Six films from around the world about people with disabilities will comprise the first REELAbilitiesBoston Film Festival being presented Feb. 2-8 by The Boston Jewish Film Festival. Boston becomes only the fifth city to stage a REELAbilities festival.
The films are My Spectacular Theater, War Eagle, Arkansas, Shooting Beauty, Snow Cake, Warrior Champions and Anita.
Tickets are $10 general admission, $9 for students, seniors, BJFF, Coolidge Corner Theatre, MFA and WGBH members and $6 for groups of 10 people or more for the same movie. Those with disabilities can attend for free. Please contact us in advance for more information at info@bjff.org.
REELAbilitiesBOSTON is being presented in partnership with J.E. & Z.B. Butler Foundation, Ruderman Family Foundation, the Cambridge Trust Co., the Saul Schottenstein Foundation B, the Nancy Lurie Marks Foundation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
The first ever REELAbilitiesBOSTON Film Festival opens with the Chinese film, My Spectacular Theater.
A hawker of pirated DVDs finds himself on the run with police giving chase in this Chinese feature. Chen Yu escapes by entering a movie theatre. Only it’s not your typical movie theatre because as he looks around, he notices all the patrons are blind. This movie is the story of love, acceptance and heartbreak.
My Spectacular Theater will be at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 2 at the Perkins School for the Blind, 120 minutes, in Mandarin, English subtitles. Audio description.
The film will be screened with Seeing Through the Lens, a short film with a big heart produced by Kevin Bright and Jeff Migliozzi. The film was shot by students from the Perkins School.
Enoch Cass is the star pitcher for his high school team. Only he stutters and isn’t too swift on the social scene. Enter his best friend, Wheels, confined to a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy and sharp in giving Cass advice. Can Cass leave small town, Ark. behind for a college baseball scholarship? The movie stars Brian Dennehy, Mare Winningham and Mary Kay Place.
War Eagle, Arkansas will be at 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 4 at the Arlington Capitol Theatre. 90 minutes. Close captioned.
Photographer Courtney Bent works with cerebral palsy adults at a Watertown community center. She manages to rig up cameras for the people to use to express themselves. Bent thinks the work is so good it could be gallery ready, but will any gallery be up for showing such works?
Shooting Beauty will be at 12 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 5 at the Museum of Fine Arts. 62 minutes. Close captioned.
A mysteries Alan Rickman travels the backroads of Canada where he meets a free-spirited hitchhiker looking to visit her mother. A fatal car accident results in Rickman (of Harry Potter movie fame) visiting the mother (Signourney Weaver), extending his condolences and lending a helping hand. But this is not your typical mom because Weaver is autistic. Directed by Marc Evans, 112 minutes.
Snow Cake screens at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 5 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Alfond Auditorium.
Four Iraqi War veterans lose their limbs in the battle, but don’t give up the fight. In this documentary, the vets strive to make the U.S. Paralympic team for the Beijing Games. Will they make the squad, and if they do, are they going to bring home the gold? 90 minutes, close captioned.
Warrior Champions screens at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 7 at West Newton Cinema.
Anita, with a great debut by Alejandra Manzo, is about a young Jewish teen with Down syndrome in Buenos Aires. She is cared for by her mother (Oscar nominee Norma Aleandro) until “mommy” is missing in a bomb blast at the Jewish community center. The youth wanders the streets, looking for her mother, coming across an array of citizens, who are affected by her. Directed by Marcos Carnevale, 104 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Anita is the Closing Night film, screening at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 8 at the West Newton Cinema.
Party on for The Oscars
The Oscars are coming, and you can party with The Boston Jewish Film Festival that very night in the hottest living room in town.
Come cheer for your favorite nominees, while you eat, drink and hang at The Living Room, 101 Atlantic Ave., Boston starting at 6:30 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 26.
Tickets are $50 per person, which includes one drink, hors d’ouevres, games, and a lot of fun.
The event is sponsored by The Festival.
Festival receives NEA
grant
The Boston Jewish Film Festival will receive a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, it was announced today. This marked the first time that The Festival received a grant from the organization.
“We are very excited to receive the support from the NEA,” said Jaymie Saks, Managing Director of The Boston Jewish Film Festival. “It’s gratifying to be recognized nationally for our efforts in bringing Jewish film and culture to the Greater Boston community.”
“The grant will make a difference and enable us to achieve a greater impact in the community,” Saks said. “We will use the money for increased outreach, a goal that is very important to us.” The funds are to be used in 2012.
The Festival, which just concluded its 23rd Festival earlier this week, is looking to extend its audience to various religious, cultural and social organizations and groups in the Greater Boston area. A total of 1,686 applications were submitted for funding. The grant was one of 863 from the NEA to organizations and individual writers around the U.S. with awards totaling more than $22.5 million. The Festival’s grant came through the NEA Art Works program.
The Festival was one of only three Jewish film festivals in the U.S. to receive the honor and one of two organizations in New England to receive funding in the Media Arts category.
NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman said the projects “demonstrate the imaginative and innovative capacities of artists and arts organizations to enhance the quality of life in their communities.”
The films are My Spectacular Theater, War Eagle, Arkansas, Shooting Beauty, Snow Cake, Warrior Champions and Anita.
