Maine Jewish Film Festival Comes Of Age
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On March 20-25, the Maine Jewish Film Festival took center stage for their 13th consecutive year. The theme to this year’s festival was “Coming of Age” – a play on the Jewish age when a child has his or her Bar or Bat Mitzvah.
Hosted at the Nickelodeon Cinemas in Portland, 22 films were screened out of a submitted 150. Though Jewish in nature, the festival includes films for everyone featuring comedies, love stories, thrillers and documentaries. In 2009, over 2,400 people attended the highly acclaimed festival.
Over the 13 years, the film festival has grown in stature and style. In 1998, the festival started in the South Portland Congregation Bet Ha'am with six videos shown on a television set.
Since then over 200 films have been screened to nearly 26,000 people in venues throughout greater Portland and selected sites throughout the state. Portland is the smallest city in the nation to boast an independent, professional Jewish film festival.
The festival's opening night included a reception at Portland's Greenhut Galleries, where attendees ate, drank, and mingled among other movie buffs. This year, one of the most popular films was made by Portland native Gary Robinov. “Canvasman,” a documentary depicting the dual life of a local professional wrestler, teaches to “live a full, wonderful life fueled by passion.” The film was the first feature-length premiere by a local filmmaker in the festival's history.
The mission of the non-profit organization is to enrich, educate, and entertain a diverse community about the Jewish experience. The festival also included several director question and answer forums, an artist reception, a women’s filmmaker forum, and a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender film forum. For those that attended, it was a good time had by all, regardless of belief or background.
The Law Offices of Joe Bornstein is a proud supporter of the Maine Jewish Film Festival for their vision both onscreen and off it. We commend the Maine Jewish Film Festival for a successful 13th year, to which we say:
Mazel Tov!
For more information on the Maine Jewish Film Festival please visit: www.mjff.org.
