Johnson House hosts Jewish film festival

Johnson House film festival underattended at a time when dialogue is needed

Sometimes something planned long in advance comes around just when it's topical. That was the case for Johnson House's Independent Jewish Film Festival, which was from last Sunday to this Thursday. Six movies were shown in the space of those five days, featuring topics in Jewish culture ranging from dying traditions to AIDS to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A project that came from within the house, the Film Festival was meant to touch on different issues within Jewish culture, but happened to come at a time when tension in the College community on the nature of Judaism was very pronounced.

"We've been working on this since the middle of last semester," said Gili Talmor, intern at Johnson House. She and Rebecca Swartz, college sophomore, planned and executed the series. "I think it was important to show there are many ways to be Jewish... And I think some people feel uncomfortable with the house," Swartz said. College sophomore Michelle Flax added that the purpose of the series was to "try to attract people who wouldn't necessarily come to J-House."

These films come just a month after former Black Panther leader Kwame Ture's visit, which sparked intense debate and emotional conflict. Despite that fact, turnout was poor at the films, with approximately 15 people at each showing. College sophomore Alexander Rader was surprised that so few people came, since the festival came "on the tails of Ture's visit." Swartz was also surprised, "because [the series] takes on so many different relevant issues to other communities; that's why we were expecting a wider response."

That poor response came despite heavy advertising done by the house. Movie posters were posted around campus, with descriptions of all the films to be shown. It appeared that those who came were a few community members who were particularly interested in Jewish culture, instead of the broad range of Jewish and non-Jewish students Swartz and Talmor hoped to attract. It appeared that few people came to see Half the Kingdom for the feminist themes, even though the movie is about 10 Jewish women who try to fight a fervently patriarchal Jewish establishment. Likewise, it seemed that few people who went to Deaf Heaven came for the issue of AIDS, even though it is about the parallel of being a witness to a man dying of AIDS to being a witness of the Holocaust. The irony here is the fact that the Film Festival received financial contributions from LGBU.

The success of the Independent Jewish Film Festival should not be gauged strictly by the number of people who came to the movies. The project was a meaningful collaboration by the house, organized completely by students, without money from the College. The support from the student community was tremendous, which seems at least a little bit perplexing now - the Festival was also sponsored by OFS, the Jewish Student Union and the Multicultural Resource Center. One sore point was the lack of faculty involvement: "We saw very few members of the faculty here. It would be nice to see faculty supporting such attempts at creating a dialogue," Talmor said.

Those who did come to the Film Festival were rewarded. Especially well-received by those who attended them were Black to the Promised Land, which was about 11 impoverished teens from New York spending 10 weeks in an Israeli kibbutz, and Deadly Currents, which gave a myriad of perspectives on the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Currents was made in 1991). The latter was thought to have been especially relevant, given the issues raised by Ture's visit; Deadly Currents also had the lowest turnout of any of the films.

The fact that so few people came to the Film Festival in general was a point raised again and again at the end of Thursday night's movie. The answer could be the large number of events at Oberlin which compete for a student's time. As Karen Mason, the mother of a prospective student said, there is "more going on [at Oberlin] than on campuses four times the size." Mason watched Promised Land after having spent time touring the campus. Even after visiting other colleges with her daughter, she emphasized the "amazing diversity of things going on" at Oberlin. However, the disappointment expressed by others pointed in a different direction. Swartz noted that "one would think people would come and see films that actually touched on those issues" brought up by Ture. Instead, only a very small portion of the Oberlin Jewish community came, much less groups not immediately connected to Judaism. Considering the effort and planning put into this Film Festival, along with the heavy advertisement and student-group sponsorship, one has to wonder if the slight interest shown is from the lack of substance to the program or simple student apathy.