Sept. 9: “Demon” by Marcin Wrona. Wrona’s only feature film is a smart and darkly humorous reworking of “The Dybbuk,” with a deftly realized switch that turns that familiar tale of love from beyond the grave into a parable of Polish anti-Semitism in the post-war era. A Buñuelian blend of horror and perverse comedy. Lincoln Plaza and Landmark Sunshine Cinemas
Sept. 20, Sept. 28-Oct. 11: “Sand Storm,” a debut feature by Israeli director Elite Zexer, focuses its attention on the constricted lives of a Bedouin mother and daughter. Sneak preview at JCC Manhattan on the 20th before it begins an extended run at Film Forum eight days later.
Sept. 23-30: The Marx Brothers and the Golden Age of Vaudeville. Drawing on newly struck prints of the siblings’ five Universal films, including their masterpiece, “Duck Soup,” this series places the buoyant brethren in the larger context of the vaudeville stage from which they originated, offering tributes to the Vitaphone shorts, the antiquarian oddity “King of Jazz,” and a tribute to another pair of brothers, Fayard and Harold Nicholas. Film Forum (Houston and Varick Streets)
Sept. 30: “Denial.” Rachel Weisz plays Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt in this docudrama about her legal battle with infamous denier David Irving. A much-anticipated return to the big screen for British director Mick Jackson (“Jacknife,” “Betrayal,” “L.A. Story”).
Angelika Film Center (Houston and Mercer Streets) and AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 (Broadway and 68th Street)
Sept. 30: “Danny Says,” a vivid documentary portrait of punk rock pioneer Danny Fields. Fields (né Feiberg) is a fiercely funny and outspoken openly gay Jewish music maven, a Harvard Law School dropout who served as a “hippie yenta” to Warhol’s scene at the Factory. IFC Center (Sixth Avenue near W. Fourth Street)
Sept. 30-Oct. 16: The 54th annual New York Film Festival. In recent years, the NYFF has grown suddenly and exponentially, adding sidebars, new media showcases and more. This year’s event includes numerous films and programs of interest such as closing-night film “The Lost City of Z,” another James Gray tale of a deluded dreamer trapped in his self-created nightmares, an apt follow-up to “The Immigrant”; a revival of “Battle of Algiers” by the Italian Jewish Gillo Pontecorvo; and “The Settlers,” a new documentary about Jewish inhabitants of the West Bank, directed by Shimon Dotan. Elinor Bunim Monroe Film Center at Lincoln Center and the newly renovated Walter Reade Theater
Oct. 28: “By Sidney Lumet,” a feature-length interview with the acclaimed director of such significant works as “The Pawnbroker,” “Twelve Angry Men,” “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Prince of the City.” Lumet was as quirky and outspoken as his films, and director Nancy Buirski caught him at full throttle.
Theater TBA
Nov. 4: “The Pickle Recipe,” is a dark comedy about a family-run kosher deli in Detroit and the long-secret title formula that all the relatives are seeking. David Paymer is always worth watching, and Jon Dore and Lynn Cohen should add some spice to the mix (but we can’t tell you which spice or how much, ’cause we’d have to kill you).
Theater TBA
Nov. 11: “Disturbing the Peace,” directed by Stephen Apkon and Andrew Young, is a nonfiction film examining the work and lives of Combatants for Peace, a group composed of Israeli vets and former Palestinian fighters who meet to attempt to sort out their personal and political traumas. Lincoln Plaza and Landmark Sunshine Cinema (143 E. Houston St.)
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Dec. 1-8: The Other Israel Film Festival returns for its annual fall/winter visit to the JCC Manhattan, bringing a compact but powerful selection of alternative views of the Middle East reality. JCC Manhattan and other venues
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