FILM SERIES : Judaism Festival Takes Personal Interest, Not Political View

Defining something as complex as what it means to be Jewish may seem, at the best, daunting.

But here in Orange County, a Jewish group believes film can help sharpen the focus. For the fifth year in a row, University Synagogue in Irvine is offering a three-movie Jewish Film Festival, starting Sunday morning with the little-known “The Distance,” released last year in Israel.

On March 26, “The Front,” the 1976 American movie starring Woody Allen, will screen. The program will end April 30 with “Everything Is Fine,” another obscure film, made in 1992 in the Ukraine. The series will be held at the AMC MainPlace Six theater in Santa Ana.

Harriet Botwinick, who organized the series with Myra Stillman, said all three pictures reflect the “Jewish experience.”

“We want to inform Orange County audiences (about) Jewish life that is outside of the Holocaust,” she explained. “We want to show films that have connections to Judaism or Israel but that are personal . . . films that show how people have developed (and become) what they are.”

Despite the fact that University Synagogue, one of Orange County’s leading synagogues, has a religious orientation, Botwinick stressed that the series avoids “being preachy” or chooses pictures that promote Judaism. Also, she said, the program tries to avoid advancing the Israeli cause over any other.

“We don’t have a political agenda. In fact, we would do a film that is anti-Israel as long as we also have a film that tells the other side,” she said, noting that any fictional or documentary movies by Arab directors would be considered if offered to her.

Unfortunately, Botwinick said, finding those types of films has been difficult. Movies made in the Middle East, whether in Israel or Arab countries, don’t often make it to America, but Botwinick has found a good source in the Jewish Film Festival, presented yearly at UC Berkeley. Besides Israeli directors, she learned of other international Jewish filmmakers through the program.

That festival is where she saw “Everything Is Fine” in November. She described the Juri Chaschewatski-directed film as telling the story of “Soviet Jewry and the dilemmas they face there. It’s an interesting film that provides many elements,” using interviews, home video clips, Yiddish music and dramatic re-enactments.

As for “The Distance,” directed by Dan Wolman, Botwinick pointed out that it won the top prize in the 1994 Jerusalem Film Festival.

It centers on an Israeli architect living in the United States who must decide whether to return to Israel when his father becomes ill.

Bookended by those is the seriocomic “The Front,” in which Allen plays a cafe cashier who helps out blacklisted writers during the Communism-crazed ‘50s by posing as the guy who penned their scripts.

The Martin Ritt-directed comedy may not be strictly about Jews, Botwinick said, but it fits the series because “many Jews were caught up in that problem . . . besides, it’s very entertaining.”

After “The Distance” this Sunday, Michael Berlin--a screenwriter with film and TV credits, including “The Commish” and “Miami Vice”--will speak about his experiences in the industry.

* What: The University Synagogue’s Jewish Film Festival, beginning with Dan Wolman’s “The Distance.”

* When: Sunday, Feb. 26, at 9:30 a.m. A continental breakfast (included with the ticket) will be offered at 9 a.m.

* Where: The AMC MainPlace Six theater in the MainPlace/Santa Ana mall.

* Whereabouts: Take the Garden Grove (22) Freeway to Main Street and head south.

* Wherewithal: $20 for each movie, $45 for the series.

* Where to call: (714) 553-3535.