Join the Asheville JCC for the Israeli Film Series - film and discussion.

Testimonials and previously sealed transcripts reveal a method, an ideology and a cruel practice of law enforcement and decision makers behind the "population" dispersal policies in the first two decades of Israel's independence.

Julian Schnabel’s ravishingly tactile and luminous new film takes a fresh look at the last days of Vincent van Gogh, and in the process revivifies our sense of the artist as a living, feeling human being. Schnabel; his co-writers Jean-Claude Carrière and Louise Kugelberg, also the film’s editor; and cinematographer Benoît Delhomme strip everything down to essentials, fusing the sensual, the emotional, and the spiritual. And the pulsing heart of At Eternity’s Gate is Willem Dafoe’s shattering performance: his Vincent is at once lucid, mad, brilliant, helpless, defeated, and, finally, triumphant. With Oscar Isaac as Gauguin, Rupert Friend as Theo, Mathieu Amalric as Dr. Gachet, Emmanuelle Seigner as Madame Ginoux, and Mads Mikkelsen as The Priest.

Join the Asheville JCC for the Israeli Film Series - film and discussion.

A six-hour interview with David Ben-Gurion, one of modern history's greatest leaders, emerges from the obscurity of an archive where it has lain unrecognized for decades. It is 1968, and Ben-Gurion is 82 years old. He lives in the seclusion of his home in the desert, remote from all political discourse, which allows him a perspective on the Zionist enterprise. His introspective soul-searching is the focus of this film, and his reflections provide a surprising vision for today's crucial decisions and for the future of Israel.

From award-winning documentary filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi (“MERU”) and world-renowned photographer and mountaineer Jimmy Chin comes National Geographic Documentary Film’s FREE SOLO, a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock...the 3,000ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park…without a rope.

Celebrated as one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind, Honnold’s climb set the ultimate standard: perfection or death. Succeeding in this challenge, Honnold enters his story in the annals of human achievement. FREE SOLO is both an edge-of-your seat thriller and an inspiring portrait of an athlete who exceeded our current understanding of human physical and mental potential. The result is a triumph of the human spirit.

Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises, The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and Academy Award® winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Hidden Figures) star in Participant and DreamWorks Pictures’ Green Book. Peter Farrelly (There’s Something about Mary, Fever Pitch) directs the warmhearted and surprisingly comic road-trip adventure based on a true friendship that transcended race, class and the 1962 Mason-Dixon line.

When Tony Lip (Mortensen), an Italian-American bouncer with a seventh-grade education, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), a world-class African-American pianist on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on the “Negro Motorist Green Book” to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for Blacks. Confronted with racism, danger—as well as unexpected humanity and humor—they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime.

Jim Burke (The Descendants), Charles B. Wessler (The Heartbreak Kid) and Farrelly produce alongside Farrelly’s fellow writers, Nick Vallelonga and Brian Currie. The drama is executive produced by Participant’s Jeff Skoll (The Help) and Jonathan King (Lincoln), along with Cinetic Media’s John Sloss (Boyhood) and Steve Farneth, as well as Kwame Parker (Kill Bill series) and Octavia Spencer (Fruitvale Station). Linda Cardellini (Brokeback Mountain, The Founder) co-stars.

Frank Capra Classic to be seen on the big screen!

George Bailey is a small-town man whose life seems so desperate he contemplates suicide. He had always wanted to leave Bedford Falls to see the world, but circumstances and his own good heart have led him to stay. He sacrificed his education for his brother's, kept the family-run savings and loan afloat, protected the town from the avarice of the greedy banker Mr. Potter, and married his childhood sweetheart. As he prepares to jump from a bridge, his guardian angel intercedes; showing him what life would have become for the residents of Bedford Falls if he had never lived.

The film is set in 1930s depression-era London (the time period of the original novels) and is drawn from the wealth of material in PL Travers’ additional seven books. In the story, Michael (Whishaw) and Jane (Mortimer) are now grown up, with Michael, his three children and their housekeeper, Ellen (Walters), living on Cherry Tree Lane. After Michael suffers a personal loss, the enigmatic nanny Mary Poppins (Blunt) re-enters the lives of the Banks family, and, along with the optimistic street lamplighter Jack (Miranda), uses her unique magical skills to help the family rediscover the joy and wonder missing in their lives. Mary Poppins also introduces the children to a new assortment of colorful and whimsical characters, including her eccentric cousin, Topsy (Streep).

After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them.

More Silent Comedies!

EXIT SMILING (1926) and WON IN A CUPBOARD (1914)

Sunday, January 6 at 7PM

Special Event $12

Buy Tickets at the box office or ONLINE

We are honored to have as host, Frank Thompson, film historian, sharing his vast knowledge of the films and era.

About EXIT SMILING:

Exit Smiling is perhaps the only film that ever fully utilized the comic genius of the incomparable Beatrice Lillie. The star is cast as the wardrobe lady of a touring theatrical company. She is introduced to the audience via subtitle as "Violet, the drudge of the troupe...Who also plays parts like 'Nothing' in Much Ado About Nothing."

More About WON IN A CUPBOARD:

Won in a Cupboard is the earliest-surviving film directed by Mabel Normand, the movies’ first great comedienne and woman comedy writer-director. Titled Won in a Closet at its release on January 22, 1914, it is the second directorial effort from the 21-year-old, who had already appeared as an actress in nearly 150 films.

Join the Asheville JCC for the Israeli Film Series - film and discussion.

The Museum is a film that observes, examines and ponders Israel's most important cultural institution, the Israel Museum. The film follows the visitors, observes the observers, listens to the speakers and descends to the storerooms, labs and conference rooms.

The American museum director, the singing security guard, the Jerusalemite curator, the Haredi kashrut inspector, the Palestinian guide and the visitor who lost her vision are some of the characters that take part in a chain of activities which add up to the museum. For about 18 months director Ran Tal collected footage of the daily routine of the museum that seeks to both reflect and mold the Israeli legacy and culture.