IN MEMORIAM: CARL REINER AND JOAN MICKLIN SILVER

Carl Reiner

Beloved for the work he created during his long and prolific career, especially The Dick Van Dyke Show and the legendary 2000 Year Old Man routine with Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner is an icon of Jewish comedy. TJFF2021 honours the late comedian with a series that showcases his talents as a television writer, director and performer, including Your Show of Shows and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Comedy nerds will be especially delighted by the discovery of the forgotten gem Flannery and Quilt, a comedy pilot created by Reiner and Marty Feldman (Young Frankenstein). Audiences will also be able to take part in a special live Zoom Q&A with son Lucas Reiner and Emmy Award winning writer, producer and director Bill Persky, who co-wrote some of the best episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Presented in memory of Mel Stein

Joan Micklin Silver

When Joan Micklin Silver came out with Hester Street in 1975, she emerged as a trailblazer on the American film scene, beginning a wave of now-classic films of the 1970s directed by Jewish women filmmakers, such as Claudia Weill’s Girlfriends and Lee Grant’s Tell Me a Riddle. Rather than conforming to the assimilationist conventions of Hollywood cinema, films such as Hester Street and Crossing Delancey told stories of Jewish women and the specifics of their social world. To commemorate the recent passing of Micklin Silver, TJFF is hosting a special screening of the romantic comedy, Crossing Delancey. Audiences will also be able to take part in a special live Zoom Q&A with stars Amy Irving, Peter Rieger and Deborah Offner, Playwright and screenwriter Susan Sandler, and Filmmaker and Film Historian Daniel Kremer (author of the upcoming book, Joan Micklin Silver: From Hester Street to Hollywood). The screening will be preceded by a video intro with director Emma Seligman (Shiva Baby).