January 13 - January 24 
 

A measured and deeply personal profile, AMERICAN RADICAL deconstructs the polarizing American political scientist and author as a tragically conflicted figure. A devoted son of Holocaust survivors and ardent critic of Israel, Norman Finkelstein remains uncompromising in the face of his recent denial of tenure at DePaul University. Called a lunatic and self-hating Jew by some, an inspirational revolutionary by others, Finkelstein is revealed as a complex and supremely lonely figure whose self-destructive nature undermines his academic credibility.

Required viewing for any fan of Israeli film or those seeking an introduction, this two-part retrospective of a largely unexamined national cinema is both sprawling and absorbing. Award-winning filmmaker Raphaël Nadjari assembles extraordinary clips from more than 60 years of famous Israeli films to give audiences a kaleidoscopic history of Israeli cinema, and by extension a history of the Jewish state.

The pitfalls of a multicultural adoptive family are given an emotionally honest treatment in OFF AND RUNNING. Given up at birth, Avery, an African-American teen, is raised in a loving Brooklyn home by an observant Jewish lesbian couple. Her uniquely diverse family, dubbed "the United Nations," includes an older mixed-race brother, Rafi, and a younger Korean brother, Samuel. When Avery decides to write to her birth mother in Texas, the exchange spurs a full-blown identity crisis. A gifted runner, Avery's plans to attend college on a track and field scholarship look increasing dim as she starts to stray from school, home and family.