Festival delivers quality films

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

The Vancouver Jewish Film Festival continues this week, with more documentaries and at least two first-rate movies.

Documenting life

Where I Stand: The Hank Greenspun Story is a fascinating documentary about Las Vegas newspaperman Hank Greenspun, described by one interviewee as a man you “wanted to have as a friend and feared as an enemy.” The film is based on Greenspun’s columns, his autobiography and his diary, government documents and interviews with Greenspun (who died from cancer in 1989), family members and a variety of other people who knew him.

Greenspun certainly had chutzpah. He lived an unbelievable life. Moving to Vegas from New York, he started small, with Las Vegas Life. In a less-than-kosher arrangement, mobster Benjamin (“don’t ever call me Bugsy”) Siegel bought a full-page ad in the magazine, while Greenspun wrote articles that were thinly veiled promotions of Siegel’s casino, the Flamingo. Unfortunately for Siegel, the Flamingo went under despite the publicity, and he was murdered by his bosses soon after.

From then on, Greenspun became, well, not squeaky clean by any means, but, in no particular order, a fearless advocate for Israel (smuggling thousands of tons of arms to the country as it battled for survival in 1948, and trying to broker a regional peace deal in the 1980s), a mob-free Vegas (which resulted in an attempt on his life and the arson of his Sun newspaper offices), free speech and other human rights (taking on Sen. Joe McCarthy and his witch-hunt), the “little guy” (fighting the Internal Revenue Service’s treatment of workers who relied on tips to live, such as serving staff and card dealers), development (being instrumental in getting Hugh Heffner to settle in Las Vegas, then invest in numerous casinos and land deals) and equality (having the first black host on television – Greenspun owned a station – and helping end segregation in Vegas’ casinos and hotels).

Director Scott Goldstein includes photos and live footage, and the diary excerpts are read by Anthony Hopkins, which add to the appeal of this documentary, which is named after the column Greenspun had in the newspaper he owned, published and edited, the Las Vegas Sun.

Whereas Where I Stand is about a man defined by his actions, Wrong Side of the Bus explores the guilt of a man who failed to act. Director Rod Freedman follows Sidney Bloch, a professor of psychiatry in Sydney, Australia, and Bloch’s son, Aaron, back to South Africa, where the senior Bloch grew up. They travel to Cape Town, where Sidney Bloch’s 40th medical school reunion is taking place, but they have a more meaningful goal than reconnecting, or meeting, former schoolmates. It’s a very personal and emotional journey, as Aaron supports his father’s attempt to forgive himself for leaving South Africa as soon as he graduated, having done nothing to try and end apartheid.

In the documentary, the Blochs speak to strangers and friends about the racist system, as well as forgiveness. Sidney Bloch attends a Holocaust centre workshop called Facing the Past, and he organizes an informal reconciliation session with his classmates, several of whom show up, but not many. By the end of the film, both he and his son come to a different understanding of what one can and should do in the face of gross injustice, and the process of getting there is quite interesting to witness.

Both Where I Stand and Wrong Side of the Bus take viewers from a point of relative ignorance on a topic to at least a basic level of knowledge about an issue and/or person, and they do so in an entertaining fashion. Searching for Schwartz is the antithesis of these films. Billed as a “journey through Romania in search of their roots and the lost Jews of Romania” by singer Elizabeth Schwartz, her husband, violinist Yale Strom, and their daughter, this documentary lacks focus and depth. Director Radu Gabrea has compiled a dull, amateurish travelogue without substance. Viewers will know no more about Romania, its Jews or their music, or even Schwartz and Strom, after watching this film, and the performance clips – as enjoyable as a few people may find them – don’t make up for that fact.

Captivating fiction

It’s not always easy to tell reality from hallucination in Seven Minutes in Heaven (Sheva Dakot b’Gan Eden), but those moments of temporary confusion make the film that much more powerful.

A terrorist bombing injures Galia – she was clinically dead for seven minutes and badly burned but managed to survive. Her boyfriend, Oren, died in the attack. A year later, Galia is still trying to heal, both physically and mentally and, in an attempt to make sense of her survival, she decides to try and find the paramedic who saved her life. There are several overlapping storylines: flashbacks of her time with Oren, visions of those who died in the bus bombing, her search for the paramedic and a new relationship with a man named Boaz, who first appears after Galia suffers a panic attack in a public market, coming to her aid with a bottle of water and a steady arm.

Some hint to the film’s conclusion comes from the Zaka volunteer who tells Galia: “They say there are souls which rise to heaven, but they’re not ready, they’re not complete. Our Creator gives these souls a chance to observe the life they’ll live if they choose to return.” And ... the ending is very satisfying, indeed.

Another excellent film closes the festival on Nov. 18. Based on the memoirs of Marga Spiegel, Saviors in the Night (Unter Bauern: Retter in Der Nacht) celebrates the value of friendship in a time of war. It starts during the First World War, where Jewish and non-Jewish Germans fought together, then quickly jumps ahead to 1943 Germany, where Jews are being rounded up for imprisonment and murder. In the dark of night, Siegmund Spiegel manages to ask a war buddy to take his wife and daughter into hiding, which Heinrich Aschoff does without hesitation. Unfortunately, Siegmund is too well known (and Semitic-looking) to hide in the open, and must find shelter elsewhere.

While reluctant saviors, Aschoff’s wife and daughter are honorable people who risk their lives for the refugees in their midst. As the story develops, others in the rural area prove to be as brave, and Saviors in the Night really is a moving film.

For festival information, visit vjff.org.

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