February 10-21, 2016 at the Mizel Arts & Culture Center at the JCC
350 S. Dahlia Street, Denver, CO 80246
Tickets are available at www.maccjcc.org/film or by calling 303.316.6360.

Sponsored by Wagner Wealth Management and the Sturm Family Foundation

Since 1996, the Denver Jewish Film Festival has astounded Colorado audiences with the best in Jewish cinema from around the world. The festival first launched on Tuesday, August 20, 1996, with a showing of the 1995 film, Holy Week, and screened 11 films – seven in Shwayder Theatre and four in the Pluss Theatre. In 2016, the 20^th Denver Jewish Film Festival will offer 28 screenings (including many Colorado premieres) of the best in Jewish cinematography at the luxurious Elaine Wolf Theatre in the Mizel Arts & Culture Center (MACC) at the JCC.

The 20^th Denver Jewish Film Festival will celebrate arts and culture with American, French, and Israeli (14) biographies, comedies, comic dramas, dramas, docudramas and documentaries, including:

• Opening Night ‘s film, East Jerusalem, West Jerusalem features popular Israeli singer David Broza, as he creates an album of peace with Palestinian friends in East Jerusalem;
• The Muses of Issac Bashevis Singer shares the story of the Yiddish literary icon and his intriguing relationships with his female translators;
• Carvalho’s Journey chronicles the Wild West trek by Sephardic-Jewish photographer and artist Solomon Carvalho in 1853–54;
• The Pleasures of Being Out of Step is the biographical account of the incomparable Nat Hentoff, former jazz critic of the Village Voice and civil libertarian activist;
• Dough, starring British actor Jonathan Pryce as an old Jewish baker whose faltering business is inadvertently saved by his young Muslim apprentice;
• Sabena Hijacking, a suspenseful docudrama based on previously undiscovered audio recordings of the former pilot, Captain Reginald Levy;
• Once in a Lifetime, an inspirational story about a group of misfit French teens who are inspired by studying the Holocaust;
• Raise the Roof, where an international team chases an improbable dream to reconstruct a lost wooden synagogue in Poland;
• Brundibar Revisited, an inspiring documentary exploring Han Krasa’s opera performed  more than 50 times between 1943-1944 by Jewish children in the Terezin/Theresienstadt ghetto;
• and many more.

This year’s festival also includes family and teen friendly films (2-10), and films about the Holocaust, LGBT community, people with disabilities, action thrillers with graphic violence, and more. Twenty films have English subtitles (see program for more details.)

The 20^th Denver Jewish Film Festival will feature guest speakers and live appearances from:

• David Bronza, singer-songwriter and star of East Jerusalem, West Jerusalem
• Oren Jacoby, Director, My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes
• Abby Ginsburg, Director/Producer, Soft Vengeance
• Cary & Yari Wolinsky, Director, Raise the Roof
• David L. Lewis, Director, The Pleasures of Being Out of Step

In addition, this year’s Cultural Achievement Award will be presented to the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District for their extraordinary service in shaping the cultural and scientific landscape in Colorado at The Festival’s Grand Opening Ceremony on Wednesday, February 10, 2016. SCFD funding comes from one cent for every $10 purchase in the seven counties of Metro Denver and offers vital support to arts, culture and science organizations in the region – including the MACC!

This 20^th annual celebration of arts and culture through inspiring Jewish and Israeli cinema is open to the public, and features Audience Choice Awards for Best Narrative and Best Documentary.