Bring the bagels and shmear. The 11th annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival is coming to town in February.
This year’s festival has several new features, including the premiere of “Make Me a Match,” which was shot mostly in San Diego. The film is a documentary about Jewish singles searching for love and includes interviews with 24 matchmakers, many of them from the region.
Other titles include “Kippur,” a war film by noted Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai; and “Peace of Mind,” a documentary of Israeli and Palestinian students recording their tenuous friendship on camera after spending a week at the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine. More light-hearted fare includes “Dad on the Run,” about two bar mitzvah entertainers; and “Would I Lie to You?” a romantic comedy of mistaken identity.
The festival is one of the premier Jewish film festivals in the world. It has more than 30 features, documentaries, and short subjects from several nations, said Elizabeth Berg, spokeswoman for the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, which is organizing and producing the film festival.
Many of the screenings will include a post-film discussion with selected filmmakers, actors and directors, she said.
This year, the festival has added a new feature to help match audiences to films. Films are organized into categories, with special “theme days” such as Senior Day, Teen Screen, Family Day, and Singles’ Night, Berg said.
The festival runs Feb. 13 to 22. Showings are either at the AMC 12 Theatres in La Jolla or the Mann 7 Theaters in Hazard Center. Tickets are on sale. For information, call the box office at (858) 362-1348.
