July 5, 2011
Two MUST films - one I have seen, one which will only be seen on Wednesday night in Jerusalem and one that is playing now.
Footnote for me is more than just a relationship between the father and the son in an academic environment, it is more than just the continuation of the sacrifice of Isaac in Israeli politics. It is my own history in academia. And it is a wonderful film - in which there are so many levels that most of them go unnoticed at first. Everything about it is delightful - even the music and the silence, Even the fact that the problems remain unsolved. The second film, "Man without a Cellphone," is by Sameh Zuabi, a remarkable filmaker with the ability to see beyond individual circumstances while focusing on details. When we discussed this film - almost ten years ago, I was so delighted with the plot and the insights it gives to the spcific life of one young man living in an Arab village, and it's relationship to the situation of the nation in which he lives, that i couldnt' stop talking about it. I'll bet it is in these pages as well. Find the film:
Man Without a Cellphone see it, and enjoy it.
couldn't wait to get home from Jerusalem and take a shower. Some bird - it might have been a dove - crapped all over my white skirt at Mary's Spring in Ein Kerem. So I hit the tub and the washing machine instead of going out to dinner. July 12, 2011 If you're in Jerusalem tomorrow evening, I'm reading poetry next to the butterfly cage at the botanical gardens at 10 p.m. Saturday evening I'll do a little song and dance together with the students at the Temple Bar near Cinema City. Otherwise I'm doing a little radio, a little tv, and keeping a low profile. When I was very little, we learned about fear in America. The searchlights every night seeking enemy planes, the drills in case of enemy attacks, the political speeches, the execution of the Rosenbergs. Oh we were scared. How did my poor fugitive father survive in that witch-hunt atmosphere? How did he, a convicted communist, dare to do anything? Why do I remember those days - now - in Israel? July 14, 2011