A compilation of videos showcasing the “Jews of Pride” contingent at Pride March 2020.
The “Jews of Pride” contingent came to life again at the 25th Pride March, February 2, 2020.
Enjoy this compilation of clips taken from the day showcasing the diversity of Melbourne’s Jewish community, celebrating LGBTIQ+ people and our families.
Compilation: SKIF shows who can dance (0:22) Australian GLBTIQ Multicultural Council (AGMC) (2:09) Queer South Asian dancers (2:17) The truck starts and a proud Jewish mum rushes out (2:25) Ute-cam: Music, meet contingent. Let the fun begin! (2:57) Quick dance routine in street (7:32) Street dancing and the contingent (7:37) SKIF & Habo dance (12:56) Rounding final corner out of Fitzroy Street (13:47)
MEDIA RELEASE FEBRUARY 3 2020 “Jews of Pride” huge success at 25th Pride March
Jews of Pride at 2020 Pride March
Returning for the third year in a row, the award-winning Jews of Pride contingent brought song, dance and festivity to the streets of St Kilda, as part of the 25th annual Pride March, on Sunday February 2 2020.
Fielding it’s largest contingent ever, over 140 people came together representing ten organisations from the Jewish community proudly made their way along Fitzroy Street, to the tunes of traditional and Israeli music pumping from a brightly decorated sound truck, in support of LGBTIQ+ people and families.
Lead organisers Colin Krycer and Michael Barnett, having spent months planning the contingent, were overjoyed that a greater breadth of organisations from the Jewish community joined participated. First time attendees included the National Council of Jewish Women VIC headed up by President Miriam Bass, Zionist Federation of Australia headed up by CEO Ginette Searle, and Australian Jewish Democratic Society headed up by David Zyngier.
Contingent stalwarts included SKIF, Habonim Dror, Temple Beth Israel, Jewish Lesbian Group of Victoria, Aleph Melbourne and Keshet Australia.
Jewish Care, returning for their second year, added two brightly decorated minibuses to the contingent, allowing an inclusive opportunity for those who could not walk along the parade route.
The weather was magnificent, breaking the trend of searingly hot days in recent years, and escaping flooding downpours the day prior, with blue skies and warmth adding to the joy of the event. Onlookers were thrilled with the Jews of Pride, many offering Mazal Tovs and L’chaims.
Although there has been a strong Jewish presence in Pride March for all of its 25 year history, this year’s Jews of Pride contingent saw more community leaders, community organisations, families and supporters standing up for the inclusion, celebration, acceptance, visibility and respect of same-sex attracted, trans and gender diverse, and intersex people, and rainbow families.
Jews of Pride will return in 2021, bigger, better and more beautifully Jewish.
Further comment available: Michael Barnett michael@aleph.org.au 0417-595-541 Pronouns: he/him/his Colin Krycer colin@aleph.org.au 0411-441-691 Pronouns: he/him/his
As the 2019 Jewish International Film Festival rapidly approaches, be sure to check out the festival’s rich programme. Amongst the festival’s offerings are three queer-themed films, screening at various locations in Melbourne and Sydney, as detailed below.
Amit, a father of four living in a small town in Israel, tells his wife, Galit, that he is a woman and wants to transition. Galit pledges her support, ready to overcome surgery, social stigma and bureaucracy to maintain her marriage. But as Amit transforms, tensions arise while everyone in the family readjusts to understand themselves and each other anew. In the process, Galit must redefine her own identity and what it means to be a parent, a spouse and a lover.
Winner Best Israeli Documentary at the 2018 Docaviv Film Festival.
“A quantum leap in the work of one of Israel’s leading documentary filmmakers.” – Haaretz
Jonathan Agassi is one of the world’s most successful gay porn stars. The director Tomer Heymann (Mr Gaga) followed him for eight years, both in his temporary hometown of Berlin and back in Tel Aviv with his mother. Alongside his acting, he performs in live shows and works as an escort.
Offering a rare and intimate look inside what is often a taboo world, Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life also gives us access to the unique relationship between a mother and son who courageously redefine familiar family concepts.
“A diabolical public figure mesmerizes from the grave.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Roy Cohn was one of the most controversial and influential American men of the 20th century. An only son born to a Jewish family in the Bronx, Cohn is best known for being Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel, prosecuting Esther and Julius Rosenberg, and for influencing the career of the young Queens real estate developer Donald Trump. He was a closeted man who refused to publicly identify as gay even as he was dying of Aids.
Explosive and scathingly delicious, Where’s My Roy Cohn? is a thriller-like exposé that reveals the workings of a deeply troubled master manipulator.
MEMBER [AM] IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA
Margaret Charlotte FISCHER, Hahndorf SA 5245
Margie Fischer AM
For significant service to the festival sector, and to the LGBTIQ community.
Feast Adelaide Queer Arts and Cultural Festival
Co-Founder 1997.
Committee Member and Mentor, Queer Youth Drop In, since 2014.
Former Artistic Director.
Former Deputy Chair.
Vitalstatistix – Port Adelaide
Board Advisor, 2014.
Artistic Director, 1984-1994.
Co-Founder, 1984.
Community – Jewish
Member, Chevra Kadisha, Adelaide Progressive Jewish Congregation, since 2013.
Member, Beit Shalom Synagogue, Adelaide Progressive Jewish Congregation, since 1995.
Former Member, South Australian Branch, National Council of Jewish Women Australia.
Awards and recognition includes:
Ruby Award, Sustained Contribution by an Individual, Arts South Australia, 2017.
Adelaide Citizen of the Year, 2012.
Geoff Crowhurst Memorial Award, Arts South Australia.
Ros Bower Award, Australia Council for the Arts.
“It is an honour to be recognised for my work. When I heard I’d been awarded one it truly was a shock, but a good shock,” said Margie Fischer.
She regards it as a privilege to continue working with LGBTIQ artists both established and emerging, young people and Elders across gender and sexuality.
“I am an outsider and like being one. I am just drawn to people on the outside. Everything I do is informed by my cultural background” Margie Fishcher told J-Wire.
Her parents were Holocaust survivors who came to Australia as refugees and she grew up speaking both Yiddish and Austrian at home. She continues to run the Queer Youth Drop In and Gay Bingo and work on a number of creative projects.
Photograph of the vibrant Aleph Melbourne and Jewish Lesbian Group of Victoria stand at In One Voice 2019
Thanks to In One Voice for this excellent photo of the combined Aleph Melbourne and Jewish Lesbian Group of Victoria stand at the In One Voice 2019 street fair on March 17 2019. Original photo and full gallery here.
L to R: JLGV: Stacey, Zena and Julie; Aleph Melbourne: Gregory Storer & Michael Barnett
Aleph Melbourne, together with the Jewish Lesbian Group of Victoria, added a fantastic rainbow of diversity to the 2019 In One Voice carnival in Selwyn Street, Elsternwick.
Aleph Melbourne, together with the Jewish Lesbian Group of Victoria, added a fantastic rainbow of diversity to the 2019 In One Voice carnival in Selwyn Street, Elsternwick.
“Outstanding… one of the most amazing biographies of the 20th century.” — The Spiegel
The director of the Yiddish classic The Dybbuk is remembered as a Polish aristocrat, Hollywood producer, a rogue and liar, and an open homosexual. But who, really, was Michal Waszyński (born Moshe Waks), the son of a poor Ukrainian Jewish blacksmith, who died as Prince Michal Waszyński in Italy? Waszyński made 40 films with Sophia Loren, Anna Magnani, Orson Welles and other stars, but his most spectacular creation was his own life.
Presenting a modern take on the narrative of the Wandering Jew, The Prince and the Dybbuk asks whether it is ever possible to cut oneself off from one’s roots, and at what cost.
Winner Best Documentary on Cinema at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.
82 MINS / ENGLISH, ITALIAN, HEBREW, YIDDISH (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
DIRECTOR — Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosolowski CATEGORY — Documentary
“People loved him. Their eyes sparkled when they talked about him, and they accept him as he was.” — Director Rubi Gat
The extraordinary story of Fredy Hirsch, a charismatic gymnast and youth leader who provided care and dignity to over 600 Jewish children.
Born in Germany, Hirsch was 19 years old when the Nuremberg Laws were published, forcing him to flee to the Czech Republic. Soon deported to Auschwitz, Hirsch used his experience to entertain and comfort the children of the camp, and collaborated with members of the underground to plan a revolt that never came to pass. Combining survivor testimony, exquisite animation and archive, Dear Fredy explores the life and legacy of an unsung queer Jewish hero.
74 MINS / HEBEW, ENGLISH, CZECH (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
“[A] thrilling and definitive documentary [that] captures the delirium — and the dark side — of the legendary New York disco, and imprints us with an indelible portrait of the nightclub that became the apotheosis of the disco era: the freedom, the excess, the aristocracy, the pulsating pop glory.” — Variety
Studio 54 was the epicentre of 70s hedonism – a place that not only redefined the nightclub, but also came to symbolise an entire era. Its co-owners, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, two Jewish friends from Brooklyn, seemed to come out of nowhere to suddenly preside over a new kind of New York society. Now, 39 years after the velvet rope was first slung across the club’s hallowed threshold, this feature documentary tells the real story behind the greatest club of all time.
98 MINS / ENGLISH
DIRECTOR — Matt Tyrnauer CAST — Steve Rubell, Ian Schrager CATEGORY — Documentary
Four women with nothing in common find their lives profoundly altered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger. A collection of stories spanning the seasons, each episode introduces a woman ‘on the verge’: a career police officer unable to cope with the stress of work and her teenage daughter; a lesbian cellist ambivalent about raising a child with her partner; a mother who plans to tell her children she’s getting a divorce; and a businesswoman who goes home for her mother’s funeral and must institutionalise her mentally challenged sister. Impacting each of these fractured lives is Neta, a drifter struggling with his own personal crisis.
This sensitive and thought-provoking contemplation of femininity and parenthood won the Audience Award at the 2017 Jerusalem Film Festival.
“An intriguing tale of forbidden first love.” — The Hollywood Reporter
Benny, an only child who lost her mother at birth, lives with her fundamentalist father in a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. As her father becomes more and more obsessed with a red heifer that he believes will bring the redemption, Benny drifts further away and into the arms of Yael, a young new woman in her life. She embarks on a personal journey that will shape her religious, political and sexual consciousness.
This sensitive and assured coming-of-age film won Best Israeli Film, Best Debut Film and Best Actress at the 2018 Jerusalem Film Festival.
91 MINS / HEBREW (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
DIRECTOR — Tsivia Barkai CAST — Gal Toren, Moran Rosenblatt, Avigail Kovari, Dana Sorin CATEGORY — Feature
