Since its launch in 2006, the Suncoast Credit Union Gasparilla International Film Festival has managed steady growth in an increasingly crowded festival market, largely as a result of its efforts to offer something a little different every year, whether it’s bigger films, bigger stars, more panels, more variety, or something completely new.
This year’s twist falls squarely into the latter category: GIFF has partnered with the 23-year-old Tampa Bay Jewish Film Festival to create one of the biggest filmfests in the state — one with not only a more widely varied slate of more than 150 films, but also an added cultural dimension with its own built-in audience.
Run by the Tampa JCCs and Federation, the Tampa Bay Jewish Film Festival contributes nearly 20 movies to this year’s GIFF slate, from documentaries to dramas, thrillers to romantic comedies, that share Jewish history, heritage, life and culture through the world’s most popular medium. Combining the TBJFF with GIFF seems like an excellent opportunity to open up what may seem to some like a comparatively obscure cinematic niche to a larger audience interested in new stories, while cementing GIFF’s status as a progressive force in offering off-the-beaten-path theatrical experiences.
GIFF hasn’t yet posted its full schedule for this year’s fest, running March 20-25 at Centro Ybor’s AMC Classic theater and other venues around the Bay area, but the TBJFF films have been announced and scheduled. Here are seven interesting options that caught our imagination; we hope Bay area cinephiles avail themselves of this opportunity to expand their own viewing habits. All shows listed are just 10 bucks a pop.
And Then She Arrived
True love knows no race, creed or nationality, as this endearing rom-com by Israeli director Roee Florentin amply demonstrates. A 30-year-old lawyer believes he’s got the perfect life until a chance encounter with a waitress shows him what’s been missing all along. Hebrew with English Subtitles. (March 22, 11 a.m., Carrollwood Villagio Cinemas/March 23, 11 a.m., AMC Classic Palm Harbor 10)
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Most cinephiles know Hedy Lamarr as the glamorous movie star of the '30s and '40s. And thanks to Facebook, many also know she was a frustrated inventor whose breakthroughs in spread spectrum communications presaged much contemporary wireless technology. This biopic seeks to find the connections between the two sides of this misunderstood woman, an Austrian Jew who fled to America to escape her Nazi sympathizer husband and the onset of the Reich. (March 22, 1 p.m., Carrollwood Villagio Cinemas)
Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me
Another bio, this doc by Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Sam Pollard takes a unique look into the life of the iconic showman, who was the first black man to sleep in the White House and converted to Judaism in the mid-’50s. The film boasts never-before-seen images, performance footage and interviews with a bevy of the celebrities its subject worked with and inspired. (March 22, 5 p.m., AMC Classic Centro Ybor 10)
The Cakemaker
A closeted baker distraught by the death of his married lover travels to the late boyfriend’s hometown of Jerusalem, where he takes a job at a bakery run by the boyfriend’s widow. Their secretly shared grief binds them in a compelling meditation on love, loss and the nature of identity. In Hebrew with English subtitles, this film is a Jerusalem Film Festival award-winner. (March 23, 1:30 p.m., AMC Classic Palm Harbor)
Budapest Noir
A hardboiled Hungarian whodunit set at the edge of World War II, Budapest Noir follows a detective investigating the murder of a young Jewish woman. Does his pursuit lead him to uncover a conspiracy that reaches to the highest circles of power in an unstable region teetering on the brink of bloodshed? What do you think? Judging by the trailer, this one gets the seedy-underbelly vibe just right. Hungarian with English subtitles. (March 23, 4 p.m., AMC Classic Palm Harbor/5 p.m., AMC Classic Centro Ybor 10)
The Testament
A researcher at Jerusalem’s Holocaust Museum is investigating a cover-up involving an isolated massacre of Jews during World War II, and discovers that he may be unraveling a deception that involves both members of his family, and his own sense of self. This one took the prize for Best Film at the Haifa International Film Festival. Multiple languages with subtitles. (March 24, 7:30 p.m., AMC Classic Centro Ybor 10)
The People vs. Fritz Bauer
Based on the true story of the now-revered titular prosecutor, this dramatic film tells the story of the lawyer who refused to let a booming post-WWII Germany forget its terrible and tragic recent history in his quest to bring Holocaust architect Adolph Eichmann to justice. Shown in partnership with the Florida Holocaust Museum. Multiple languages with subtitles. (March 25, 6 p.m., Glazer Family JCC)
This article appears in Mar 1-8, 2018.