Film &amp; Television

Remembering Yoni Netanyahu

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Entebbe. Even now, 36 years later, this one word has the ability to immediately conjure competing emotions of dread and pride. For seven days in 1976, it seemed as though the whole world was transfixed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's hijacking of an Air France plane and the subsequent standoff at the Ugandan airport. Then, in...

Film & Television

Independent Spirit

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Greg Salisbury

At first glance, no one would ever associate Todd Solondz's films with those of Judd Apatow. And yet, Solondz, one of the premier independent filmmakers of the past two decades, has made a new film, Dark Horse , that plants its flag firmly in the fertile ground of arrested development so successfully mined by Apatow in films like The 40-Year-Old...

Film & Television

The Best of Their Disabilities: Showcasing Special Needs on Screen

The largest film festival in the country dedicated to promoting the awareness of and appreciation for the lives, stories and artistic expressions of differently abled people has found a new home in Philadelphia. ReelAbilities will be showcasing films, displaying art exhibits and hosting conversations at venues throughout the area until Sunday evening. The festival is the brainchild of Isaac Zablocki,...

Film & Television

Rule by Frat Boys?

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Naomi Pfefferman Los Angeles Jewish Journal

David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer, screenwriters of Sacha Baron Cohen's latest film, "The Dictator," were bantering in the comic actor's office as Alec Berg, their co-writer, joined in by speakerphone (he was home babysitting his young daughter). Baron Cohen, star of the prankster mockumentaries "Bruno" and "Borat," was about to move out, and the office was bare except for some...

Film & Television

It's Mel All Over Again

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Dana Kennedy, Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jews run Hollywood, the old cliche goes. So an outsider might find it strange that one of Hollywood's biggest studios, Warner Bros., agreed to make a movie about one of the Jewish world's greatest heroes with a star known for going on anti-Semitic tirades. And when the plans to film Judah Maccabee fell apart this month, igniting a feud between...