By Kevin Corvo
NEED TO CHECK THIS OUT
The Cleveland Jewish News and its sister magazine, Canvas, are media partners of the CIFF. Readers can use the code CJN or CANVAS for a $1 discount per ticket.
More than 300 short-length and feature films are to be showcased during the 49th annual Cleveland International Film Festival from March 27 to April 5 at Playhouse Square at 1501 Euclid Ave. in downtown Cleveland.
While it is logistically impossible to see all of them, the annual event provides the opportunity each year for film connoisseurs and casual movie lovers alike to see many of the best productions that the independent-filmmaking genre has to offer, according to Mallory Martin, artistic director of the Cleveland International Film Festival.
Founded in 1977, the Cleveland International Film Festival stands as one of the longest-running and largest film festivals in the U.S. and is dedicated to showcasing the power of the film and arts to educate, entertain, and foster an inclusive human experience, according to the CIFF’s website.
This year’s Cleveland International Film Festival features 198 short films, those less than 45 minutes in length, and 104 feature-length films, those 45 minutes or longer, Martin said.
Collectively, the films represent the work of actors, directors and producers from 60 countries around the globe.
None of the films have been theatrically released and almost all are making a debut screening in Cleveland with the exception of a handful of titles that might have been screened at a similar film festival for independent films within the past year, Martin said.
“These are independent filmmakers who are looking for distribution, but don’t always achieve it … (but the film festival) can be a launching pad to a wider audience,” she said.
Through the decades, the films shown at the Cleveland International Film Festival have found wider audiences through limited, regional distribution in theaters and through video-on-demand agreements in which the films are made available through one or more movie streaming services, Martin said.
The Cleveland International Film Festival includes a selection of 10 films centered on Jewish history and culture.
There is a selection of films made in Israel, centered on Jewish culture, or otherwise related shown each year at the festival, Martin said.
This year’s films in Jewish cinema include “A Photographic Memory,” “Bad Shabbos,” “Come Closer,” “Down to the Felt,” “Familiar Touch,” “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” “Never Alone,” “Sabbath Queen,” “The Ride Ahead” and “The Stamp Thief.”
“The Stamp Thief” is directed by Cleveland native Dan Sturman, who will attend the Cleveland International Film Festival for a Q&A about his film which tells a story of the modern-day search to find stamp collections stolen by a single Nazi soldier from multiple prisoners during the Holocaust and buried in a village in Poland.
A synopsis and further details about all 10 movies, as well as information about other individual genres included in the festival’s film lineup can be viewed at shorturl.at/8xpJj.
Clevelander Chayla Hope’s “All Over Now,” directed by Jessy Leigh, will be shown at 7:45 p.m. April 1 at Upper Allen theater. Hope, who is married to Teddy Eisenberg, son of Rabbi Matthew Eisenberg of Temple Israel Ner Tamid in Mayfield Heights. She converted to Judaism in 2017.
Tickets can be purchased at clevelandfilm.org.
Kevin Corvo is a freelance journalist.
