Tampa Bay Jewish Film Festival gets off to a rainy start
The Tampa Bay Jewish Film Festival was to begin its silver anniversary season Sunday night with a live, “drive-in” screening of the Argentinian comedy Golden Voices.
Sunday’s day-long deluge forced the cancelation of the outdoor experience, and the 25th annual festival began virtually instead. It will continue that way until closing night, April 25, with a drive-in screening of Crescendo, a drama about the creation of an orchestra made up of Israeli and Palestinian youth.
The drive-in experience – complete with food trucks – will take place at the Bryan Glazer Family Jewish Community Center, 522 Howard Ave. in Tampa.
Golden Voices tells the story of a Russian Jewish couple who move to Israel. At home, they made a living dubbing the Russian voices for English movies. Their particular talents are not needed in their new country, however, so they must seek out new forms of voice work. With hilarious results.
It is available virtually today.
Here’s how the virtual thing works: All 25 feature films, plus shorts and others, are available for a 48-hour window once tickets are purchased. Find the schedule, and instructions here.
“Since its inception, the Tampa Bay Jewish Film Festival has showcased hundreds of Jewish films that touch on themes such as life, love, tradition, family, history and currents affairs,” said event co-chair Sara Golding Scher in an introductory video posted on the festival website.
A special committee viewed approximately 75 films to come up with the 25 on this year’s schedule. The multinational movies run the gamut, from light comedies to potent dramas and eye-opening documentaries. Some are in English, while many are subtitled.
Also available are Conversation Cafés, in which viewers are invited to talk about particular films, online, with members of the screening committee. Zoom webinars will allow film fans to speak directly with filmmakers.
