Staff Writer

For the first time in its history, the Maine Jewish Film Festival will close outside of Portland. This year, organizers hope the event will showcase their festival and downtown Biddeford with the screening of “The Beetle” at City Theater, Sunday March 29.

“I think the event is going to be a showcase for us and I hope it will be for Biddeford as well,” Festival Executive Director Kari Wagner-Peck said.

 All ticket holders to the Biddeford film are invited to a 1 p.m. reception at McArthur Hall on Adams Street, up the hill from the theater.

The film  is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. and tickets are $10.

In the film, director Yishai Orian is married to Eliraz but is in love with his old Volkswagen Beetle. Eliraz is pregnant and anxious to get rid of the beat-up car because it is unsuitable for the baby. As they argue about the car’s future, Yishai goes on a journey that begins with the previous owners of the Beetle and ends with an attempt to save his love.

“It’s very different, it’s very quirky,” Wagner-Peck said. “There’s been a lot of buzz around that and I think people are very intrigued.”

The Maine Jewish Film Festival kicks off Saturday, March 21, with a reception and film in Portland and continues through the closing at various venues in Portland, Waterville and Lewiston. 

Each March, the festival presents 20 films about the Jewish experience from around the world.

The festival began in 1998 at Congregation Bet Ha’am in South Portland with six videos shown on a television, Wagner-Peck said.

“It started very grassroots, very small, with just a few people,” she said.

The festival has since screened more than 200 films for 23,000 people at venues throughout Portland and at other selected sites. In keeping with this year’s theme “The Diaspora Experience: What it Means to be from Away,” festival events will take place in Lewiston, Waterville and Biddeford, Wagner-Peck said. 

“I’ve seen Biddeford grow. This really is becoming an arts community,” she said. “There’s something happening here and you should really see it.”

Mark Nahorney, vice president of City Theater Associates, said he is “very excited” the festival is coming to Biddeford. He said performances have expanded beyond in-house plays and organizers have reached out to arts groups to “keep the doors open, the lights on and get more people into the theater.”

“The Maine Jewish Film Festival seemed like a wonderful, wonderful addition,” he said. “By bringing in different arts attractions, we’re bringing more people in because there’s more to see.” 

 Other festival highlights include the March 27 screening of “King Lati The First” at Bates College in Lewiston, Wagner-Peck said. The documentary follows an 8-year-old boy living in Tel Aviv who was born to a Senegalese father and Belarusian mother. An after film panel discussion will include Kirk Read, humanities chairman at Bates; Abraham J. Peck, Director of Academic Council for Jewish, Christian and Islamic Studies at the University of Southern Maine; and Fatuma Hussein, director of United Somali Women of Lewiston.

The festival has been selling many tickets for the March 23 “Mishmosh” of short films, Wagner-Peck said. The “short, quirky” films include “Circumcise Me,” “Chutzpah This Is?” “A Trip to Prague” and “Corner Delancy.” They will be screened at 8 p.m. at One Longfellow Square.

Films presented are chosen to appeal to a wide range of people and are open to everyone, Wagner-Peck said. 

“The Maine Jewish Film Festival is for everybody,” she said. “Everyone can get something out of it.”

Tickets are $8 per screening, $6 for students 18 and younger and for adults older than 65. Closing reception and film tickets are $10. Opening night party tickets are $25.

Advance purchase is strongly recommended, though standby seating will be available at all screenings. For more information, including a complete film schedule, visit www.mjff.org.