SF Jewish Film Fest 2023 offers another stellar lineup: See these 6 films

One of the Bay Area’s finest film series — the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival — returns this week with an impressive array of films, documentaries, shorts and events. The 43rd annual festival runs July 20 through 30 at San Francisco’s Castro and Vogue theaters, and Aug. 1-6 at Oakland Piedmont Theatre.

The opening night documentary, “Remembering Gene Wilder,” promises to be an enlightening, loving portrait of the late actor and comedian (get ready to cry, in other words). It screens 6:30 p.m. July 20 at the Castro Theatre. The S.F. closing night film, “Bella!,” illuminates how tenacious lawyer and women’s rights advocate Bella Abzug blazed trails for future feminists. It screens 8:05 p.m. July 30 at the Castro.

Here are our recommendations for what to see.

“Alam”: This Bay Area premiere anchors itself around a group of Palestinian teens — in particular the casually political Tamer (Mahmood Bakri) — as they develop tighter associations and start to engage more in protesting. Director Firas Khoury’s passionate award winner (best film, best actor, audience favorite) at the Cairo Film Festival is topical and heartfelt as it reflects the human feelings and power from using the flag as a symbol of expression and pride. Screening: 8:45 p.m. July 28; Vogue Theatre.

“I Like Movies”: In this coming-of-age dramedy set in 2003, 17-year-old movie fanatic and self-centered, wanna-be filmmaker Lawrence (a painfully real Isaiah Lehtinen) alienates those around him with his grandiose visions of his own talent, including his directing partner (Percy Hynes White), his stressed single mom (Krista Bridges) and his new boss (Romina D’Ugo) at a video store in the small Ontario town where he lives. Director and screenwriter Chandler Levack’s brittle comedy receives a Bay Area premiere and is the fest’s Next Wave Spotlight. Although it veers sometimes into that nails-on-the-chalkboard squirmy territory, it’s warranted given the neediness of Lawrence. That edginess makes his journey more interesting  and, best of all, more realistic. Screening: 6 p.m. July 21; Castro, Theatre.

“My Neighbor Adolf”: In this satirical film, mostly a two-hander, Holocaust survivor and nosy neighbor Marek suspects the guy who just moved next door in a South American village is Hitler himself. That notion creates all sorts of havoc. In this Bay Area premiere, director Leon Prudovsky all but hands over the film to his two leads — David Hayman and Udo Kier — and it’s one wise decision given how they are obviously having such fun with the material, staging highly theatrical confrontations, exchanges and dustups. It’s the festival’s Centerpiece Narrative. Screenings: 6 p.m. July 22 at the Castro Theatre; 5:45 p.m. Aug. 5 at the Piedmont Theatre.

“The Secret Art of Human Flight”: Bay Area filmmaking treasure H.P. Mendoza soars yet again with this sentimental but not saccharine dramedy about a grieving widower and children’s book author (Grant Rosenmeyer in a soulful performance) partnering with a kooky shaman/hippie-like character (perfectly cast Paul Raci) to learn how to fly. Yup, you read that correctly. The quest veers into some questionable activities, all of which attract the attention and concern of his neighbors. It’s a heart-warmer in the best way possible as a sweet guy seeks to wing it away from his catastrophic grief.  It receives a West Coast premiere and is the fest’s Local Spotlight. Screening: 8:30 p.m. July 23; Castro.