Edmonton Jewish Film Festival celebrates 30 years: May 3-13

By David Sklar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

(AJNews) – This month, the Edmonton Jewish Film Festival (EJFF) will be bringing a variety of entertaining and engaging Jewish stories to the Edmonton community – in film. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, this year’s festival lineup features a selection of films that reflect the “richness, complexity, and humanity of Jewish life around the world.” They include a variety of genres – humour, documentary, political, drama, romance – something for everyone.

From May 3-13 six feature films will be screened at the historic Capitol Theatre at Fort Edmonton Park and 3 films are available online for viewers to enjoy in the comfort of their own homes. Click here to view the EJFF schedule and purchase tickets.

Chai There! a podcast sat down with EJFF coordinator Bar Lavy to discuss some of the details of this year’s festival. Some excerpts of the interview appear below.

This is Bar’s first year in the coordinator position, when asked what brought him to this position he said, “I’ve had a love of film for my whole life. I work in the film industry and have for over 15 years – and I’ve worked with other film festivals before. But definitely since post October 7th, my Jewish identity has been getting strengthened and coming more to the forefront. And this really just seemed like a great opportunity to me to bring together two different parts of my identity – the film world and being a Jewish man – and be fully myself in this role.”

Bar described some of the process in choosing the films for the Festival. He said that a dedicated group of EJFF volunteers viewed over 70 films.

“You know, we have a lot of considerations given the fact that we’re a community-based event around the different opinions that our Jewish community has, which as I’m sure everybody here knows, two Jews, three opinions, multiply that by the 5,000 that we have here in Edmonton.

“My personal opinion is that art should be controversial. Art should poke at things. And that is what inspires the dialogue, which at the end of the day is what the film festival is all about. It’s about bringing the people together and giving them something to talk about. So, whether it ruffles some feathers or it just kind of placates everybody, ideally we’re giving them something that challenges them and forces them to look at things in a different way. And we certainly have that with some of our films this year.

“There are definitely films that kind of look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the political situation in Israel today. And they uncover some hard truths and they make us look at things in a way that I think our common Jewish dialogue doesn’t really talk about.

“One of the films I’m most excited about to show this year is called Soul of the Nation. It’s a documentary made by a Venezuelan-born filmmaker. He got really inspired back in 2023 when the Israeli protests started going on about the Supreme Court changes and all the political situation around Bibi’s corruption trial. He saw a lot of similarities between the modern political situation in Israel and what happened pre-Maduro in Venezuela. The filmmaker wanted to look at that political and societal division.

“The film ends up really giving a very balanced perspective of all the different sides that are kind of competing and combating each other in the Israeli political sphere. And it, you know, not to give too many spoilers here, but the film kind of tries to put out a message of listen to each other, don’t try to fight each other all the time. And we’re all really coming at problems from the same motivations of trying to be safe and trying to live life in a Jewish way. But what are the implications of that? And how have we kind of lost sight of what Jewish life and Jewish values really are? And at the end of the day, what I think people will take away from this message is an ability to look at a more comprehensive, expansive image of what is actually going on in Israel.

“And that’s really what I want to do. I want to have the films that broaden people’s horizons and expand their consciousness and give them new things to think about and things that they might’ve thought about before but now see in a completely different light.”

In the interview Bar highlights some of the other films that he is looking forward to screening both on site and virtually and he discusses some of the extra’s that viewers can look forward to. Click here for Chai There! the podcast for the full interview with EJFF coordinator Bar Lavy.

“Whether you are a longtime supporter of EJFF or discovering the festival for the first time, this year’s program offers something for everyone – thoughtful dramas, engaging documentaries, and moments of humour and warmth,” says Jewish Federation of Edmonton Director of Marketing and Communication Tammy Vineberg. “Most of all, it offers an invitation to come together, celebrate three decades of storytelling, and experience the power of film as a community.”

For tickets, schedules, and film details, visit ejff2026.eventive.org.