{"id":26592,"date":"2017-11-03T03:47:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T10:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=26592"},"modified":"2017-11-01T23:47:56","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T06:47:56","slug":"film-festival-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/11\/03\/film-festival-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"Film festival underway \u2013 Ben-Gurion & Pinsky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five years before the end of his life, Israel\u2019s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, gave six hours of interviews to an American who had recently made aliyah and moved near to Ben-Gurion\u2019s Negev kibbutz retirement home in Sde Boker. The 1968 video footage sat undisturbed in the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive in Jerusalem until it was rediscovered, but the audio was missing. Eventually, it too was found \u2013 in the Ben-Gurion archives at Sde Boker. Reunited, the six hours were whittled down by director Yariv Mozer to the one-hour film Ben-Gurion, Epilogue<\/em><\/strong>, which is part of this year\u2019s Vancouver Jewish Film Festival.<\/p>\n

Mere months after the death of his wife, Paula, Ben-Gurion reflected on his personal and public life. His Zionism was born in his Polish childhood, when the larger-than-life visionary Theodor Herzl traveled the Pale of Settlement. \u201cWhen Herzl arrived in our little towns, they said, \u2018Messiah\u2019s come!\u2019 And I believed it,\u201d Ben-Gurion shared.<\/p>\n

Ben-Gurion created a new life at least twice, first making aliyah and bringing to life the Jewish state, then, again, in retirement, when he retreated to the life of a simple kibbutznik in the Negev. His fascination with the desert was sparked in 1954, he said, when he was driving from Eilat back to central Israel and saw a cluster of rudimentary homes by the side of the road. He asked what they were doing there. \u201cWe were fighting in the War of Independence in this place,\u201d the pioneers told him. \u201cI decided to join them, to start building up, in the desert, where there is no soil, no water, no grass, no rain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The human side of the Ben-Gurion couple is on display through interspersed earlier footage of David and Paula together. In an interview with the BBC\u2019s Malcolm Muggeridge, Paula says she was opposed to David\u2019s retirement from politics. \u201cBecause he could not exist without politics,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can exist without politics,\u201d he replies, without looking up.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo you can\u2019t,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s born in you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likewise, when David gives a ponderous explanation of why he no longer defines himself as a Zionist, Paula deadpans, \u201cI married a Zionist and you are not a Zionist?\u201d<\/p>\n

The interviewer draws Ben-Gurion into reflections on his tumultuous time in politics, including the riots that emerged in response to his decision to accept reparation payments, arms and military training from the West German government. But if the viewer is anticipating any earth-shattering revelations, Ben-Gurion is largely glib. Israel needed support and West Germany was offering.<\/p>\n

As the Jewish people have a special role in the world, Ben-Gurion says, so does the Jewish state: to reflect the virtues set out by the Prophets. \u201cTo be just, truthful, helping all those who need help, and love other men like yourself,\u201d the statesman says. \u201cThese are the virtues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think Israel is carrying out that mission?\u201d asks the interviewer.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot yet,\u201d Ben-Gurion replies instantly.<\/p>\n

Ben-Gurion, Epilogue<\/em> screens Nov. 6 and 11.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Pat Johnson<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the American film Pinsky<\/em><\/strong>, the main character, Sophia Pinsky, has a good life: a job, a girlfriend, an apartment. But then her girlfriend leaves without saying goodbye and Sophia\u2019s life unravels. She moves back home, to join her father, grandmother and brother, all still living together (what a miserable prospect), and the cheerless family dynamics are the focus of the movie.<\/p>\n

The family are Russian Jews, and they are all unhappy for various reasons. Sophia works at a Russian grocery store. She feels alone, underappreciated and vulnerable. Nobody understands her. Her grandma tries to set her up with a nice Russian Jewish boy. \u201cYou\u2019re too pretty to be a lesbian,\u201d grandma declares, which drives Sophia bonkers.<\/p>\n

She misses her girlfriend, she is searching for something big and beautiful, but, unfortunately, nothing even remotely resembling her dreams enters her drab life.<\/p>\n

Depression seems to run in the family. Sophia\u2019s brother is an alcoholic. Her father isn\u2019t dealing well with aging. The grandmother, the only colourful character in the movie, is meddlesome and tactless, bossing around everyone in the family.<\/p>\n

Everyone is lonely. Nobody understands one another. But, the truth is: none of them even tries to understand anyone else. Everyone concentrates on their own melancholy, hides inside their own bubbles of misery.<\/p>\n

This movie reminded me of Chekhov\u2019s plays: everyone is whining and nobody does anything positive. Unlike Chekhov though, this is a fragmented series of moments in the lives of different family members over a few days. The entire dysfunctional family comes under the director\u2019s scrutiny, and all are found wanting.<\/p>\n

Pinsky<\/em> screens Nov. 9. The festival runs until Nov. 12. For the full schedule, visit vjff.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Olga Livshin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five years before the end of his life, Israel\u2019s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, gave six hours of interviews to an American who had recently made aliyah and moved near to Ben-Gurion\u2019s Negev kibbutz retirement home in Sde Boker. The 1968 video footage sat undisturbed in the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive in Jerusalem until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[787],"tags":[4138,5618,2280],"class_list":["post-26592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-ben-gurion","tag-pinsky","tag-vancouver-jewish-film-festival"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}