide the formulation of the documentary itself? or was it the other way around? in other words this is a project that could have happened and never been filmed and been isolated to the experience of those kids, those families in poland? but because somewhere along the line it became a documentary and we have it for the world. it's kind of a chicken and egg question. >> i think the project started first. it was not made for the film. it's the other way around. luckily the film makers had amazing access. it's a very, very inspiring film. it's one of several films related to the holocaust this year. this is the 70th anniversary of the end of world war ii. we have several screenings that

kind of commemorate that. one in particular is a one time only screening. it's an incredible film called german concentration camp's factual survey. this is a film that was supposed to be released in 1946 and shown to the germans to see just what happened, confront them with what happened. but it was shelved right before it was to be released because they felt at the time that the angelou german relationships were more important to kind of put that in the past and not dredge it up. but this is a film that alfred hitchcock actually consulted and edited on. what they did is the war museum put together the film in its original form. the left reel was reconstructed from notes. so it's the first time this

film is being screened. it's a very harrowing film. it's very disturbing and extremely important. >> when will it be screened? >> this will be on sunday, july july 25, right? >> i think so. >> in san francisco. >> in san francisco at the castro. >> there will be a follow up discussion for people who want to talk about it afterwards. >> good. people can get that information in the catalog on the website. >> yeah. >> we will take another quick break and come back here on mosaic to continue our conversation about the jewish film festival.

>> welcome back to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss. we are about to end our conversation with lexi and jay. lexi fill us in as we conclude our conversation with whatever else is rest for us to understand about the film festival this year. >> comedy and lighter side, this is also a part of the festival experience. we've got some great films that feature new york themes. so we have famous nathans about nathans hot dogs. you can take a trip to coney island with us. the film maker lloyd handworker will be here and he is the grandson of nathan. it's a really great window into

a famous family business. then we've got an incredible event for berkeley big night. we are showing a film about new yorker cartoonists. for those people that enter the contest every week with their captions for new york or cartoons, this is not to be missed. it's called very semi serious by leo woolcock. it will be berkeley california. we will have one of the artists with us signing copies of his book. it's very light and wonderful and really features some of the most creative minds of the new yorker cartoon clan. >> that's wonderful. for folks who want to get tickets, they go to the website? >> sfjsf.org or call the box

office at 621-0523 if you want to talk to a live person. >> folks can get individual tickets or numerous tickets, season passes. >> there are a lot of passes. we have the palo alto pass, marin pass, all festival pass, young adult pass which is the best deal. it's called our next wave pass. it's $35. it gets you into all regularly priced screenings if you are 35 and under. we also have a tacoon lamb take action day pass which is a day of social justice films at the castro on friday, july 31. >> wonderful. we are about to end believe it or not. but we are going to end with one last clip. why don't you set us up? >> this is one of our higher profile films. it's called "when i live my life over again." it's showing only once at the castro. director bob edwards will be joining us.

it stars christopher walken. it has a great young actress named amber heard and oliver plot. >> wonderful. >> it's kind of a story between an aging cooner played by christopher walken and his young singing daughter and their kind of father-daughter relationship. >> here we go. let's take a look. >> everybody downstairs! chop, chop. >> you all right? >> gather around. >> what's going on? >> i have news. stomp kibby of jupiter are the master of where i live my life. they think it's going to be big. they got me a gig, special guest for an act called the flaming lips. >> you are opening for the flaming lips? >> that is huge. >> that is ridiculous. >> climbing lips. they're terrific. >> it's called the flaming

lips. >> flaming lips. >> do you know this band at all? >> no. >> let me fill you in. their fans are not your fans. if they're asking you to open up for them they're doing it out of an ironic hipster goo. >> beware of the green eyed monster.

sunday.....i'm your host frank mallicoat we have a special show today.........you will meet raised chef with he >> about morning everyone. welcome to bay sunday. we have a special show today. you will meet a southern chef with good home comfort food and a french spin. we sit down with three newsmakers, a san francisco editor, a top money man and political researcher. out of the gate first is she have jennifer -- chef jennifer booker who i spoke to earlier this week. welcome back to bay sunday. a familiar face in the world of cooking, she is southern raised and educated at the university of tulsa. she's in the bay area all week celebrating best