This year’s Long Beach Jewish Film Festival is kicking off with a free showing of Disney’s “Up” on Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Alpert Jewish Community Center (AJCC), 3801 E. Willow St.
The movie, which the Festival selected for exemplifying “universal Jewish values” according to sponsor Jewish Long Beach, starts at 5:30 p.m., but families of all kinds can arrive at 4 p.m. to enjoy the center’s playground, crafts and pizza-for-purchase.
Official film-selection screenings then begin Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 6 p.m. with a red-carpet premiere — featuring gourmet popcorn, live music, drinks and dessert — before two film showings.
The first is “Matchmaking 2,” a comedy in Hebrew with English subtitles about a matchmaker’s assistant pursuing her own marriage.
“After breaking box-office records with their first film, the characters from ‘Matchmaking’ return with this endearing romantic comedy set against Ashkenazi and Sephardic cultural tensions,” the Festival says.
A screening of dramatic comedy “The Ring” follows at 7 p.m., also in Hebrew with English subtitles.
“Arnon Noble is a religious man with a strong bond to his mother, a Holocaust survivor,” the Festival describes. “When the mother’s health deteriorates, he travels to her old hometown, Budapest, to search for the mythical ring that saved her life in the past.”
The festival continues the following weekend with a cocktail reception on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 6 p.m., followed by a screening of “The Stronghold” at 7 p.m., a film set during the 1973 Yom Kippur War as Israeli soldiers trapped in the Sinai face annihilation while a lieutenant and doctor weigh a risky gambit.
Two movies then round out the festival on Sunday, Nov. 16, beginning with “Yaniv” at 1 p.m., a dramatic comedy (in English) about a teacher trying to raise funds for the school’s drama department by cheating at an underground card game run by the Hasidic community called yaniv — “the blackjack of the Jewish people,” according to the Festival.
A reception afterward at 3 p.m. with cocktails and light refreshments will be followed by the festival’s final movie, “Home,” at 4 p.m. — a crime drama based on a true story (in Hebrew with English subtitles) of a modern electronics shop challenged by a committee enforcing the neighborhood’s religious character.
Sponsor Jewish Long Beach was formed from a combination of three historic groups: the Jewish Federation of Greater Long Beach, the Barbara & Ray Alpert Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Long Beach.
“Together, we make up a dynamic organization focused on enriching the community,” Jewish Long Beach says. “The Long Beach Jewish Film Festival provides a window to the Jewish experience and allows us to explore contemporary and historical themes in many different global settings.”
Tickets for the Long Beach Jewish Film Festival at the AJCC on the Weinberg Jewish Long Beach Campus, 3801 E. Willow St., are $20 for each film or $25 for the premiere, discounted for AJCC members and free for students. A festival pass for $100 (or $86 for AJCC members) grants admission to all six films with priority access and drinks and refreshments at the premiere and receptions. For tickets and information, visit JewishLongBeach.org.