PRESS
24 Hours
Reely hot docs
Dungeons and Dragons,
Latin American farmers,
arm wrestling, amnesia,
and circumcision are only a
few of the subjects that will
be explored at the DOXA
documentary film festival
next week.
The annual festival, which
boasts 75 films this year, gives
filmmakers from Canada and
around the globe a chance to
showcase their work, an opportunity
local director Alan
Goldman was grateful for.
“It’s great,” he said. “It’s
amazing that we have such a
festival in this city.”
Goldman’s film, Who the
Jew Are You?, revolves around
his son Sacha’s circumcision
and the cultural struggles he
faces as a Jewish father raising
a child with a non-Jewish
partner.
“There’s a fear within the
Jewish community that
because we’re assimilating in
mainstream society that it
may quash our bloodline,”
Goldman said. “No one in my
family ever married outside.
It’s a lot of compromise.”
Referring to the film as a
“love letter” to his son, Goldman
said he was unsure when
he would be ready to let Sacha
watch the piece.
“That’s tricky,” he said. “In
the film, I show him almost
being circumcised. It might
traumatize him.”
Filmgoers will get the
chance to meet Goldman and
to chat with him about his experiences
at the Vancity Theatre
when Who the Jew Are
You? makes its world premiere
at the festival Monday night.
DOXA will run from May 22
to 31. Tickets and film schedules
are available online at
www.doxafestival.ca.
- KRISTEN MCKENZIE, 24 HOURS