March 7, 2012

For the third year in a row we are excited to support the Israeli Film Festival.   This year we will screen two different films during the festival, each with a limited number of free tickets for our students. On Saturday, March 17th at 8:30 PM in Bossone’s Mitchell Auditorium we will screen Yossi Madmony’s Restoration. Restoration is the story of antique furniture restoration shop owner, Yaakov Fidelman, who is forced to make difficult business decisions following the sudden death of a business partner. Fidelman's son, who has a troubled relationship with his father, wants to close the shop, but an old apprentice discovers an antique Steinway piano that could sell for big bucks and save the business if properly restored. Restoration is the Sundance Film Festival 2011 winner of Best Screenplay and the winner of Best Film at the 2011 Jerusalem Film Festival.  A light reception will follow the screening in the lobby.

We follow Restoration with the Saturday, March 31st screening of Melting Away, in Bossone’s Mitchell Auditorium at 8:45 PM. Melting Away, directed by Doron Eran, is a heartfelt drama of a family drawn into crisis when the parents of Parker Hendrikson kick him out of the house after discovering he is secretly a cross-dresser. Inspired by a brutal murder at a Tel Aviv LGBT Youth Center, Melting Away finds Parker Hendrikson years later performing as a drag queen diva that encounters a private investigator hired by Parker’s mother to inform her that her father is dying of cancer. This emotional tale touches on issues of sexuality and how everyday people handle themselves when forced to deal with life and death. The star of the film, Chen Yanni, will be at the screening and hold a talkback afterward. A light reception will follow the screening in the lobby.   

If you are a student interested in attending one of the screenings through our free tickets, please email visco@drexel.edu with your major and the film you would like to see.  Tickets will be left in your name at the box office. The Israeli Film Festival of Philadelphia is a celebration of Israeli culture, with the aim of enriching the American vision of Israeli culture and society through film.  The festival runs through April 1st with films and talkbacks happening throughout our region.