Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival will screen 47 films in seven locations

The Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival doesn’t shy away from difficult topics like Oct. 7. But it also delights with films about Jewish influence — from pop music to past and present-day comic book art.

“In an effort to really get out into the community more, we are offering screenings at seven venues across the Twin Cities,” TCJFF director Katie Kline said. “That’s a first for us.”

Opening night kicks off on Thursday at the Riverview Theater with a screening of “Midas Man,” a biopic about Brian Epstein, the gay Jewish manager of the Beatles. The Shabby Road Quintet, a Beatles cover band, plays tunes live and sings odes to the Beatles, too.

Minnesota playwright Carson Kreitzer’s Broadway play “Lempicka” inspired the documentary “The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & the Art of Survival,” about the groundbreaking bisexual Polish Jewish Art Deco-era artist. It screens at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

The film festival includes 47 films and opens just weeks after the latest ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

More than 68,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. More than 1,900 Israelis have been killed since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Minnesota-born American Israeli filmmaker Joy Sela’s documentary feature “The Other,” filmed from 2017-2024, follows Israeli and Palestinian peace activists who find common ground despite incomprehensible losses.

Sela spent years in Israel and the West Bank working on the film and becoming immersed in the peace activist community.

Sela’s mother is Jewish American, and her father is from Israel. It wasn’t until she started working on the film in her early 30s that she got to know the Palestinian perspective.

The film charts her own journey to understanding.

“It’s not this thing of equating and both sides ‘kumbaya’ peace,” she said. “It’s exploring this deep complexity in an unequal system but with violence and loss and trauma all over the place ― and just looking at that honestly and with care and compassion and love.”

After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, she went back and filmed more, adding 16 new minutes.

“I have a complicated life,” Helou said in the film. “My family is killed in Gaza. At the same time I sit and talk with Jews, with Israelis … that’s because I believe in a future.”

The documentary “Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse” tells the story of the acclaimed graphic novelist.

The film starts with a comic. Art’s dad, Vladek, a Holocaust survivor, asks him to help pack for a trip. As his father packs, his intensity increases: “It’s important to know how to pack! Many times I had to run with only what I can carry!”

Spiegelman recounted this memory, transforming it into a comic.

“You have to use what little space you have to pack,” the comic artist said. “This was the best advice I’ve ever gotten as a cartoonist.”

When Spiegelman got into comics in the 1960s, the form was considered lowbrow.

“A lot of Jews were denied access to other fields, so all the comic superheroes were created by Jewish artists,” co-director Philip Dolin said.

Spiegelman innovated the comics form, another story that the film tells.

“Art had absolutely no thought of making any money whatsoever off of this,” Dolin said. “There was no market.”

The film “Tatami,” directed by Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv and French Iranian actor/director Zar Amir Ebrahimi, grabbed the attention of festival curators.

A slew of Yiddish horror shorts surprised Kline and her staff. Six will screen on Halloween. Viewers get free candy, too.

“There is a rich Jewish tradition of horror with the dybbuk and the golem,” Kline said. “I’m excited to bring something a little bit different.”

When: Oct. 23-Nov. 2

Where: Seven locations across the Twin Cities, depending on the film. Visit tcjff.eventive.org.

Cost: $10-$14 per screening, $180 full festival pass.