39th Annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
Film, diverse culture, and San Francisco go together quite smoothly indeed, and on this blog we enjoy highlighting some of the many wonderful events that happen in the city that combine all three to maximum effect. Today, we want to take a look at an event coming up that may have slipped underneath your event radar.
Since 1980, a special film festival has been taking place within San Francisco that takes as its focus a somewhat more specific topic. While there are festivals for nature films, festivals for short films, and festivals for world films, there are not many festivals that focus on one certain heritage. (This is part of what makes San Francisco so marvelous: there’s enough room and enthusiasm among the citizens of our great City by the Bay to ensure that we can not only have all the film festivals of normal large cities, but we also have room for extra film festivals.) The Jewish Film Institute in San Francisco recognized early on the power of cinema to act as an ambassador for less understood cultures as well as offer those of certain heritages the chance to see their own stories played out on the big screen. With this in mind, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival was formed.
Now considered the Jewish film festival with the most longevity, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) is also held up as a high water mark for the display of cinematic art that revolves specifically around the life of Jewish people throughout the entire world.
Over the course of the festival’s 18 days, attendees will have the opportunity to see over 65 films that are being presented at 135 different screenings and performances. These cinematic artworks will run the gamut of what can be done on screen: from web series to TV shows to documentaries to animated movies, the SFJFF can hold its head high knowing that there is not a corner of the cinematic universe in which they do not move.
The 39th Annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival will run from July 18th until August 4th. Numerous venues throughout San Rafael, Albany, Oakland, Palo Alto and, of course, San Francisco itself will participate in the event.