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Date: 4/17/2023
SPRINGFIELD — Presented by the Springfield Jewish Community Center, the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival is celebrating its 17th year of film programming. The festival includes an eclectic mix of 12 films from all genres and for all generations, including comedies, dramas, documentaries and a silent film with live musical accompaniment.
The screenings began on April 19 with a showing of “Four Winters: A Story of Jewish Partisan Resistance in WWII” from Northampton-based director Julia Mintz. Another pre-festival event, the showing of the award-winning Israeli dramedy “Karaoke” in partnership with the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival, occurs on April 26 before the festival runs from April 30 to May 7.
Many of the films also include insightful question-and-answer sessions featuring filmmakers, writers and expert opinions on various topics of cultural and historical significance.
The Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival was created in 2004 by Howard Polonsky, Dee DeGeiso and Michael Paysnick. This year carries extra significance for the film showcase as it returns to in-person activities following fully-remote screenings in 2021 and 2022.
Festival Director Sheri Alpert is working alongside Jewish Community Center administrators to bring the festival back to its roots. Alpert, who enters her first year as the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival’s director, said she spent countless hours curating the content for the festival. She watched around 50 films to help establish a field of impactful titles to showcase to the public.
“That is a fun part of the whole process. It takes a lot of research to get to the point where we can end up with the number of films we have ... It is a lot of movie watching and then trying to find out what fits with the community,” said Alpert.
Alpert said community involvement was also crucial to the selection process as Jewish Community Center staffers provided their viewpoint on the field of films.
For Alpert, she sought to include works that highlighted engaging narratives during her preparation for the festival.
“Compelling stories really stood out to me. Many of the stories are either plausible or so unique that they scream out for attention,” said Alpert.
One of the marquee titles includes the festival’s closing night film, “Prophets of Change.” Alpert said the film has only been shown in “one or two cities” before its Western Massachusetts premier.
“It is a documentary about Israeli and Palestinian musicians who have gotten together to form music groups and spread a message of hope and getting along. It is an optimistic message,” said Alpert.
Most of the titles from the festival debuted within the last 18 months, with some, like the documentary “Vishniac,” making their New England premiere.
The Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival takes place at a variety of venues, including the Amherst Cinema, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Greenfield’s Garden Cinema, the Northampton Center for Arts, the Academy of Music in Northampton and the Jewish Community Center’s headquarters in Springfield.
“It is as far north as Greenfield and as far south as Springfield. We try to represent as many areas of Western Massachusetts as possible,” said Alpert.
Alpert hopes the selection of festival titles leaves a lasting impact on attendees. She said the communal setting of the film showcase provides an excellent environment for viewers to become engrossed in films.
“There is a profound difference in how you watch a film ... It is a very different experience with a film when you see it with an audience in a shared experience,” said Alpert.
Readers can learn more about the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival and purchase tickets at pvjff.org.