What’s playing at the Columbia Jewish Film Festival

Movies often speak more eloquently than lectures, diatribes or debates to share values, cultural differences and viewpoints.

Especially when they’re entertaining and tell a compelling story.

For 17 years, the Columbia Jewish Film Festival has offered such insightful entertainment. This year’s festival is Sunday, Oct. 8, through Sunday, Oct. 29, at the Nickelodeon Theatre on Main Street, but a free teaser film is being shown at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, at the Katie & Irwin Kahn Jewish Community Center.

“My Hero Brother” is about a group of young people with Down syndrome who embark on a demanding trip through the Indian Himalayas with their brothers and sisters. Unresolved familial conflicts arise, but a heartwarming closeness develops as they deal with physical and emotional challenges.

This movie is indicative of the 10 films that will be shown in October.

“The Columbia Jewish Film Festival is dedicated to bringing new, sometimes controversial, always thought-provoking films with Jewish and related themes to a diverse audience,” says Ruth Rast, one of the festival’s organizers. “ Our goal is to maintain a high standard of films while creating a new excitement for all moviegoers in the Midlands.”

Survivorship and perseverance are recurring themes in the 2017 film festival.

This year’s films showcase the extraordinary and innovative ways people survive various situations, from the Holocaust, to coming out to your Orthodox family, to a debilitating disease – even to saving a culturally important recipe or working to salvage dwindling religious congregations in the United States.

Organizers want the festival to be more than a movie series – and they’ve accomplished that by adding speakers, live performances, and thought-provoking conversations.

For example, a reception will follow each film this year. These post-movie wine-and-cheese or coffee-and-dessert receptions will facilitate small group conversations of the film.

University of South Carolina men’s basketball coach Frank Martin will speak on opening night, Sunday, Oct. 8. There will be a deli-style dinner starting at 5:30 p.m. and Martin will speak at 6:30 p.m. before the showing of “On the Map,” described as a basketball version of “Miracle on Ice.” Tickets for opening night are $36 for adults and $18 for youth at www.columbiajewishfilmfestival.com or through the Jewish Community Center, (803) 787-2023.

The other nine movies will be shown at the Nickelodeon.

The festival also includes the third annual South Carolina Student Short Film Competition, expanded this year to include middle school, high school, and college students in South Carolina. The concept of tikkun olam, acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair the world, is the theme for the student films. The winning student films will be screened at a free event at the Nickelodeon on Sunday, Oct. 15.

Patty Tucker, one of the festival’s organizers, is excited about each film that will be shown.

“Choosing which films not to miss, is like asking me which of my sons is my favorite,” she says. But here are five “must-see” festival movies:

‘On the Map’

When: 6 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 8

Where: Katie & Irwin Kahn Jewish Community Center

Through the eyes of six American basketball players, “On the Map” tells the story of the Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 1977 European Basketball Championship, giving Israelis a much-needed morale boost in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1972 Olympic massacre at Munich and the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight from Tel Aviv. The award-winning film presents the broader story of how one team captured the heart of the nation.

‘Joe’s Violin’

When: 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 15

Where: Nickelodeon Theatre

The theme of this year’s student short film competition is “tikkun olam,” acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair the world. In the Academy Award-winning “Joe’s Violin,” a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor’s violin donation changes a young girl’s life.

‘The Last Laugh’

When: 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 15

Where: Nickelodeon Theatre

Comedians and actors join Holocaust survivors to discuss the ethics of humor about the Shoah.

‘Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?’

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17

Where: Nickelodeon Theatre

Winner of the Panorama Award at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival. At age 21, Saar Maoz, a gay Israeli with HIV, expatriates to the U.K. after being expelled from his kibbutz. Set to the soundtrack of the London Gay Men’s Chorus, “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” is a moving story of family, acceptance and cultural identity.

‘The Pickle Recipe’

When: 3 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 29

Where: Nickelodeon Theatre

Desperate for cash, a down-on-his-luck party emcee attempts to steal his grandmother’s top-secret pickle recipe.

Lezlie Patterson, Special to Go Columbia

This story was originally published September 14, 2017 at 9:22 AM with the headline "What’s playing at the Columbia Jewish Film Festival."