Jewish, African film fests come to Cornell Cinema

A scene from "Watermarks," part of Cornell Cinema's Jewish Film Festival that is running this month. Courtesy of Cornell Cinema

In conjunction with the Program of Jewish Studies at Cornell, Temple Beth El, Cornell Hillel and Tikkun v'Or, Cornell Cinema presents a Jewish Film Festival, featuring two stand-out documentaries, "Paper Clips" and "Watermarks," as well as "A Letter to Mother," a classic Yiddish film from Poland, which will be introduced by Yiddish film and theater scholar and ethnomusicologist Rita Ottens.

The series begins with "Paper Clips" (2004), an award-winning documentary about a group of middle school students in the former mining town of Whitwell, Tenn. (pop. 1,660), who embark on the lesson of a lifetime: Through the simplicity of a paper clip they are able to begin to comprehend the enormity of the Holocaust and the horrors of intolerance. The film screens Saturday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 6, at 11 a.m. in Willard Straight Theatre.

"Watermarks" (2004) tells the story of eight Austrian-born Jewish female swimmers, now in their 80s, who were members of the sports club Hakoah Vienna, which was founded in 1909 after a law was passed forbidding Austrian sports clubs to admit Jews, and closed in 1938 after Nazi Germany annexed Austria. The women are reunited in Vienna in this surprisingly uplifting documentary. See it Saturday, March 12, at 7:30 p.m. in Uris Auditorium and Sunday, March 13, at 11 a.m. in Willard Straight Theatre, where coffee and bagels will be served. The Yiddish film "A Letter to Mother" (1939) tells another soul-stirring story about a Jewish mother and her family in pre-World War I Polish Ukraine, and it will be shown Saturday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre with an introduction by Ottens. For more information, call 255-3522 or visit http://cinema.cornell.edu.

African Film Fest

In conjunction with Cornell's Coalition of pan-African Scholars' (COAS) First Annual Africa Week, taking place on campus the week of March 7, Cornell Cinema is hosting The African Traveling Film Festival. It is an extraordinary program that provides access to a neglected part of international film culture and supports African films overlooked by distributors -- films that boldly represent a unique blend of aesthetic experimentation, history and politics. This year's traveling festival highlights emerging women filmmakers, with over half of the selections directed by women, both in and out of Africa. Three feature films, two feature-length documentaries and three short films comprise the festival, including work from Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Ivory Coast.

The festival begins Tuesday, March 8, with "Cosmic Africa," a beautifully shot documentary about an African astronomer who embarks on a quest to reunite his science with the origins of celestial knowledge in Africa. It also screens March 9. "Shorts from Burkina Faso and Rwanda," both directed by women, will be shown March 9 and 10. "Agogo Eewo," an allegory of Nigerian politics, screens March 10 and 12; the March 10 screening will be introduced by Cornell graduate student Akinwumi Adesokan, who studies Nigerian film.

"Madame Brouette," featuring an award-winning soundtrack, tells a loopy saga of passion, corruption and betrayal, African style, and it will screen March 11 and 12. The Pentangle Film Program sponsors a free screening of "Dirt for Dinner," the story of Sam Meffire, the first black East German policeman, March 13.

"Soldiers of the Rock" follows a business student who joins a jaded, well-muscled Johannesburg crew of deep-level miners to experience the world in which his father died. It will be shown March 15 and 16.

Finally, the critically lauded "Moolaadé," part of acclaimed Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene's trilogy on contemporary African women, this one dealing with female circumcision, will be shown March 31 through April 2. Most screenings will take place in Willard Straight Theatre.

The African Film Festival Traveling Series has been organized by the African Film Festival Inc. This series has been made possible by the generous support of the National Endowments for the Arts, United Nations Development Programme, Prudential Financial and the New York State Council on the Arts. At Cornell, the series is co-sponsored with the Africana Studies and Research Center, the Pentangle Film Program, the Department of History of Art, the Institute for African Development, the Coalition of African Students and Scholars, and the Africana Studies Association.

For more information about the films, visit http://cinema.cornell.edu.

For more information about the First Annual Africa Week, visit http://www. rso.cornell.edu/coas. During the week various organizations, scholars, vendors and artists from Africa and the Diaspora will unite to celebrate the diversity and splendor of African peoples, cultures and forms. Complete with an Independence Day dinner and dance, a Global Fair, keynote presentations and fashion shows, Africa Week promises to be a spectacular event for all.