Extra Credit: 17th Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film

From the desk of (but slightly modified by me) the Vice President for Academic & Student Affairs:

Tidewater Community College will host the 17th Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film at the Roper Performing Arts Center beginning on Saturday, January 23rd, and running through January 31st. TCC and the Marilyn and Marvin Simon Jewish Community Center are proud to once again bring this rich cultural tradition to the Hampton Roads community.

With each passing year, the festival has grown and matured, providing a cinematic feast and cultural celebration. The eight-day festival will feature a wide variety of films, appealing to a cross-section of tastes and viewpoints - from the opening night presentation of A Matter of Size (Israel, 2009) in Hebrew with English subtitles, to Eyes Wide Open (2009) in Hebrew with English subtitles, running January 31st. The film Zrubavel, to be shown on Tuesday, January 26th, will be followed by a panel discussion involving TCC students. This unique film features a poignant look at a multi-generational family of Ethiopian immigrants and the challenges that they face assimilating into their new Israeli homeland. The conflict of the younger generation trying to fit in while their elders try to hold on to their native customs introduces the viewer to this ethnic group and their struggle to adjust. Zrubavel is the first feature length film created by Ethiopian-Israeli film makers.

For a complete list of this year's film selections and related information visit http://www.simonfamilyj.org/.

The film festival is free to all TCC employees and students with a valid ID card. I encourage you to enjoy as much of the Festival as you can and to support our TCC students by attending the showing of Zrubavel on January 26.

And now your instructor speaks...er...writes:

Requirements: Your extra credit assignment, should you choose to complete it, requires you to see any or all of the films and then for each film attended and viewed write a response in which you should consider addressing several of these bullets:

• Do not summarize; that's why we have Internet Movie Database (IMDB).
• How did it make you feel?
  
• What did it make you think?
• What did you learn?
• Praise it or critique it, or both.
• What did it tell us about families?
  
• What does it tell us about self-image?
• What does it tell us about religion, politics, and borders?
  
• What does it tell us about what we consider to be acceptable in society?
• What does it tell us about how we construct identity and/or culture?
• What does it tell us about...
  

Every response must:

• Respond to the end of the film as well, so I know you attended the entire film.
• Do not summarize. Again, don't tell your audience what the movie is about. Assume they've just watched it themselves.

I suggest sticking around for any question and answer sessions as they can be very informative and maybe there will be finger foods.

Word Count: 500+ words each

Value: 10 points each

Due Date: The week of 10 February 2010 for all responses. Must be printed and stapled for traditional and hybrid courses and should be emailed for online students.