Bozeman’s fifth annual Jewish Film Festival begins Wednesday, May 1st at 7pm with the award-winning short film The Driver is Red and local author/speaker Mark Sullivan. The kick-off and subsequent events will take place at the Procrastinator Theater in the Strand Union Building on the Montana State university campus.
To commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, Sullivan will speak about his book Beneath a Scarlet Sky. Based on a true story, it follows an Italian teenager who helps Jews escape the Nazis by guiding them over the mountains in northern Italy. Later, he is forced to enlist in the German army and becomes a spy for the Allies while working for a German general. The novel is a USA Today and #1 Amazon Charts bestseller, and Sullivan has been recognized by The New York Times for his works. It is soon to be made into a film by Pascal Pictures, starring Tom Holland.
The Driver is Red is a short, animated film that tells the story of an Israeli Secret Service operative’s hunt in 1960 Argentina for an escaped Nazi war criminal. The film was invited to 97 film festivals last year and won more than 30 awards.
The Jewish Film Festival is organized and sponsored by Congregation Beth Shalom, along with MSU’s Jewish Student Association, MSU Diversity and Inclusion Student Commons, and Bozeman Film Society.
The upcoming festival films to be shown at the Procrastinator include: The Driver is Red on May 1st, Shoelaces on June 13th, The Tobacconist on June 20th, The Last Supper on June 26th, Red Cow on July 3rd, and The Light of Hope to close this year’s slate on July 17th. All films begin at 7pm. Admission is free and open to the public. For descriptions of all films, please visit www.bethshalombozeman.org/community/#specialevents.
