Israel Film Festival Opens Sunday at Axelrod PAC
Eight Films Screened Throughout the Week at Three Locations
The Sixth annual Axelrod Israel Film Festival opens Sunday at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center in the Deal Park section of Ocean Township.
The festival spotlights new films created by Israeli and/or Jewish filmmakers. Every film selected for this year’s festival celebrates the personal, political, and/or cultural experience of being Jewish, Artistic Director Andrew DePrisco said in a written statement.
Covering topics as diverse as family, the Israeli state, rock and roll, dementia, the Holocaust, hummus and marijuana, the festival expands to 
three locations this year and includes a meet and greet and cookbook signing by featured guest restaurateur Michael Solomonov [shown at right].
Films will be screened at Axelrod Performing Arts Center [100 Grant Ave], as well as at the Jewish Heritage Museum [310 Mounts Corner Drive in Freehold] and the Monroe Senior Center [12 Halsey Reed Road in Monroe].
Opening the festival is Natalie Portman’s “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” based on Israeli author Amos Oz’s international autobiographical best-seller about growing up in Jerusalem before the creation of the Israeli State. Portman wrote, directed and stars in the film.
On Monday, the 1, 3, and 7:30 p.m. screenings of the Roger Sherman documentary “In Search of Israeli Cuisine” is accompanied by the 4:30 p.m. meet and greet with Solomonov, a cookbook author and James Beard winner profiled in the in this portrait of the Israeli people and culture told through food. At 6:30 p.m., there will be an Israeli Food Tasting and Cookbook signing by the Philadelphia based restaurateur.
For a full lineup of the films, click here.
Film tickets are $10 and a series pass for all eight films is $54. A $72 gold series pass includes the Israeli food tasting reception with chef Michael Solomonov and a signed copy of his cookbook “Zahav.”
The series passes allow access to films at all three locations, officials said.
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