In a cinematic dispute, a New York Jewish filmmaker is squaring off against the director of the Denver Jewish Film Festival because his largely Denver-based film was accepted into, and then rejected from, the festival’s current schedule.
Tony Benjamin, co-director and co-producer of “Leap of Faith” says he is “baffled” by the decision to pull the film from the festival, now underway.
The film, a documentary that explores conversion to Orthodox Judaism, has already appeared in Jewish film festivals in New York, Boston, Washington, Atlanta and Sarasota, Fla.
Benjamin told the Intermountain Jewish News last week that he’s not satisfied with the explanations he has been given, and is convinced that the festival’s film selection committee caved in to pressure.
Roberta Bloom, director of the Denver Jewish Film Festival, insists that she has adequately explained the festival’s reasons for pulling “Leap of Faith” and that “the only pressure that has been put on this film festival has come from Tony Benjamin.”
Bloom, however, acknowledges that she will not discuss the specific reasons why Benjamin’s film, among the 24 that were originally accepted into the festival, was the one that was yanked.
“We don’t provide that kind of feedback on any film for anybody,” she told the IJN last week. “We watch over 200 films. We don’t critique films for people, or for filmmakers.”
Benjamin co-directed and co-produced “Leap of Faith” with his longtime partner Stephen Friedman, spending more than three years on the project. The two have worked together for nearly 30 years, usually on advertising film projects, and the documentary was their first collaboration on a feature length film.
The film follows the experiences of several individuals and families, most of them from Colorado, who make the decision to convert to Orthodox Judaism. A number of Denver-area rabbis and community members are shown or interviewed in the film, and many locations familiar to Denver Jews are depicted.
Benjamin says that the “happenstance” of their knowledge of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens — a New York organization that supervises many Orthodox conversions in Colorado — led them to Denver.
“Once we got into the community and began doing some homework we found out there were a number of Denver people that we found fascinating and actually agreed for us to follow them.”
The filmmakers were also interested in the fact that a number of converts had come into the Jewish community via a northern Colorado Messianic group led by controversial pastor Danny Miller. They were interested in the story of Gentiles who used Messianic Judaism “as a kind of way station to convert.”
“All of those things combined to make it an interesting location,” he says of Denver, “and that’s why we ended up there.”
Their personal interest in conversion may well have stemmed, he adds, from the fact that both Benjamin and Friedman are married to converts to Judaism, “but who didn’t do it for us,” meaning that their attraction to Judaism was separate from their marriages.
Films like “Leap of Faith” are seldom moneymakers, Benjamin says.
“I would say probably 98% of documentaries don’t make money. There are one or two that break out. Most films like ours, unfortunately, are financed through foundations and personal, out-of-our-own-pockets [funding].”
The goal of filmmakers like himself, he adds, is not to reap a profit but to get the film seen by as many people as possible.
“I think the aspiration of anyone who does independent film is to get your film seen,” Benjamin says. “And it’s an interesting film. I think it shows for the first time the long haul that converts actually have to go through. We were focused on Orthodox conversion because it’s the trickiest. It involves the most hurdles to overcome.”
He believes that the converts and potential converts who allowed themselves to be shown in the film did so because they felt “this film would be beneficial to the community-at-large and to other potential converts, to know that kind of struggle they went through and that in the end it was really worthwhile.”
It saddens him, Benjamin says, that their stories may not be seen in the very community in which they live.
“It pains me personally that Denver is featured in this film, and that [so many of its] characters are from Denver.”
Festival director Bloom says that the festival’s film selection committee had no issues with the artistic or technical quality of “Leap of Faith” and that it was fully aware of its connections to Denver Jewry.
Nor, she says, did she detect any overtly controversial issues in the film.
The reasons it was pulled from the schedule, a month after its initial acceptance last October, were mainly logistical, she says.
“Our theater is about to undergo a major construction project,” Bloom says of the JCC-based Shwayder Theatre, the traditional venue for the Denver Jewish Film Festival.
“At the time when we made our initial selections we believed we were going to be showing our films here. We later learned that we were going to have to relocate the film festival to a new site.
“You cannot imagine the complex logistical issues that required so much rethinking in terms of the nature of our film festival and what we were going to be able to present to the public, and how long it took to actually negotiate to locate a site and all of those details. In that process, there were many adjustments that had to be made.”
One of those adjustments was whether post-film discussions could be scheduled at the festival’s new site. It was initially believed that some films might have to be shown simultaneously in two adjoining theaters, since larger venues were proving difficult to secure.
That prospect seemed to rule out post-film discussions, at least some of which were not scheduled. Those decisions were made before the festival managed to secure the Cherry Creek 8 theaters for its showings, which provide nearly as much seating as the old Shwayder.
It was in that process, Bloom says, that “Leap of Faith” was pulled from the schedule. Bloom says it was imperative that the film be shown with a post-film discussion, although she declines to elaborate on why that film in particular required such a discussion.
“When we planned to show this film it was always our intent to have a post-film discussion,” she says.
“With the loss of our location and the inability to show it here . . . not knowing whether we would be able to do a post-film discussion, we cut the film. This film is about our community. We wanted the audience to talk about it and have a dialogue. That’s the responsible way to show the film.”
No pressure was brought to bear on the festival, she insisted, from Orthodox or any other sources.
“Completely inaccurate,” Bloom says when asked about it.
“Nobody asked us not to show the film. It’s not true. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
Benjamin, in response, offers up a Nov. 5 email from Bloom forwarded to him by his distributor.
The message delivers the news that “Leap of Faith” has been pulled from the festival and includes this sentence: “In working with members of our Orthodox community regarding the screening of Leap of Faith, it became apparent that there are many sensitive issues that need to be thoroughly addressed.”
Bloom also wrote, “such a complex and potentially controversial film should not be shown without laying the appropriate foundation for it to be fully embraced by our community,” an apparent reference to the need for a post-film discussion.
Questioned by the IJN about the email, Bloom characterized it as “a private conversation” and emphasized that it did not indicate that pressure had been brought to bear on the festival.
“I was trying to frame the decision in a way that I thought [Benjamin] would understand. I’m sorry that I said what I said, but he’s taking it out of context.”
Benjamin doesn’t accept that explanation.
“I think what happened in this particular case is that somebody got wind of something in the film that they didn’t like. It was couched in the wording that the Orthodox community has an issue with this, or the sensitivity of the Orthodox community.
“What it is, I’m not sure. This film has been shown in many festivals. I don’t remember anyone coming up to us and saying ‘this is a problem’ or ‘this portrays something irresponsibly.’ We stayed pretty close to the events as they happened, without modifying it or editing it in a way that was untruthful.”
If the festival were really worried about religious sensitivities, Benjamin adds, there are other movies in its schedule that would seem to qualify.
“Among the films that they’re showing, two of them have full nudity . . . So if they’re protecting the Orthodox community, I would guess that the Orthodox community would have a bigger problem with that. Even though they’re flagged as adult content, I don’t know whether they can, while keeping a straight face, tell me that they’re protecting the sensitivity of the Orthodox community.
“It bothers me that our film is somehow so outrageously sensitive that the community can’t handle it without their hand being held. Somebody is deciding that the Denver community can’t take this film and that is beyond the realm of all reasonableness. I think the community should be up in arms that, for some reason, they’re not being allowed to see this film.”
Bloom says she understands Benjamin’s frustration at having his film disinvited from the Denver festival.
“I am not an uncompassionate person,” she says. “I understand you’re excited when your film is accepted at the festival and when it ultimately doesn’t work out, gosh, that’s tough.”
But such frustrations are not unusual in the rough-and-tumble world of cinema, she suggests.
“This is not a unique situation. It happens. It happens to other movies, it happens in other festivals where films are initially invited and then in the end they don’t work into the schedule for one reason or another.”
Those words are unlikely to placate Benjamin, who not only feels he’s entitled to an adequate explanation, but to a reversal of the festival’s decision to drop his film.
“I think the film should be reinstated,” he says. “There should be a special screening.”
He disagrees that “Leap of Faith” requires a post-film discussion.
“The film does not need to be shown in any context nor does it need a board of rabbis nor does it even need the directors to be there. It’s very nice if you can have a question-and-answer . . . but that’s not a requirement of exhibiting this film. It does not need any explanation. It is a film with a beginning and an end and stands completely on its own.”
Failing a reinstatement, Benjamin still hopes for a Denver screening, independent of the festival, in a venue not only large enough to accommodate the audience but to permit the sort of post-film discussion the festival seems to want.
“Perhaps this would be a perfect opportunity to invite some of the rabbis and featured families, the directors as well as a member of the Denver Jewish Film Festival selection committee for a post-film discussion, so that we can finally find out what the whole fuss is about.”