Sarah Masters reviews the film

Four Seasons Lodge

In 2005, Andrew Jacobs, a New York Times reporter, wrote a series of articles about a summer place in the Catskills called Four Seasons Lodge. Jacobs grew frustrated that newspaper articles could not possibly capture the soul and the context of the place, a Catskills summer bungalow colony where close to 100 Polish, Russian and Hungarian Jews, all of whom survived the Holocaust, had bought 44 acres back in 1979.

Four Seasons Lodge is a counterintuitive and spiritually uplifting film about these remarkable individuals. They created this colony by building communal structures and a synagogue for Friday night services. Members dug out an Olympic-sized pool, paved two tennis courts and constructed a social hall. They cooked, swam, raised children, prayed together and swapped stories about the war years.

Their inspirational dedication to living righteous and full lives was, as they saw it, the best revenge. As one member put it: "To live this long, to live this well, is a victory." And another said: "We live with the past, and hope for a good future. When you compare the good times to the bad, we came out winners."

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Completed: 2008
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Director: Andrew Jacobs
Producer: Matt Lavine

Four Seasons Lodge had its World Premiere this past June at the SilverDocs Film Festival in Silver Springs, Maryland. For information on when this film will be available on DVD, please contact at info@fourseasonsmovie.org.

Now available for purchase!

Questioning Faith: Confessions of A Seminarian, the subject of a film review in PlainViews July 15th issue, will be available beginning September 23rd, on DVD for $26.95!

In Questioning Faith, seminary professor Dr. James Cone asks how seminary students in his class can develop a theology “that is credible in the face of 16 million dead” from AIDS. Dr. Cone challenges the classroom with the question: “What kind of sermon are you going to preach?”

Macky Alston, seminary student and award-winning filmmaker, cannot answer that question. So he sets out to discover how everyone and anyone, from atheists to Buddhists to Orthodox Jews, find meaning in a life that can seem so senseless. Macky’s search takes the form of this feature documentary and, while completing a graduate degree in theology and working as a hospital chaplain, he tackles the big questions. Why do some find religion and others lose it? And how can anyone believe in a loving and powerful God in the face of so much suffering?

You can purchase Questioning Faith on DVD at www.docurama.com, www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com.

Do you have thoughts about this review you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail to info@PlainViews.org