Take a voyeuristic look

BAILA LAZARUS EDITOR

The Lower Mainland community has been given one last chance to be a fly on the wall at a speed-dating event and to indulge in some pretty entertaining voyeurism.

Filmmaker Ilan Saragosti's latest venture, A Match Made in Seven, sold out at its first showing at the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival so a second screening has been added on the final day of the festival, May 26.

The film follows four speed-dating participants – Lewis, 30, Alona, 34, Cindy, 30, and Yevgeni, 35 – as they go through the whole speed-dating process.
Viewers get to know each of the four individuals through on-camera interviews as they discuss what they are looking for in a partner and why they've chosen to go the speed-dating route.

We follow them as they put on makeup, iron their shirts, spritz perfume and cologne, take a last look in a mirror and head out to the speed-dating café; we listen to the conversations they have with their potential mates; and we find out who they picked and who picked them and whether or not a match was "made in seven."

This is voyeurism at its best. Not only does the viewer get to hear what they are saying on their "first dates" but we also are privy to the post-speed-dating call backs. And we get to hear what people really thought of the participants with whom they shared a table.

The fun gets going early when we meet the parents of Lewis, a self-described car fanatic.

After they talk about how he used to build parking lots on the furniture when he was younger, his mother gives a warning to any potential mates: "She has to realize that cars are his first love and she would be his second," she says, to the delight of the audience.

The film moves along at a quick pace as we are taken from bars to apartments to various Vancouver sites to listen to opinons on whether speed-dating is a viable option for singles.

Besides the views of the four main participants, we also hear from two focus groups – one of men and one of women – and what they think of the whole dating scene in the Lower Mainland. And we get the opinons of Rabbi Avraham Feigelstock of Eitz Chaim, who initiated Jewish speed-dating in Vancouver, and Dr. Robert Bryn, a sociologist from the University of Toronto.

The difference in views that the rabbi and sociologist have around issues of intermarriage bring some food for sombre thought into the movie mix, but ultimately it is the lives of the four individuals that pull the movie along and keep us engaged.

There are several moments in the film that will irk plenty of audience members. At one point, discussing why he prefers to date non-Jewish women, a male participant says that non-Jewish women are less demanding, "not as much on your case" and easier to get along with than Jewish women. Yet another says he knows women who would not leave a shopping mall if their life depended on it.
"When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping," he says disparagingly, echoing the sentiments of a man sitting next to him.

Ultimately, each of the four main characters ends up with matches from the evening's events but most follow-up dates go nowhere.

Adding to the quality of the film, the lonely hearts are very candid when they discuss how they feel about being chosen (or rejected) by people they were matched up with. And they are of split opinions as to whether speed-dating is the way to go.

Catching up with the foursome three months later, we find out that at least one is dating someone who is not Jewish, two others still put some faith in speed-dating or going to a rabbi for help, and the fourth found his soulmate at a party and they are now engaged. You'll have to see the film to see who found his basherte but here's a hint: she's really into drag-racing.

Following the first showing on May 13, the audience moved en-masse to Balthazar's for a post-film party. Saragosti answered questions about making the movie and one of the characters in the film, Yevgeni Altman, was "sold" in a bachelor auction. The $100 paid for a date with the doctor was donated to the Jewish Family Service Agency.

Technically, the film suffers from some lighting problems, when the footage follows people inside dark rooms or on dark streets. And Saragosti seems a bit too attached to close, up-the-nostril shots for no apparent reason. Although they might have looked OK on a small computer monitor while editing, they are incredibly overwhelming and distracting when shown on the big screen.

A Match Made in Seven plays at the Norman Rothstein Theatre, Sunday, May 26, at 5 p.m.

^TOP