Sephardic Film Fest opens Thursday

The Telegraph

By Ben Harris · February 4, 2010

Moroccan Jewish crime families. An Israeli chef turned sumo wrestler. An Ethiopian Jewish rapper.

For sheer eclecticism, it's hard to imagine a motlier mix than the films at the Sephardic Film Festival, which opens tonight in New York City.

The festival, the only one of its kind in the country, has gotten some good advance press, including items in the Huffington Post, the Jewish Week, and the New York arts website GothamGirl.

Here's George Robinson's take, from the Jewish Week:

How do you preserve a culture and yet move forward in a changing world? That dilemma is at the heart of the Jewish experience, so it comes as no great shock that almost all the films in this year’s New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival center on that theme. The documentaries in this year’s event are particularly sensitive to the nuances of evolving cultures and the results are frequently as dramatic and poignant as you will find in any fiction feature this year.