Jewish Film Festival

The World Was Ours preceded by Dark Night

A multi-ethnic, multi-cultural center located in what was then Poland and is now Lithuania, the city of Vilna was an artistic and intellectual crossroads for the people of eastern Europe. Known as “the Jerusalem of Lithuania,” Vilna was also the vibrant home of a thriving Jewish intellectual community, and served as a cultural capital for European Jews. The first documentary to chronicle Jewish life in Vilna before it was destroyed by the Nazis, THE WORLD WAS OURS honors survivors’ desires for the world to remember Vilna, the art and scholarship that was born here, and the amazing Jewish people and artistic giants such as Chaim Soutine, Jacques Lipchitz, and Jascha Heifetz who created this unique and exceptional community that was so dedicated to culture and education. Narrated by Mandy Patinkin.

Dark Night

An Israeli military jeep returning from a late night patrol strikes a land mine while still in hostile territory. The two surviving soldiers soon find themselves trapped in an enemy town teeming with militants, and they seek refuge in a house that happens to be inhabited by a Palestinian couple. As the night progresses, the situation becomes more desperate in this suspenseful and accomplished work that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in the Student Film category and won an Audience Choice award at the 2006 NY Israeli Film Festival.