TJFF's FilmMatters announces 2013 screening line-up

(Toronto - March 7, 2013) Now in its sixth year, FilmMatters is the Toronto Jewish Film Festival's popular educational outreach programme, that offers young students a unique opportunity to utilize film as a means to better understand cultural and religious diversity. The screenings are free and include a special guest speaker from the film, as well as a teacher resource package, prepared by FilmMatters curator Susan Starkman, and provided as part of the student-screening programme.

"FilmMatters offers a diverse range of films that inspire, challenge and engage students," says Susan Starkman, programmer and curator of FilmMatters, "in a manner that is relevant to their own experiences. We invite schools from across the GTA with this opportunity to view new topical films and to interact with the special guests in attendance. Our in-theatre programme has proved to be such a success over the last few years that we now offer an in-school programme for schools in the priority areas of the GTA.”

This year's FilmMatters exciting line-up:

Azrieili Short Film Series
Canada, 60 minutes
Recommended for Grades 9-12
Guest: Judy Abrams, author of the memoir, Tenuous Threads
Monday April 15, 2013
10 a.m.
Royal Ontario Museum

Inspired by the award-winning memoirs of Canadian Holocaust survivors, the Azrieli Foundation created five short films in 2012 with the hopes of broadening the reach of these impressive life-stories through the medium of film and animation. In the short films, the authors reflect on their histories from childhood through to their experiences during the war to their present lives in Canada. More than half a century later, the diversity of stories allows readers to put a face on what was lost, and to grasp the enormity of what happened to six million Jews – one story at a time. The films are divided into an animated excerpt from the author’s memoir and a four to five minute profile.

Nono, The Zig Zag Kid
The Netherlands/Belgium, 90 minutes
Recommended for Grades 5-7
Tuesday April 16, 2013
10 a.m.
Royal Ontario Museum

Based on the acclaimed novel by David Grossman, The Zig Zag Kid is a witty, spirited and entertaining coming-of-age tale for children and adults alike. Nono dreams of being like his father, a famous police inspector, but his free spirit and imagination keep getting him into trouble. With his bar-mitzvah days away, Nono is sent to his uncle to shape up. On the train he receives a mysterious letter that leads him to master criminal Felix Glick. Disguised and on the run, the pair set off on an action-packed adventure to the French Riviera, where Nono begins gathering clues about the identity of the mother he never knew. An exciting and uplifting story of discovering who you are.

Louder Than A Bomb
United States, 99 minutes
Recommended for Grades 9-12
Guest: Nate Marshall, slam poet featured in the film
Thursday April 18, 2013
10 a.m.
Royal Ontario Museum

Hailed as "one of the most inspiring and exhilarating documentaries in years" (Steve Pond, The Wrap), Louder Than a Bomb tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare for and compete in the world's largest youth slam. By turns hopeful and heartbreaking, the film captures the turbulent lives of these unforgettable kids, exploring the ways writing shapes their world, and vice versa. Louder Than a Bomb is not about "high school poetry" as we often think of it. It's about language as a joyful release, irrepressibly talented teenagers obsessed with making words dance. While the topics they tackle are often deeply personal, what they put into their poems-and what they get out of them-is universal: the defining work of finding one's voice.

400 Miles To Freedom
United States, 60 minutes
Recommended for Grades 9-12
Guest: Director and subject of the film, Avishai Yeganyahu
Friday, April 19
10 a.m.
Royal Ontario Museum

Avishai Yeganyahu was 10 years old when his family, members of the Beta Israel, a secluded 2500-year old community of observant Jews in northern Ethiopia, began their dangerous escape from the country. Kidnapped from a refugee camp in Sudan, Avishai was eventually freed and his family was transported to Israel as part of Operation Moses. As part of a racial minority in Israel, Avisahi longs for a place where he won’t be called “falasha” (outsider). Using his own experience as a springboard, Yeganyahu launches an inquiry into other Jewish minority groups, leading him to other African, Asian and Latino Jews in Israel and the United States. 400 Miles To Freedom is a fascinating glimpse into the rich tapestry of Jewish diversity across the world.

FilmMatters is made possible by the generous support of the Azrieli Foundation and the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The dates for this year's TJFF FilmMatters Program are April 15, 16, 18, and 19, 2013.

FilmMatters screenings are now held at The ROM Theatre - 100 Queen’s Park Circle (Museum subway)
All screenings are FREE and begin at 10:00am

About TJFF The Toronto Jewish Film Festival presents the best feature films, documentaries and shorts from around the world, on themes of Jewish culture and identity. The Festival is dedicated to using film for its contemporary popular value and accessibility, in order to reflect the diversity of the Jewish experience internationally. The TJFF provides an opportunity to heighten awareness of Jewish and cultural diversity around the world, to audiences of all cultural backgrounds, and to present films in their original languages with subtitles, in an effort to break down racial, cultural and religious barriers and stereotypes.

http://tjff.com/