The largest film festival in Atlanta – and second largest Jewish film festival in the United States – officially began yesterday and will run through February 20.

The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (AJFF) is a 22-day cinematic exploration of Jewish life, culture and history.  Seeking to use the power of film to both entertain and educate, AJFF challenges conventional perspectives on complex and challenging issues facing both the Jewish and global communities.

Founded in 2000, AJFF ranks as the largest film festival in Atlanta, and second largest Jewish film festival in the United States, having attracted an audience of more than 30,000 moviegoers in 2012.  This year, the festival will feature an international collection of 71 narrative and documentary films that explore the Jewish experience.  Screenings are supplemented by guest appearances with filmmakers, actors, authors, academics and other expert speakers.

Moviegoers cast their ballots for the Best Narrative and Best Documentary features of the festival, as well as separate balloting for narrative and documentary short films.  Winners receive the AJFF Audience Award and are honored with a special encore screening and statuette.

The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is a production of the Atlanta Chapter of American Jewish Committee, an international advocacy organization that works to build bridges of understanding between ethnic, religious and national groups.  It is the enduring belief of American Jewish Committee that understanding grows out of shared experiences, and stories are often the best way to foster such experiences.  More than just “a night at the movies,” the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is contemporary storytelling with the ability to impact the way audiences feel, think, and behave after leaving the theater.

AJFF is the past recipient of prestigious grants from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and National Endowment for the Arts, and generously supported by more than 250 other corporate, foundation, government, and individual sponsors.

Click HERE for information regarding the AJFF and to check out the film guide + schedule.  I look forward to seeing y’all in the popcorn line this February!

xx, L

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Looking for some weekend plans?  The Q+DD has got you covered…AGAIN!

One of Broadway’s most fun musicals, The Producers, has a six-day stint at the Fox Theatre from tomorrow, Friday, January 25 – Thursday, January 31!

Tickets HERE!  Get ‘em while they’re hot!  Hope to see you tomorrow for opening night! 

xx, L

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The Blue Man Group is back in Atlanta at the Fox Theatre next week with their avant-garde-performance-art-and-experimental-music-and-comedy-and-multimedia thing that they do!

Never seen the Blue Man Group before?  It’s a serious trip.  Here’s the Q+DD on the most colorful show you’ll see all year!

It really is a one of a kind experience to see these guys in action!  It’s been years since I saw them in Chicago – but you never forget your first time.  (TWSS)  I’ll be there on the 15th with Gormsie!

Blue Man Group tickets HERE.  Catch the Blue Man fever!  Tobias got it…

xx, L

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My favorite musical returns to the Fabulous Fox Theatre this week, y’all!  I couldn’t be more excited!

Walk like a man as fast as you can when Broadway hit “Jersey Boys” sings their way to the south from May 29 to June 10, 2012 in Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, as part of the musical’s national tour.

During the golden age of pop music – the ‘50s and ‘60s – there were four Jersey boys who amidst their ordinary lives with their blue collar jobs had a gift for music.  Through luck, friendship + creativity, they became one of the most remembered pop music sensations who gave birth to hits like “Walk Like a Man,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” and “Sherry,” to name a few.  They were Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons!

Actors Matt Bailey, Steve Gouveia, Quinn Van Antwerp + Joseph Leo Bwarie will play Four Seasons members Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi, Bob Gaudio + Frankie Valli, respectively.

You DO NOT want to miss this!  If you’ve never seen “Jersey Boys,” I’m sad for you.  Really, I am.  It’s absolutely fantastic!  I can’t wait to see it for my fourth time tomorrow – it just keeps getting better and better!  Until then, I’ll be singing Four Seasons’ songs pretty much non-stop…

Get your tickets here: BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY! 

xx, L

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These days, you can see all the nitty gritty details of a toddler in a tiara hopped up on caffeine and sugar, a “real housewife” throwing a tantrum, or a Kardashian divorce all with a simple flick of a button on your DVR.

Clearly we love a scandal and can’t get enough of the drama.  Why not treat yourself to a little classic scandal and drama?   That’s exactly what Fabrefaction Theatre Company is promising us with it’s latest production…

March 15 – Sunday March 25 you can enjoy Molière’s classic French farce, Tartuffe! 

If you’re not up on your classic French literature, the Q+DD is this: the show is about Tartuffe, a scam artist who preys upon a good-natured family in order to lie, steal, and seduce them out of their fortune.   (Scandal: the show was SO controversial that back in the day, the Archbishop of Paris issued an edict threatening excommunication for anyone who watched, performed in, or even read the play. Yowza!)

Fabrefaction is doing it up for us: powdered wigs, neo-classical costumes…and in your face – the show will be performed in the round! 

Here’s the BEST part:  for you lovely Q+DD readers: ½ price tickets opening weekend if you use the code Q+DD!  Get tickets HERE.

This is a limited run… and you can watch a Bachelor Pad contestant self-destruct any ol’ time…so get your tickets now!

xx, L

PS. The other best part? Apparently, “Fabrefaction presents an evening with the French aristocracy, so style and indiscretion (and elaborate hair-do’s) are presumed and encouraged, both on stage and off.”  Yuesss.

Fabrefaction Theatre Company

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