Celebration of Jewish Film set for Suncoast 16

Kirk Baird

Thursday, Jan. 16, 2003 | 8:23 a.m.

It probably goes without saying, but Joshua Abbey isn't taking any chances.

Just because it's a Jewish film festival doesn't mean the event is directed only at Jewish film fans.

"People who are not Jewish should feel welcome to take advantage of the dynamic, international cinema whose stories happen to be framed in a Jewish context," said Abbey, program director of the second annual Las Vegas Celebration of Jewish Film, which begins Saturday and runs through Tuesday at Century Suncoast 16.

"I just felt the Jewish community (in Las Vegas) had reached a critical mass of over 70,000 people in Las Vegas, (and) that was sufficient to sustain and support such an enterprise."

While the seven films playing at the festival are all linked by a common religious thread, their subject matter is wide-ranging: from a romantic comedy dealing with mixed-religious dating to a drama depicting anti-Semitism in Algeria during World War II.

The festival's general parameter was that each movie must contain "some content element that relates to Jewish identity, history or culture," Abbey said.

"It's a very flexible framework that defines what's essentially a Jewish film."

For example, a documentary exploring Elvis Presley's possible Jewish heritage.

According to a 1998 Wall Street Journal article, Elvis' maternal great-great grandmother was Jewish, which made the performer a Jew, according to Jewish law.

The movie, "Schmelvis: Searching for the King's Roots," is the filmed journey that Elvis impersonator Dan Hartal (who is also a Hasidic Jew) and a small crew take as they set out to prove Elvis was Jewish.

The film opens with Hartal performing under his stage name Schmelvis at a senior citizens home, and follows his and the crew's travels first to Graceland and, ultimately, to Israel, where they plant a tree in the King's memory.

"Schmelvis," which kicks off the festival Saturday night, has already been referred to as a "cult classic," said the film's producer, Ari Cohen, via e-mail from his office in Montreal.

"People are raving about it everywhere, even as far as Australia, where it screened as part of the Australian Jewish Film Festival," Cohen said. "The film opened the Toronto Jewish Film Festival and has been accepted at over 20 festivals, including, the NODANCE Film Festival 2003 and the HBO Comedy Arts Festival 2003."

Typical of the films playing at the festival, "Schmelvis" is more than its Judaic roots.

"Although this is a great film for Jewish audiences, it is even better for all those that loved Elvis and/or are curious to see what Jews thought of the whole ordeal," Cohen said. "I think the film is funny enough that everyone will laugh. We didn't make a film for Jews, we made a film for people to laugh with us and at us.

"Everyone has a different understanding of Elvis and Jewish identity. We just mixed the two together to see what would happen."

"Schmelvis" was selected by the Toronto Jewish Film Festival for inclusion in its Las Vegas equivalent.

In fact, all of the films playing at the Las Vegas Celebration of Jewish Film festival were chosen by various Jewish film festivals around the world as the best representation of that particular event.

"There are between 65 and 70 Jewish film festivals around the world," Abbey said. "My goal is every year to have seven new festivals represented."

And his hope for the festival, which was made possible by local sponsors, is to share with both Jews and non-Jews alike a wealth of cinematic treasures that have often gone unnoticed by the general public.

"I feel that Jewish cinema has become the new oral tradition of passing on Jewish history," Abbey said. "Judaism stresses tradition. The documentation that film presents enables the continuity of the culture."