Norman Lear to be honored at S.F. Jewish Film Festival

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival announced a wide-ranging lineup Tuesday, June 21, that includes a salute to some of the most important comic geniuses of our time, including Norman Lear, who will receive the festival’s coveted Freedom of Expression award.

The 36th annual festival, which runs from July 21 to Aug. 7 in five Bay Area cities, will open in San Francisco with “The Tenth Man,” a gentle romantic comedy about a successful Jewish man in New York who ventures back home to Argentina.

The closing-night feature in San Francisco, on July 31, will be “For the Love of Spock,” an easygoing documentary about the professional and personal life of Jewish actor Leonard Nimoy, who played the beloved “Star Trek” character.

The light touch continues with the centerpiece film, “Robert Klein Still Can’t Stop His Leg,” a profile of the comedian (who will appear at the Castro Theatre for the July 25 screening); “The Last Laugh,” in which comics Sarah Silverman, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner take on Holocaust humor; and Norman Lear:

Just Another Version of You, a documentary about the creator of “All in the Family” and other groundbreaking TV comedies.

“It is a star-studded lineup where Jewish comedic sensibilities come to the foreground,” said Lexi Leban, executive director of the festival.

[...] the diverse program — 65 films from 15 countries — will offer plenty for everyone, including episodes of three dynamic Israeli television series: “The Writer,” about an Israel Arab man who faces an identity crisis; “Shtisel,” about a Haredi family living in Jerusalem; and “False Flag,” a highly addictive espionage thriller about five ordinary Israelis who get ensnared as suspects in the abduction of an Iranian official.

Israel has developed an international reputation for its outstanding TV programming (Showtime’s Emmy award-winning “Homeland” was based on the Israeli show “Hatufim”).

Fox International Studios has already acquired rights to “False Flag,” which will be broadcast in 127 countries, and expectations are high for the show to be remade into an American series.

“Wrestling Jerusalem,” a one-man show in which Bay Area performer Aaron Davidman plays 17 characters who grapple with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.