Film: Some good advice

Festival director Alesia Weston highlights what to see at the Jerusalem Film Festival.

By HANNAH BROWN
Alesia Weston 521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Alesia Weston 521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
It’s a couple of days before the opening of the 30th Jerusalem Film Festival, which runs from July 4 to13 at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, and festival director Alesia Weston has dozens of details to take care of. But she’s happy that one of them is sitting down with The Jerusalem Post to offer some recommendations of which films to see out of the nearly 200 features, documentaries, shorts and video art that will be shown.
Weston, formerly the associate director of the Sundance Institute’s International Feature Film program, part of the Sundance Labs, has a place in her heart for indie films from around the world.
The first film she mentions is Fruitvale Station, a feature film about a young African-American (Michael B. Jordan, who was in the TV series Parenthood) who plans to change his life in a single day. The film won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Sundance, as well as the top Cannes award. “He gives an amazing performance,” she says. “It’s a very strong film.”
Another Sundance prize winner, Shane Carruth’s impressionistic sci-fi Upstream Color, is a film she loves, but she realizes that it has divided audiences: “People either love it or hate it.”
“Everybody Has a Plan is excellent,” she says. “It’s an Argentinean film about a man who assumes the identity of his twin brother.
And both twins are played by Viggo Mortensen. He grew up in Argentina – people don’t know that.”
David Gordon Green’s Prince Avalanche, a remake of a film from Iceland, is a tale of two odd-couple young men repainting highway stripes in a remote part of Texas, starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch.
David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, is another brooding tale of crime and redemption in Texas.
Another film Weston recommends is Heli, for which Amat Escalante won the Best Director award at Cannes in May in a highly competitive year.
It’s about a young law-abiding factory worker who gets involved in the Mexican cocaine trade, with disastrous results. “It’s a very violent film, and the violence is extremely disturbing,” she cautions.
She notes that all the short-film competitors are considered particularly strong this year. “Even people who don’t usually go to see short films may find that they really enjoy them,” she says.
“The film Inocente, about a migrant worker determined to be an artist, won the Oscar for Best Short Documentary,” she says, adding that it will be screened in the presence of the producer, Yael Melamede.
One of the most topical documentaries in the festival is Valentine Road. Directed by Marta Cunningham, it’s about a teen in the US who shot his classmate because the boy was openly gay. “It’s not an easy film, but it really looks at how this happened and focuses on both of the boys’ families.”
A film that will appeal particularly to English-speaking audiences, she says, is Regina by Dana Groo, a documentary about Regina Jonas, the first properly ordained woman rabbi in the world.
She also thinks that English speakers will want to see Koch, Neil Barsky’s 2012 documentary portrait of the late mayor of New York, a man who was a bundle of contradictions and drew both ire and admiration from nearly all sectors of the once-divided city he helped unite.
“And people will enjoy Sukkah City,” she says. Jason Hutt’s documentary is about author Joshua Foer’s modern exploration of the biblical idea of a succa, a quest in which he enlists the creativity of several architects.
One of the many special programs she recommends is Frenemies: A Love/Hate Story between Critics and Directors on July 7, which will be an open conversation – or a friendly sparring match – between Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan and Israeli director Avi Nesher. (Admission is free, but seats are limited.) “It’s going to be a really lively discussion,” she says.
And on that note, Weston, who has made a huge mark in her year as director of the Jerusalem Film Festival and executive director of the Jerusalem Film Center, heads off to another prefestival meeting.
For details and to order tickets, go to the festival website at www.jff.org.il or call (02) 565-4350.