The Holy Blossom Centre for Contemporary Jewish Literature and The Israel Engagement Committee, with promotional support from the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, presents a Two-Part Program on Etgar Keret:
A Conversation with ETGAR KERET – (from Israel)
Wednesday, July 7, 12:00 pm
Interviewed by Sarah Leavitt
Join us for a Lunch-time conversation with Etgar Keret
“Tell me a story,” is how Etgar Keret’s Suddenly a Knock at the Door begins.
There are so many ways to tell a story and Etgar Keret has explored almost all of them. The beloved Israeli short-story master has also excelled at graphic novels, children’s books, memoirs, film scripts, TV sketch comedy, and even as editor of an anthology of Tel Aviv mystery stories. His books are the most stolen volumes from Israeli bookstores, and he’s the most widely-read writer in prisons.
In a not-to-be-missed interview, Keret will talk about what motivates his writing, the beauty of the Hebrew language and why he chooses each format for the story he wants or needs to tell.
Screening & Webinar Discussion with Dr. Gillian Helfield: “Etgar Keret – Based on a True Story”
Thursday, July 8, 7:30 pm
(Award-winning documentary by Stephane Haas, 2017)
Join us for a screening of the award-winning documentary Etgar Keret – Based on a True Story (Stephane Haas, 2017), followed by a discussion with Dr. Gillian Helfield.
Weaving together animation, live-action and interviews, the film takes us deep into the psyche of Keret, a son of Holocaust survivors, whose fiction explores the absurdities of daily life. The warm intimacy of Keret’s daily life, his simple apartment, the cafes of Tel Aviv and his loving relationship with his wife and son are effortlessly captured throughout. Particularly enjoyable are short animations of Keret’s most beloved stories in this quirky portrait of a generous, irreverent, and creative thinker.
Register here today!
$36 for Members
$54 for Non-Members
This 2-part event is made possible by a generous gift of sponsorship by Bonnie Lawrence Shear in memory of Mel Shear z’l and in honour of their shared love of Israel and Israeli authors, and by a generous gift of sponsorship by Jason Rosen
Sarah Leavitt is an acclaimed cartoonist and author of the graphic memoir, Tangles: A Story About My Mother, Alzheimer’s, and Me. Tangles was the first comic to be nominated for a Writers’ Trust Award, and has become a widely-studied work in the growing field of comics and medicine. A feature-length animation of Tangles is in development with Giant Ant animation studio and a major American production company.
Sarah’s second book, Agnes, Murderess, won a Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature (fiction) and an Alberta Book Publishers Award (speculative fiction). She lives in Vancouver and is the first Assistant Professor of Graphic Forms at the UBC School of Creative Writing in Vancouver.
Dr. Gillian Helfield is an associate professor in Cinema and Media Studies at York University. Prior to embarking on a full-time teaching career, Gillian worked in the Canadian film and television industry as a free-lance production coordinator and production manager. She has also served as a Scholar-in-Residence for several film festivals and for the past three years she has been a programmer for Toronto Jewish Film Festival. Here at Holy Blossom, she is Chair of the Adult Education Committee. I take the opportunity now to thank her for her dedicated work on that committee and to say what a pleasure it is to work with her. Many of you may know her as the host of the bi-weekly HBT Zoom Program ‘What I’m Watching, where she discusses film and television with her fellow media buffs.
