The 4th Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, which runs April 23-30, will kick off with a screening of Joshua Sinclair's Jump, starring Ben Silverstone (of the coming-of-age gay drama Get Real) and Patrick Swayze.
Jump will screen on Thursday, April 23, at 8:00 pm at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. Based on a real story, the film (co-written by Sinclair and Ryan James) follows the biased murder trial of the young Jew and future celebrity portrait photographer Philippe Halsman (Silverstone), who was accused of murdering his father in late 1920s Austria. Swayze plays the young man's Jewish attorney.
Also in the Jump cast: Martine McCutcheon, and veterans Stefanie Powers, Richard Johnson, and Sybil Danning.
Among the LA Jewish film festival's other scheduled entries are:
- Eran Riklis' David di Donatello nominee The Lemon Tree (above), the story of a Palestinian woman's fight to preserve her lemon grove whose survival has been threatened by a pesky Israeli defense minister, with Hiam Abbass, Ali Suliman (of Paradise Now), and Doron Tavory;
- Cass Warner's The Brothers Warner (including Harry Warner, the filmmaker's grandfather), about the founders of a certain Hollywood studio whose name now escapes me, and featuring the likes of Debbie Reynolds, Tab Hunter, and Angie Dickinson;
- Jim Sherman's romantic comedy Beau Jest, starring Lainie Kazan as a matchmaking Jewish mama;
- and Cathy Randall's comedy Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger, starring Toni Collette and Keisha Castle-Hughes in this tale about the travails of a nerdy Australian teen.
Most of the screenings will take place at the Laemmle's Music Hall in Beverly Hills and at the Laemmle's Town Center in Encino.
I'd suggest you contact the festival directly.
Their website is listed on the above article.
I would like to know who to contact about submitting a film for next years Jewish Film Festival. Thank you.