Films 4/29 – 5/01/22
by Gary Palmucci | 28th April 2022 | Gary's Corner
A very eclectic mix of films is on this week’s New Plaza Cinema @ West End Theatre schedule.
In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day we’ll be screening on Friday and Sunday afternoons a double bill of reflective documentaries. Black Flowers is the inspiring story of five Israel-based Holocaust survivors who choose art as a vehicle for healing the wounds of their past. Director Tammy Federman — with sponsorship from the American Jewish Committee — will join us for a Q&A after Friday’s show.
Commandment 613 introduces us to Rabbi Kevin Hale, a joyful sofer (Torah scribe) who restores scrolls that were saved from destruction in Czechoslovakia during the Shoah. After Sunday’s screening, Rabbi Hale will invite audience members for a close look at one of those Torahs, from nearby Congregation B’Nai Jeshurun, right here in our theatre. Director Miriam Lewin and BJ congregant George Klas will join Rabbi Hale for a Q&A.
On this May Day Weekend we’ll also feature screenings of a restored edition of The Wobblies, a documentary highlight of the 1979 NY Film Festival, chronicling the fierce, indelible Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) whose early 20th century advocacy marked a formidable high point in American labor history. Acclaimed filmmaker Deborah Shaffer will join us after Saturday’s projection.
And…there’s more… Automat family descendant Paul Hardart will appear for a Q&A after Saturday’s 7:30 pm show. Plus our first screenings of the Oscar- and Cannes-winning Drive My Car, the French word-of-mouth crowd pleaser The Rose Maker, and New Plaza Cinema favorite, the Joseph Losey-Alain Delon classic Monsieur Klein.
Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema