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September 22, 2009
This Week's Film: Waves of Freedom
“Waves of Freedom” (Israel, 2008, 53min., English) recounts dramatically and with humor one of the strangest craziest unknown war adventure stories of the post world war period. It tells the story of how in 1947 Paul Kaye and twenty six other American volunteers get involved in trying to rescue Holocaust survivors and break the British blockade of Palestine.
Paul and his friends are secretly recruited in New York, and told “If the British catch you they’ll hang you.” Undaunted they sail a dilapidated ship “The Tradewinds” to Europe, pick up 2000 DPs (displaced persons) at night, and battle three British destroyers before they are taken to a Cyprus Internment camp.
Here the volunteers dig an escape tunnel before they later plan and blow up the British prison ship taking them to Haifa. Back in America they expect to be greeted as heroes only to find they are now under an FBI investigation. Yet the final perspective on the adventures is given by an American General who says “It is men like these who made the American revolution.”
Shot in the USA, Europe and in the Mediterranean, and using recently discovered archives, this unforgettable film brilliantly retells the dramatic fascinating story of the journeys and battles of the small ships across the waves of freedom.
“The events in this cloak and dagger film would not seem out of place in a Tom Clancy novel., and are drawn from one of the boldest chapters in the saga that led to the creation of Israel…The recollections of the American volunteers calls up the insouciance and swagger of Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood.”
- The Jerusalem Report
Waves of Freedom, directed by Alan Rosenthal, will be the featured film at our Opening Reception.
This Week's Update: Opening Reception w/ Filmmaker Alan Rosenthal
The opening reception for the 2009 Triangle Jewish Film Festival is Thursday, November 5 at the RTP Hilton (4810 Page Creek Lane, Durham) at 7:00 p.m. Directions to the RTP Hilton.
Waves of Freedom, will have its Carolina debut and we will also premiere two animated shorts, Israel at Sixty and Steps. Refreshments will be served before the films are shown.
The cost to attend the opening reception is $18 per person. Purchase your tickets for the reception online.
Following the screening, there will be a Q and A with the filmmaker, Alan Rosenthal.
Professor Rosenthal was born in England, studied law at Oxford, and also spent time at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is one of Israel's top film directors and Professor of Communications at the Hebrew University. In addition, Professor Rosenthal is Producer-Director of Stalin and the Jews, his acclaimed new film. He was also one of the Producers of the noted series Civilization and the Jews with Abba Eban, his films winning an Emmy and Peabody journalism award.
Rosenthal has lectured extensively in the USA, England and Australia, and his memoirs Jerusalem: Take One was published to wide acclaim two years ago.
How you can help the Festival Idea # 1: Volunteer
Volunteers are still needed to work at the Festival on Saturday night, November 7. To volunteer at the Festival, contact Charlotte Koren. We also need outreach volunteers to help spread the word. To volunteer for outreach, contact Terry Grunwald.