The 16th annual Chattanooga Jewish Film Series, hosted by the Jewish Federation in the southeastern Tennessee city, began on Wednesday evening.
Titles featured include the 1941 Holocaust escape drama “Farewell Mr. Haffman,” the musical drama “Love Gets a Room” and the romantic historical drama “March 68.” The romantic comedy “Matchmaking” features a “Romeo and Juliet”-style love story featuring an “Ashkenazi and Sephardic Orthodox twist.”
The festival starts with two patrons-only screenings: the Adolf Eichmann-themed historical drama “June Zero” and the music-centric comedy “Less Than Kosher.”
One film on the schedule is a sci-fi-oriented thriller titled “The Future.”
The descriptor describes the premise: “When Israel’s Minister of Space and Tourism is murdered in the lead-up to the country’s first mission to the moon, Yaffa, a young Arab university student from the occupied West Bank, confesses to the murder.” The film then focuses on a battle of wits between Yaffa and her interviewer, the scientist Nurit.
“It’s the description supplied by the filmmaker and the way the character in the film sees her situation,” Ann Treadwell, program director at the Jewish Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, told JNS.
Treadwell acknowledged that “you should also know that this was a hotly discussed film among members of the Film Series committee.”
