{"id":312170,"date":"2026-10-22T20:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T20:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/312170\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T20:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T20:30:23","slug":"philadelphia-jewish-film-media-announces-festival-screenings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/312170\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Jewish Film + Media Announces Festival Screenings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia Jewish Film + Media has revealed the \u201cBig Nights\u201d for its 46th annual Philadelphia Jewish Film + Media Festival.<\/p>\n

The event runs from Nov. 12-21, and the \u201cBig Nights\u201d are opening night, the first Saturday evening \u2014 Nov. 14 \u2014 and closing night. Those are the evenings on which the biggest screenings will take place.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cOnce Upon My Mother\u201d (Photo credit: Marie-Camille Orlando \u00a9 2024 Gaumont \u2013 Eg\u00e9rie Productions \u2013 9492-2663 Qu\u00e9bec Inc. (filiale de Christal Films Productions Inc.) \u2013 Amazon MGM Studios)<\/p>\n

Those screenings are \u201cOnce Upon My Mother\u201d on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, \u201cBookends\u201d on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. at the Philadelphia Clef Club and \u201cDust Bowls and Jewish Souls: Another Side of Woody Guthrie\u201d on Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. at the Weitzman.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Upon My Mother\u201d explores a mother\u2019s struggle to help her son walk after he\u2019s born with a clubfoot. \u201cBookends\u201d is the story of a man who is forced to leave the city after a bad breakup and live with his grandparents as his grandfather who survived the Holocaust begins to suffer from cognitive decline. \u201cDust Bowls and Jewish Souls\u201d examines an unexplored chapter in the journey of folk music legend Woody Guthrie: He was influenced, both culturally and musically, by his mother-in-law, Aliza Greenblatt, a Yiddish poet and songwriter.<\/p>\n

\u201cPJFM\u2019s 46th annual festival will offer the best of Jewish international films and digital media content from across the globe, from Philadelphia movie premieres to repertory cinema, children\u2019s events, and collaborative events with local organizations,\u201d according to a news release about the event.<\/p>\n

All three films address the theme of \u201cdiverse generational influences,\u201d according to the release.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Upon My Mother\u201d is about \u201ca mother not giving up when everyone else around her is telling her there\u2019s no hope,\u201d said Beth Becker, the program manager for PJFM. According to the release, the film explores \u201cthe greatest love of all: a mother\u2019s love for her child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cBookends\u201d (Photo credit: Marie-Camille Orlando \u00a9 2024 Gaumont \u2013 Eg\u00e9rie Productions \u2013 9492-2663 Qu\u00e9bec Inc. (filiale de Christal Films Productions Inc.) \u2013 Amazon MGM Studios)<\/p>\n

In \u201cBookends,\u201d the main character, Nate, wants nothing more than to leave the retirement community where his grandparents live. He is also getting tired of their attempts to \u201cimprove him,\u201d according to the release.<\/p>\n

But when his grandfather starts to show signs of decline and his grandmother refuses to acknowledge it, he feels the weight of generational responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis man\u2019s life blows up, and he goes and lives with his grandparents. What he learns from them and what they learn from him is, I think, inspirational to the rest of us,\u201d Becker said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Woody Guthrie performs before a group of Jews. (Courtesy of Woody Guthrie Publications)<\/p>\n

\u201cDust Bowls and Jewish Souls\u201d is less about generational responsibility than connection. Guthrie, who was not Jewish but married a Jewish woman, took great interest in Jewish culture through his mother-in-law.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe learned so much about Judaism and the Jewish people. He wrote a whole Chanukah album,\u201d Becker said.<\/p>\n

Becker said she did not plan this theme in advance, rather, it came through as she watched film submissions and sent the best pictures to the screening committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re at a moment in the Jewish community where we\u2019re thinking about who we are in this society and where we\u2019ve been and where we\u2019re going. There\u2019s such a discussion right now between the generations. That is reflected in the films we\u2019re seeing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This will be the program\u2019s first film festival since it officially became part of the Weitzman in March.<\/p>\n

At the same time, PJFM has been operating out of the museum since 2022. The Weitzman has also been a sponsor of \u201cevery PJFM festival and series\u201d during that time, according to a news release about their unification.<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s mission is to celebrate Jewish culture and expression through film, digital media and other platforms. Digital media has become more of an emphasis in recent years. The Unapologetically Jewish competition launched in 2023.<\/p>\n

The Weitzman has also begun placing more of an emphasis on culture and digital media in recent years. The museum\u2019s press release about the unification emphasizes recent live podcast events featuring \u201cBeing Jewish,\u201d \u201cChutzpod\u201d and \u201cUnorthodox.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe formal integration ensures long-term sustainability and continued growth for Jewish film and media programming within the museum\u2019s cultural and educational mission,\u201d the release explains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Jewish Film + Media has revealed the \u201cBig Nights\u201d for its 46th annual Philadelphia Jewish Film +…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[127617,127618,127619,127620,69,71,127621,70,127622,127623,19318,127624],"class_list":["post-312170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-bookends","tag-dust-bowls-and-jewish-souls","tag-once-upon-my-mother","tag-beth-becker","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-jewish-film-media-festival","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-pjfm","tag-weitzman","tag-weitzman-national-museum-of-american-jewish-history","tag-woody-guthrie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}