By women for women

The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival has rejected a film created by Orthodox women after the film director demanded screening for female audiences only in accordance with Halacha.
The film, "A Light For Greytowers," directed by Robin Garbose  , was initially accepted by the festival on the basis of its artistic merits. The film was slated to be screened during the festival, which takes place between December 13 and 19 at the Jerusalem Cinematheque.
However, the festival's management refused to acquiesce to Garbose's demand, made at the time the film was first presented for consideration, that screening would be billed as "by women, for women."
"We tried to explain that our festival doesn't discriminate on the basis of race, religion, nationality or gender," said Aryeh Barak, spokesman for the Jerusalem Cinematheque.
"Accepting the director's terms would mean discrimination against half of our audience on the basis of gender."
.........

Garbose said the other option mentioned by Barak, of having separate screenings for men and women, had never been offered to her.

She said that she had looked at the options offered by the festival from a halachic perspective and found that they were unacceptable.

"I wanted to find a middle ground because everyone wanted the film to be screened," said Garbose, a Hollywood director who was forced to make changes in her career after she embraced an Orthodox lifestyle almost two decades ago and could no longer work on Shabbat.

"But they wanted me to go against Halacha and I couldn't do that," she said. After leaving Hollywood, Garbose founded Kol Neshama, a performing arts academy in Los Angeles for Orthodox girls. "A Light For Greywaters" was born of her work there.

Based on a popular Jewish novel, the movie tells the Victorian-era saga of a Russian Jewish girl separated from her family and sent to an orphanage, where the cruel matron tries to keep her from celebrating her religious traditions.

 The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival agreed to market "A Light For Greytowers" in its 2009 festival as a "by women, for women film experience."

........

"After billing the screening as women only, if a man insists on attending no one can stop him and we are not responsible. The onus is on him to adhere or not," Garbose said.

"But we cannot allow the film to be marketed to men. That would be a breach of Halacha."

In a letter to the managers of the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, Garbose wrote that they were not living up to their claim to "explore the many and varied issues surrounding the question of Jewish identity, history, culture and religious practice."

"You have deemed that Jewish art that comes from the religious community is acceptable only if it conforms to non-religious standards," she wrote.

"This conformity would serve only to negate its truth as art, thereby prohibiting the possibility of there ever being any truly frum [Jewish religious] art.

"The spiritual concept of Kol Isha [men's prohibition against hearing a woman's singing voice] has existed since the giving of Torah. I do not judge you by your choice not to honor this practice," she wrote. "I am simply asking you to respect the many Jews who do and welcome them at your festival. After all, we're talking about films here, not war or politics, art as a forum for understanding and dialogue."

From Jeruslaem Post

Comment: I notice that the cinematography is gradually penetrating into Orthodox life, adjusting to and conforming to our unique halachic and cultural requirements. From Agent Emes to Ushpizim (and many other fine films), the effort  in on to transform the powerful media of videography into a tool for expressing Jewish religious sensibility.

This warrants an extended post. In the meantime, here is a story on a Film School under  Jewish religious auspices.

 

Comments

[Joel Rich]

1.Garbose said the other option mentioned by Barak, of having separate screenings for men and women, had never been offered to her.

2.The spiritual concept of Kol Isha [men's prohibition against hearing a woman's singing voice] has existed since the giving of Torah. I do not judge you by your choice not to honor this practice,"

Am I missing something here?
KT

[Leora]

I saw the film last night, and it was quite enjoyable! And it had real Jewish content as well, unlike too many films that I have seen at Jewish film festivals.