and welcome back to 9 News at noon Saturday is the start of the 28th Annual Jewish Film Festival right here in Denver the festival features 20 films including documentaries narratives and shorts the festival highlights work by Jewish and Israeli filmmakers and joining us here today to talk about the big event is Emily Diaz you are the Arts programming coordinator at the misel arts and culture center thank you so much for being here to talk about this Festival 28 years yes yeah yeah this is a big
event it's a big event um we're very excited it starts on Saturday the 9th um we are starting off with the film remembering Gan Wilder it's a documentary about the great actor Gan Wilder wonderful actor yes absolutely wonderful he's most known for his roles in Wily Wonka but also um his work in Blazing Saddles The Producers lots of great films um we'll be having an opening night reception that night and the director Ron Frank will actually be joining us uh live for a Q&A uh in person which is v
ery exciting after the film that's that's fantastic how many films are there this year there are 20 um and they are all in person we do have a wonderful program that we are doing this year called djf Encore in which the top films that are voted on by our audience members will be available virtually after the uh Film Festival ends on the 17th and it'll be available for a week fantastic and is there I mean this is the 28th year uh it's fantastic that it's been running for you know for so long now
is there a theme this year not in particular but what we kept going back to as a film selection committee is um Jewish joy and what it is like being Jewish on a daily basis um what is it like to yes have those moments of history because the Jewish culture is so rich in history but also what is modern Judaism like today um and we definitely have films that range all of those documentaries that are historical but we also have romantic comedy we also have a musical comedy this year um we'll even be
braiding holla together at one of our uh films oh that's so wonderful great and what film are you most excited about probably less than kosher um it is our musical comedy it's just so much fun to watch and it's a joy um and it's something that I don't think we've seen in the Jewish Film Festival circuit quite yet um so it's really exciting that we have it and it's it's Making Waves this year for sure great and what what's happening on opening night opening night is our reception starting at uh
6:00 and we will just be celebrating 28 years uh we will also be celebrating Gan Wilder um and Ron Frank will join us after the film to do a Q&A which is exciting and take questions about the process of making the documentary but also his interviews with all of the different um people he was able to get for the documentary and it it should be a good time if if people can't make the festival can they see the the the the documentary online somewhere eventually down the line eventually you should b
e able to see it somewhere um I don't have those details off the top of my head but I do know that it is being uh released soon okay for people who want to go to this event where can they get tickets it's JCC denver.org backfilm that will take you to our website that you'll see a digital version of this lovely brochure with all of our movies all of the different supplemental programming that we're doing with them um and you can purchase tickets there as well great well good luck to the event I t
hink that Gene Wilder documentary sounds so exciting I mean he's such an icon absolutely and now nowadays like if you ask kids who Gan Wilder is they may not tell you but they'll probably know the memes right and all the gifts that have come out over the years of him especially from wiie Wonka and I don't think anybody can beat Willie Wonka or beat Gene Wilder at Willy Wonka no matter what even Johnny Depp I'm gonna get I'm gonna get emails about that great well Emily thank you so much good luck
with the event this this this coming um up the next few days and we'll be
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