REEL Cinema to Premiere at JCC MetroWest

West Orange and environs is home to many film buffs, filmmakers and film educators. Thirty-one cinemaphiles already have registered for the inaugural season of the JCC MetroWest's REEL Film Series, 10 Friday morning viewings of feature, short and documentary films with facilitator-led discussions. All shows are from 10 a.m. to noon at the JCC's Leon & Toby Cooperman JCC Ross Family Campus, 760 Northfield Ave., West Orange, Room M-6.

Series director, Michele Dreiblatt, talked about the event. "We have a fantastic selection of international films," Dreiblatt said. "And, some extraordinary facilitators to lead the post film discussions."

The series is an off shoot of the highly regarded New Jersey Jewish Film Festival, now in its eleventh year. Dreiblatt produced that multi week festival for the JCC of Central New Jersey from 2005 to earlier this year and will bring it to West Orange come March and April 2011.

"The New Jersey Jewish Film Festival" presents exclusively feature films and is more oriented towards viewings. "The REEL Film series is a response to demand for a related series with more discussion and analysis of the films," Dreiblatt said.

Discussion leaders include many leading rabbis and educators from area synagogues in Livingston, Millburn and Caldwell, as well as others who have worked in film. Many of the films come at the recommendation the well-known Brandeis University Center for Jewish Film, a partner with the series. The series emphasizes Jewish themes, but is non sectarian and has participants both in and out of the Jewish faith.

Among the films to be shown are two comedies, "When Grandpa Loved Rita Hayworth" and "Leon the Pig Farmer." The first is a 2001 award winning German-Czech comedy written and directed by Iva Svarcova, who also produces her filmmaker husband, Malte Luden's documentary films.

"Leon the Pig Farmer," was made in the United Kingdom in 1993 and tells a story of how a young Jewish real estate agent discovers that he is the result of an artificial insemination gone wrong; his biological father is a Yorkshire pig farmer. The comedy grows out of his efforts to bring his observant father and the farmer together.

Other feature films include "The Imported Bride," "My Brother's Wedding" and "Minyan in Kaifeng: A Modern Journey to an Ancient Chinese Jewish Community,"  a  2002 United States film directed by Steven Calcote and Jonathan Shulman and narrated by Leonard Nimoy. The film looks at both the ancient and modern history and cross cultural journeys, psychological, geographic and religious.

If you want a sampling of the series, there is a special, out-of-festival extra showing on Saturday night, Nov. 13. The tentatively scheduled film is the "Klezmatics," a joyful documentary about New York City-based musicians rediscovering the klezmer music of their Eastern European forebearers.

To register for the series, call Michele Dreiblatt at (973) 530-3473. The series fee is $104 for JCC members and seniors and $181 for the general public. Those starting the series at a future date may register for a reduced charge, but there are no individual admissions other than the Nov.13 evening viewing.