Souvenirs

Every documentary filmmaker has family and friends who say, "You should make a film about...." In Cohen's case, it was his 82-year-old father who wanted to tell the story of his life. Cohen wasn't interested. But eventually, he was prodded to attend a reunion of the "Jewish Brigade" who fought the Nazis in WWII. All seemed typical (training in Libya, fighting in Italy) until he heard the men talk of their postwar stay in the Netherlands and the "souvenirs" they'd left behind. Huh? His father explains that he too had had Dutch girlfriends and that Cohen might have some half-siblings in northern Europe. And suddenly, there was a movie. Like a father-son Hope/Crosby duo, the two hopped in a car and began the trek from Israel to Holland. They argue, they feud and, ultimately, they grow closer. With a fine wit and quick pacing, Cohen dodges the maudlin and the sentimental and finds real emotional grit in this mad search for his father's past. (DW)

Plays with A Short History of Sweet Potato Pie (dir: Nina Gilden Seavey; 17 min.) — Pearl Mallory cooks lovingly made sweet potato pies at a retirement home, and residents wax rhapsodic.