15 Minutes With …. Caroline Warthen and Helaine Meyers

Their motto is “connecting the community, one film at a time.”

Since 2018, Caroline Warthen and Helaine Meyers have directed Greenville’s Jewish Film Festival, which aims to promote understanding by encouraging people to sit in the dark with one another for a while and then enjoy a discussion and a bite to eat together.

The festival was founded by Osnat Rosen, Meyers and Warthen. Rosen passed away in 2021 but remains an important presence and inspiration for the festival.

Films have looked at the Jewish experience through music, sports, environmentalism, politics … and food.

The Covid pandemic forced a two-year hiatus for the festival, but it returned in 2022 with a screening of “The Mamboniks,” the cross-cultural story of many American Jews’ love of Latin dance. The Springfest event in March 2023 featured three films over a four-day weekend.

This month, the GJFF’s SummerFest will screen the documentary “The Jews and The Blues,” featuring blues musicians – all Jews, all living in Israel, but from many different backgrounds. The event, on August 27 at the South Carolina Children’s Theatre, will also feature Middle Eastern food and live music.

Both Warthen and Meyers have raised children to be culturally Jewish in Greenville, where Jews make up a tiny minority of the population. Each says that working with the festival is a way for them to help celebrate their Jewish heritage and promote understanding.

There are about 150 Jewish film festivals across the U.S. The largest is in Atlanta.

Information about this year’s festival event and tickets is available at GreenvilleJewishFilmFestival.com

TALK GREENVILLE: Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. Later this month is this year’s SummerFest screening, right? Tell us about that event.

CAROLINE WARTHEN: The film is called “The Jews and the Blues.” It’s a documentary about Jewish blues musicians in Israel from many different backgrounds, including Arab, Ethiopian and Moroccan, who are all united through their music. The director, Drew Stone, is coming from New York to give a talk and host a Q&A after the film. There will also be a reception featuring Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food and live music. It’s a holistic experience, more than just a film screening. People have discovered that our Summerfest events are really a celebration.

TG: How did the idea for having a Jewish Film Festival in Greenville develop?

CW: It was the brainchild of Osnat Rosen. She was Israeli and she had an intense desire to see films of Jewish content and culture and was tired of going to Atlanta or Charlotte, or to Wilmington (N.C.) or Athens (Ga.) to see movies. I had worked with her on a screening of another movie that wasn't part of a film festival called “Rock in the Red Zone,” another music-based movie. That’s how I got involved.

TG: She seems like kind of a larger-than-life figure.

HELAINE MEYERS: Her personality was like a vortex. Anybody in her range just got sucked in. It was a beautiful thing. The three of us met up and just pressed on. All three of us had professional backgrounds. None of us had any background in non-profits, but we figured it out.

TG: Why is it important to offer a glimpse into various aspects of Jewish culture?

HM: Part of the reason I was so interested in doing this is the experience of moving to Greenville more than 25 years ago. We already had two children – my husband is not Jewish, but we have raised our family in the Jewish tradition: they went to the Reform Temple. I saw the difficulties they had going to public school. My kids were different -- not really different -- but they were different because they were Jewish. I come from an education background – I taught third grade for 10 years in Illinois and was part of the education program at Temple of Israel here in Greenville. This is my outreach, to share the culture with everyone.

July 15 Minutes With: Sharon Wilson, founder of Wilson Associates Real Estate

TG: How has your background brought you to this point – running a festival of Jewish films in an overwhelmingly non-Jewish town?

CW: Being a culturally Jewish person in the South, especially here in the Bible Belt, very often I'm the first Jewish person that people meet. I can't even understand that because I grew up in New Jersey and we're all over the Northeast. But there's a relatively small Jewish community here. It's bigger than you think, several thousand people, but a lot of them are unaffiliated. I'm doing this because it's my way to give back. It's my outreach. My kids, one's going to college, one's in high school, they are culturally Jewish. I'm married to a Christian and we have raised these girls to be part of both communities. Really is it's a set of morals and values and we share that with everybody.

TG: This is the first time you’re holding a festival event at the SC Childrens Theatre. Will this be a permanent home?

CW: Up until now we’ve been at the Greenville One Center. It’s been an amazing place, with a beautiful theater with a double screen, and a wonderful space for receptions in the lobby. Unfortunately, they're undergoing some renovations and it may not be available anymore. So, we’re fortunate to be able to go to the brand-new children's theater. They did a beautiful job building it and there’s not a bad seat in the house. There’s also a good reception space out front.

TG: Talk a little about the festival’s supporters and sponsors?

CW: We've had a few of our supporters from the very beginning, like First Baptist Church. Jim Dant (former First Baptist Greenville pastor) is still on our board, although he's moved to California. But at the very beginning he told us to “go big or go home.” He and the church put up the initial seed money.

HM: Also, Robin Greenfield of Greenfield’s Bagels and Deli has been a supporter from the beginning. There’s the Breakthrough Coach, Jill and Malachi Pancoast, a business that coaches school administrators. The Metropolitan Arts Council has helped us along the way, and there are some private donors who, year after year, hand us a check – and that means a lot. We’ve applied for a grant from the South Carolina Humanities and are getting more experience at grant-writing.

TG: How did you decide on the film for this SummerFest event, and in general?

CW: We have a film committee chaired by Sandy Kester. I've been in Greenville for 20 years and I think I've known her for 18. There are 13 of us who previewed and chose the movies for this spring and summer. Sandy previewed something like 60 movies and then pared it down to 10 or 12 and we all watched each movie and got together and talked about them. Not everybody liked every movie, but we chose the ones that the most people liked.

TG: Seems like you had just really gotten the festival established when, like everywhere, the pandemic put everything on hold. Then, with your co-founder Osnat Rosen’s passing, how did you decide it was time to begin again?

HM: We had just finished our second full film festival, three films in three nights. And then a month later, everything shut down due to Covid-19. It was also at that time that Osnat had gotten sick, so really it was a blessing that we didn’t need to worry about planning the next event. It obviously took the air out of us for a little while, but after Osnat passed away, we decided the best way to honor her was to keep going forward. Caroline and I had already previewed “The Mamboniks” and we knew it was perfect – and also so cross-cultural. The timing was right, and we were able to come back – Osnat wasn’t here, but we honored her. By last summer, we were primed to do it again. People were ready to get out. We had a sold-out crowd.

TG: Talk about how food has been a big part of festival events from the very beginning.

CW: It has to do with us being a holistic event. All cultures are centered in a way on food, so we have always looked to pair our food offerings with the films. “The Jews and The Blues” is set in Israel, so of course there's going to be Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food. Our very first movie ever was “In Search of Israeli Cuisine.” We had an Israeli restaurant from Charlotte come and cater. Since then, we've catered locally, and the Uptown Company has been our caterer. We meet with them, we discuss things. We share recipes, we are involved.

TG: Thinking about society in general, there’s been an increase in the volume if not the amount of anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions recently. Can the festival events counteract that?

CW: I mean it just goes on. Definitely. That’s a reason why showing the films is important -- like our mission statement says, we’re trying to promote an appreciation of Jewish culture through film, foster a sense of community and promote diversity. Being able to cross over and understand other people and other religions is so important -- and there's not enough of that here in Greenville or anywhere. That is in essence why we do this.

TG: What's been your favorite festival event and film so far?

HM: It’s too difficult to decide. Every one has had a special meaning.

CW: For me, it changes all the time. But out of all of the ones in the film fest, my favorite has been “The Mamboniks,” because it was the revival of the festival. But almost every movie is special in some way.

TG: In the five years since the festival started, what’s the biggest, most important lesson you’ve learned so far?

CW: Planning and executing a successful community event can be a daunting task, as it requires a lot of time, effort, and coordination. As an organization, we have a dedicated team of volunteers who work tirelessly to make our events a success. We have individuals who oversee different aspects of the event, such as managing the movies, handling the finances, and handling communication. However, most of the workload falls on Helaine and myself, which can be overwhelming at times. Despite the challenges, we have learned that having a clear goal and working as a team makes all the difference.

TG: There are a lot of great Jewish filmmakers, from Cecil B. DeMille to Kubrick to Spielberg to the Coen brothers. Do you think there is something in the Jewish experience that cultivates that?

HM: We come from a long line of storytellers. During the 1920s and 1930s, Jewish immigrants in California faced exclusion from established power structures and country clubs. However, they did not let it discourage them. Instead, they built their own power structures, studios and even country clubs. The Jewish immigrants' success in the film industry is remarkable as they founded major studios such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Loew’s and Universal.

TG: Is there anything you hope to explore with future festivals?

CW: I don't have any major goals other than to continue with our mission -- one film at a time. It really has to do with what films are available and then what creativity is sparked by watching these films. We can make the event fit the film.

TG: OK, what’s the best movie you’ve ever seen?

CW: I couldn't tell you. There are so many different films out there that I have loved, from arty films all the way to Marvel. I love them. You go see a film and you get lost in it. Whether it's a good film, or a bad film or a blockbuster or whatever, for an hour and a half or two hours or more, you're completely immersed. You're sitting in a dark room and it's kind of coming in from all sides. It's a beautiful thing because you forget everything else. While you're in that film, you're in it. GreenvilleJewishFilmFestival.com

An shorter version of this interview is published in the August 2023 Issue of TALK Greenville Magazine

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Greenville Jewish Film Festival Co-Chairs sit down with TALK