MIDDLETOWN — For seven special nights this semester, Wesleyan University will seem more like artsy Tel Aviv than a college town in Connecticut. Thanks to the tireless work of Professor Dalit Katz and the Ring Family, Wesleyan will screen seven cutting-edge, contemporary Israeli films as part of the Ring Family Wesleyan Israel Film Festival. Each film will be screened in a new, 400 seat cinema on the Wesleyan campus. And each film will be followed by a question-and-answer session with a well-known writer, director or film critic.

For Katz, who teaches three Hebrew courses at Wesleyan, the film festival is a labor of love.

“I integrate the film festival into my Hebrew curriculum,” said Katz. “All of my students are required to see all of the films. They then meet with the director in class and have a discussion in Hebrew. Students must also produce a response to the film, in Hebrew.”

Katz said she is pleased that her students don’t simply learn Hebrew language-they gain valuable exposure to Israeli culture.

“This combined series brings the best of Israel to the viewers-the films are multi cultural, pluralistic, artistic and creative,” explains Katz. “The artistic and creative community in Israel is flourishing-filmmakers are not afraid to take chances. They are very innovative, and they offer fresh angles.

“The Wesleyan film festival is designed to educate the community about the rich cultural life of Israeli society. Each film illuminates a different aspect of modern contemporary Israeli life, from life in modern Tel Aviv to life at the kibbutz. One film deals with the life of an immigrant from Sudan and another film deals with the life of foreign workers in Israel. Israel at 60 is a very hybrid and complex society which is well reflected in all the films,” Katz said.
Katz was pleased with the response to the movie “The Secrets,” screened on February 4 as a “preview” to the actual film festival.

“There was a great turnout, and the movie was so beautiful, such a spiritual experience.”

The film takes place partially in a midrasha, a Jewish women’s seminary, in Safed, and deals with the friendship of two Israeli women from very different backgrounds, their relationship with a sick French woman, and Kabbalah.

“The subject matter was new to the audience and very revealing. Avi Nesher (the director) was just splendid in the question and answer session—so articulate, so smart and he connected so well to the audience.”

As a favor to Katz, Nesher allowed her and Wesleyan to be the first in the United States to screen the film; Nesher then co-taught with Katz in her advanced Hebrew tutorial.

Nesher, writer, producer and director of such well-known films as “Turn Left at the End of the World,” “Blind Date” and “The Point Men,” was born in Tel Aviv. He attended junior high school and high school in New York City, where his father was stationed as a member of the Israeli diplomatic corp. Nesher graduated Manhattan’s prestigious Ramaz High School and took courses at Columbia University before returning to Israel to complete his army service.

Nesher, who has been writing movies since the 1970s, is particularly proud of the state of Israeli films, which he says have become “very interesting, lucid, and accessible.”

Nesher explains that the current funding system has greatly helped the Israeli film industry.

“The government covers 25 percent or more of the budget, Israeli television contributes, as well as private donors,” he explained.

Nesher further explains that, when people first saw such films as his “Turn Left at the End of the World, “ a film set in Israel in the 1960s dealing with relationship between immigrants to Israel from Morocco and India, “they were really surprised to see that this is Israel.”

“Now,” he reports, “audiences come to expect such films-they are no longer patronizing, coming out to see Israeli films out of sympathy-theynow watch Israeli movies like they would Spanish, French or Serbian movies-and they view them as good or bad-not Israeli!”

“They are not your grandfather’s Israeli movies,” Nesher said. “They are a whole new generation of films.”

Upcoming films screened as part of the Ring Family Wesleyan Israel Film Festival will include:

“Year Zero” on Feb. 25, “Someone to Run With” on March 3, “Live and Become” on March 24, and “Jellyfish” on April 29. All films will be shown at 7:30pm at the Wesleyan Film Department, 301 Washington Terrace, Middletown.

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WOODBRIDGE — Dr. Barry Zaret of Woodbridge is as passionate about his oils on canvas as he is about his cardiology research, teaching and clinical practice. 

Zaret’s work is the subject of a soon to open exhibit, “Prague Paintings and Other New Works,” at the Westville Gallery jn New Haven. The exhibit will feature seven paintings of the Old Cemetery in Prague. 

Zaret, who for 26 years served as chief of cardiology at Yale University, began painting seriously 15 years ago when his wife gave him a painting set for their anniversary. He has been painting ever since. 

Zaret’s work has been featured at the JCC of Greater New Haven, the New Haven Arts Council and at a previous show at the Westville Gallery. 

The Brooklyn-born and Queens-raised Zaret reports that he “painted a little as a kid,” though he had no formal training. He did not paint during his medical training or two years of military service during the Vietnam War. During a two-year stint in California before coming to Yale in 1973, Zaret did “some painting.”

Over the years, Zaret grew close to Chaim Gross, a sculptor and water color artist. “He was the inspiration who unlocked a lot of doors. And I painted in his studio in Provincetown.”

A second important influence on Zaret was Avner Moriah, an Israeli artist who completed an MFA at Yale. Moriah has since returned to Israel. 

“I have painted many landscapes with Moriah in Israel-the Judean Hills, the Aravah, the Timnah Valley, etc,” reports Zaret, who is particularly fond of Safed. “Our Rosh Hashanah card for the past eight years has been the blue doors of Safed. They make me think of the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah.”

“Dr. Zaret has been a loyal customer of The Frame Shop and Westville Gallery for many years,” reports Gabriel DaSilva, owner of the gallery. 

As DaSilva saw more of Zaret’s work, the two developed a special rapport, and DaSilva felt his gallery would be a perfect, intimate venue for Dr. Zaret’s work. DaSilva reports that their relationship “based upon mutual respect and admiration.”

Zaret, who still maintains an active clinical practice, spends several days a week painting mainly landscapes in the art studio of his vacation home in the Berkshires. 

“We also travel a lot as part of my professional work,” reports Zaret, who frequently travels to European countries like Italy and France. Zaret’s recent travels to Prague and Budapest served as the inspiration for the current Westville Gallery exhibit. 

“Prague Paintings and Other New Works” came about after Zaret visited Prague synagogues, museums, and the 500 year-old cemetery which managed to survive under Nazi rule. 

The Zarets have been active members of the Woodbridge and New Haven Jewish community since 1973. “Two of our three children attended the Ezra Academy; all of our children celebrated their b’nai mitzvah at B’nai Jacob; we had two aufrufs there; and two grandchildren named there,” he said. “I was a vice president in the past, my wife was the ritual director, and she reads Torah there regularly.”

“Prague Paintings and Other New Works” at the Westville Gallery, 899 Whalley Ave., New Haven, will run from Thursday Feb. 7 – Saturday March 1. Gallery hours are Tuesdays-Thursdays 10am to 5:30pm; Fridays and Saturdays from 10am to 5pm. An opening reception will be held Thursday, Feb. 7 from 6pm to 8pm.

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