Underground Railroad Film Series
CINEMA AND CONVERSATION
Each month from September through February 2009, at various 'safe houses' in greater King County, the Underground Railroad Film Series partners with community groups, organizations and traditionally marginalized populations to host a screening of films by or about Black people that intersect across cultures, providing opportunities for community engagement and self-reflection.
November brings us two stops on the Underground Railroad with films on November 13 and November 20, 2008. Check them both out!
ASHKENAZ
Documentary - ISRAEL 2008; 79 min
Director- Rachel Leah Jones
Date: Thursday, November 13
Time: 7PM
Location: Langston Hughes
104 17th Ave S.
Admission: Suggested donation of $5
Filmmaker in attendance
Ashkenaz is a fascinating study of Ashkenazi culture and people.
What happened to the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe when they came to settle in the Middle East and what happened to Middle Eastern and North African Jews as a result of the encounter? How did the 'others' of Europe become the Europe of 'the others'? And how are the Palestinians related to all this?
Filmmaker Rachel Leah Jones sets out to reveal the bubbling layers of the Israeli 'melting pot' and there is hardly a stone she leaves unturned: Pale skinned and dark skinned; young and old; Holocaust survivors and Holocaust experts; Moroccan poets pondering their Arab-Jewish identity and Yiddish lovers lamenting the loss of their mama loshen (mother tongue); native dwellers whose existence has been threatened by the new
European comers and intellectual youngsters composing the manifesto of a new movement for the protection of Ashkenazi culture. This cacophony is weaved together with the subversive lyrics of one of Israel's most intriguing Rock ensembles 'HaBiluim' creating a cutting edge investigation that goes under and beyond Israel's 'black and white' politics.
Co presented with the Seattle Jewish Film Festival
