The 13th Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (AJFF) kicks off Wednesday, Jan. 30 and will extend 22 days through Feb. 20 as a cinematic exploration of Jewish life, culture and history.
Opening Night will be hosted at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, and the AJFF will also include screenings at Midtown's Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 16, Lefont Sandy Springs, Georgia Theatre Company Merchants Walk, United Artists Tara Cinema 4, and Regal Cinemas North Point Market 8.
HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE)will be featured as the Opening Night event on Wednesday. A preshow reception for sponsors and red carpet VIP ticket buyers will feature food tastings from celebrity chefs, as well as a silent auction of exclusive entertainment packages.
Seeking to use the power of film to both entertain and educate, the AJFF challenges conventional perspectives on complex and challenging issues facing both the Jewish and global communities.
Founded in 2000, the AJFF ranks as the largest film festival in Atlanta, and second largest Jewish film festival in the United States, having attracted an audience of more than 30,000 moviegoers in 2012. This year, the festival will feature an international collection of 71 narrative and documentary films that explore the Jewish experience. Screenings are supplemented by guest appearances with filmmakers, actors, authors, academics and other expert speakers.
Moviegoers can cast their ballots for the Best Narrative and Best Documentary features of the festival, as well as separate balloting for narrative and documentary short films. Winners receive the AJFF Audience Award and are honored with a special encore screening and statuette.
The AJFF is a production of the Atlanta Chapter of American Jewish Committee, an international advocacy organization that works to build bridges of understanding between ethnic, religious and national groups. It is the enduring belief of American Jewish Committee that understanding grows out of shared experiences, and stories are often the best way to foster such experiences. More than just "a night at the movies," the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is contemporary storytelling with the ability to impact the way audiences feel, think and behave after leaving the theater.
The AJFF is the past recipient of prestigious grants from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and National Endowment for the Arts, and generously supported by more than 250 other corporate, foundation, government and individual sponsors.
Atlantic Station will participate in the AJFF Feb. 7-10. Meehan’s Public House will host a Gen-Y Night that will kick off the 18 films and one shorts program to be screened at Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 16 during the weekend.
Here is the schedule of screenings and events at Atlantic Station:
Thurs., Feb. 7
6 p.m.—Gen-Y Night at Meehan’s Public House: $20 for cash bar party followed by 8 p.m. screening of “My Awkward Sexual Adventure.”
6:50 p.m.—Orchestra of Exiles
8 p.m.—My Awkward Sexual Adventure
9 p.m.—What’s in a Name?
Fri., Feb. 8
11:55 a.m.—Undressing Israel: Gay Men in the Promised Land / The Invisible Men
12:25 p.m.—Paris-Manhattan
2:30 p.m.—A.K.A Doc Pomus
2:40 p.m.—All In
Sat., Feb. 9
8 p.m.—God’s Neighbors
8:15 p.m.—The Ballad of the Weeping Spring
Sun., Feb. 10
11:30 a.m.—When Pigs Have Wings
11:40 a.m.—Blinky & Me
1:50 p.m.—The Rabbi’s Cat
2 p.m.—A Bottle in the Gaza Sea
4:30 p.m.—The First Fagin
4:45 p.m.—Shorts Program 2
7 p.m.—Aliyah
8 p.m.—It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl
9:15 p.m.—Room 514
For more information on dates, tickets and opening night, please visit www.ajff.org.
- The AJFF contributed to this story