Just like writer conferences and book festivals, film festivals have bloomed like dandelions on a Monticello lawn.
Almost anyone can create a film festival. All you need is a website, a theme, some time, a theatre venue and to get on Vimeo or FilmFreeway, some jurors, and some prizes—certificates with laurels will do. Every decent-sized town has at least one. There are film festivals for every conceivable group of people, i.e. students, women, gays and Jews.
So I typed “Jewish” in the info box in Filmfreeway and guess how many festivals appeared—21. I guess there are a lot of Jewish kids who want to emulate Spielberg and their parents who belong to the “J” who want their kids to win a small golden statue of a skinny-naked man. Jews always seemed to have an affinity with Hollywood.
Here are four categories of Jewish film festivals that I found: 1. Cultural, 2. Israeli,(Near Nazareth NN Festival and the Spirit Film Festival) 3. Holocaust (Great title here, Short Film, Large Subject: Holocaust Film Competition and 4. Sephardic (The New York Sephardic Film festival).
To make my point about weeds, here are some cities with Jewish film festivals: New York, Miami, Palm Beach, Warsaw, Boston, San Diego, Los Angeles, Hartford, Dallas, Dayton, Tampa, Atlanta, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Toronto, Seattle, Sacramento, Washington and Pittsburg.
As I look at the lawn covered in bright yellow flowers, I realize the importance of weeds and multiple film festivals, They are a source of beauty that entertains our eyes and gives joy to the human spirit.
