Boston Jewish Film Festival To Begin November 2

The 23rd annual Boston Jewish Film Festival begins Wednesday, Nov. 2 through Sunday, Nov. 13. Several of the films focus on LGBT subjects. For information and to by tickets visit http://www.bjff.org.

LGBT highlights:

Thursday, Nov. 3 at 6:00 p.m.
At the Coolidge Corner Theatre
Paul Goodman Changed My Life

Jonathan Lee's documentary reappraises Paul Goodman, the '60s least known famous man. A public intellectual, writer (Growing Up Absurd) and founder of Gestalt therapy, Goodman was an untraditional family man, and openly bisexual as early as 1947. Garrison Keillor and Edmund White pay homage by reading Goodman's poems, while William F. Buckley, Jr. grills him on TV's "Firing Line." Susan Sontag, Grace Paley, Ned Rorem, and Judith Malina provide commentary; Goodman's widow and daughters offer personal perspectives on an influential, charismatic man.

Thursday, Nov. 10, 7 p.m.
At Fenway Community Health
Joan & Verne's Wedding

After 25 years of marriage to a man, Verne met Joan and fell in love at first sight. Joan eventually fell in love back. The women shared a household for over 18 years, but wanted "more than a piece of paper" to recognize their union: they wanted a Jewish wedding. Theirs was the first same-sex marriage performed by a rabbi in South Africa. Ironically, South Africa is the fifth country in the world to recognize gay and lesbian marriages.

One of Seven

Goel Pinto, former Ha'aretz film critic, explores what makes him feel "different." Besides his homosexuality, his family's North African origins make him feel like an Israeli second-class citizen. But Pinto tips the balance when he discovers a Sephardic great-aunt who died in the Holocaust. In making his first documentary, Pinto draws closer to his mother, confronts his past as a molested boy at an Orthodox yeshiva, and faces his fractured relationship with his religious father.