March 1: “Hava Nagila: The Movie,” a raucous history of the gold standard for Jewish musical kitsch, but underpinned with a serious story of Jewish history in the diaspora and in Israel. Lincoln Plaza Cinema, Broadway and 62nd St. (212) 757-2280, www.lincolnplazacinema.com.
March1-4: First Time Fest. An interesting premise — a showcase of first features by young directors, and some very interesting titles, including an inventive selection of debut efforts from the past (Darren Aronofsky’s “Pi,” Stanley Kubrick’s “Killer’s Kiss”). Also, “Blumenthal” by Seth Fisher, about the dysfunctional family of a famous dying playwright, and “Urban Tale” by Israeli director Eliav Lilti. Loew’s Village VII, 11th Street and Third Ave. www.firsttimefest.com.
March 7-12: Fifth Annual Reelabilities Film Festival. This year’s event features “AKA Doc Pomus,” the rocking portrait of one of the great popular songwriters of the second half of the 20th century, in addition to a lineup of films about disabilities drawn from the entire globe. www.NY.ReelAbilities.org.
March 13: “Philip Roth Unmasked,” a new documentary about, arguably, America’s greatest living novelist. Intriguingly, a grant has made it possible for Film Forum to show the film free of charge through its initial week-long run. Film will also be broadcast nationally on PBS on March 29. Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. (212) 727-8110, www.filmforum.org.
March 15-24: “Kissing the Moon: Films and Videos by Stephen Dwoskin.” Dwoskin was a unique voice in avant-garde cinema: a Brooklyn-born expat living and working in London who had contracted polio at age 9 and dedicated his art to an intense study of the pain and joy of his own existence and to the power of the human gaze. Anthology Film Archives, Second Avenue and Second Street. (212) 505-518, www.anthologyfilmarchives.org.
April 3: “Numbered,” a tough, thoughtful new documentary about that most iconic of Shoah phenomenon, the number tattoo, by Dana Doron and Uriel Sinai, with a post-film discussion led by this reporter. Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Pl. (646) 437-4202, www.mjhnyc.org.
April 5: “Bert Stern: Original Mad Man,” a documentary portrait of one of the inspirations for the hit cable series who was the director of “Jazz on a Summer’s Day,” as well as friend and photographer of Marilyn Monroe and dozens of the most beautiful and iconic women in the world. Theater TBA.
April 21, 30: “Never Forget to Lie,” the new film by Marian Marzynski, director of the justly acclaimed “Shtetl.” Marzynski uses his own experience as a hidden child as a jumping-off point for a rumination on the tangled relations of Jews and Poles in the 20th century. Sneak preview screening on the 21st at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Pl. (646) 437-4202, www.mjhnyc.org followed on April 30 by a broadcast on PBS’s “Frontline.”
May: “Aliyah,” a French thriller about a young Jewish criminal who decides that the solution to his mounting problems in the underworld is to make a quick score and move to Israel. Theater and date TBA.
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