38th SF Jewish Film Festival: Free Castro Theater Movie Day | SF

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is a year-round media arts organization that promotes awareness, appreciation, and pride in the diversity of Jewish people.

Their three-week summer festival screens in four Bay Area venues, and features quality Jewish films from around the world from July 19 to August 5, 2018.

You must purchase tickets for most films and presentations, however, there are a few free movie screenings around the Bay

SF Jewish Film Festival: Free Movie Days
Ashcan: The Secret Prison | North American Premiere
– Palo Alto / CineArts – Monday July 23, 2018 | 3:30 p.m – RSVP
– SF / Castro Theater – Tuesday, July 24, 2018 | 2pm – RSVP
– Albany / Albany Twin – Tuesday, July 31, 2018 | 2pm – RSVP

All above screenings are free and open to the public. Ticket still required

About Ashcan: The Secret Prision

From May to August 1945, 72 top Nazi officials were secretly imprisoned in the former Palace Hotel in Mondorf-les-Bains, Luxembourg. The prison was so secure that even its guards were unaware of whom it housed. Once inside the hotel, code-named Ashcan, in preparation for the upcoming Nuremberg trials, American interrogators who spoke both English and German tried to learn as much as possible about the Nazi hierarchy. They did so by asking the officials to talk about themselves, their families and then their work as members of the Nazi regime. While the Americans were quizzing the Nazi officials, Allied soldiers were learning more and more about the extent of the Hitler regime’s atrocities. They found that the Nazis had built not only concentration camps, but also extermination camps.

In 2017, the National Theatre of Luxembourg performed the play Codename Ashcan, co-written by Willy Perelsztejn. As in real life, actors spoke both English and German. By showing play rehearsals rather than the final performance, documentary director Perelsztejn helps us learn, as the actors do, about individual Nazi leaders and their petty rivalries. In addition, extensive interviews with interrogator John Dolibois, who later became U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg, as well as archival footage, bring this barely known but important event to vivid life. —Sara L. Rubin