Morris and Mollye Fogelman International Jewish Film Festival

Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles

The 2020 Morris and Mollye Fogelman International Jewish Film Festival ends today (Tuesday, February 25th) with a sure-fire crowd pleaser. Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles is a documentary about the origin and impact of Fiddler On The Roof, the 1964 musical about a Jewish community trying to stay together in Tsarist Russia.

The Best Musical Tony winner was one of the most successful Broadway plays of all time and has become a staple of musical theater, and a touchstone for Jewish diaspora communities all over the world. The acclaimed documentary puts the play and the film adaptation in context with the political and social forces that influenced the play’s creation and its rise to take a place in the canon. The show starts at 6:30 at Temple Israel.

Cantor Abbie Strauss will open the program by singing several songs from the play, and at $5 for members and $7 for the community, you don’t have to be a rich man to attend.

International Jewish Film Festival Finale and Do the Right Thing This Week in Theaters

On Wednesday, February 26th, Indie Memphis presents Vitalina Varela, a film by acclaimed Portuguese director Pedro Costa. The screening starts at 7 PM at Malco Ridgeway.

International Jewish Film Festival Finale and Do the Right Thing This Week in Theaters (2)

The Malco Studio on the Square Thursday Throwback selection this week is Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, the 1989 masterpiece that made the director a household name (even among people who never saw the movie) and, among other epochal accomplishments, introduced a guy named Samuel L. Jackson to a wider audience.

International Jewish Film Festival Finale and Do the Right Thing This Week in Theaters (3)

Mayonnaise.

For something so bland and innocuous, mayo can inspire very strong opinions. But would it change your opinion of the condiment to find out that it helped defeat the Nazis?

The story is much more complex than that, of course, as you will find out when see Monsieur Mayonnaise tonight at Malco Ridgeway. It’s the final night of the Morris and Mollye Fogelman International Jewish Film Festival, and they’re teaming up with Indie Memphis to present this story of one artist’s search for the real story of his father’s involvement in the French Resistance during World War II.

Monsieur Mayonnaise – Trailer from Seventh Art Releasing on Vimeo.

This Week At The Cinema: Mayo and The Oscars

Or, if that’s not your speed, there’s always Primal Rage: Bigfoot Reborn at Malco Cordova. Get some of the cryptoid trailer action!

This Week At The Cinema: Mayo and The Oscars (2)

Then on Wednesday at the National Civil Rights Museum, Indie Memphis presents an encore screening of a bloc of 11 short films by Memphis artists created for the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968, including “Arkabutla” by filmmaker Katori Hall.

A still from ‘Arkabutla’ by director Katori Hall.

The program begins at 7:00 PM, and you can get tickets and see the full lineup on the Indie Memphis website. While you’re there, you can also get tickets to the Indie Memphis Red Carpet Oscar party at the Rec Room. The party includes food and a chance to beat Memphis Commercial Appeal film writer John Beifuss at picking Oscar winners. It’s sure to be a good time!