34th Annual SDIJFF Trailer Previews

Before a festival exists as a schedule, it exists as a room of people deciding what they are going to see. That is this morning: trailers for every film in the coming San Diego International Jewish Film Festival, played back to back at the Garfield Theatre, while the audience quietly does the math on which afternoons they can take off work. It is the most honest kind of programming — no critics yet, no consensus, nothing but a couple of minutes each and your own reaction. People argue on the way out about what looked good. Somebody always champions the one nobody else noticed, and half the time they turn out to be right. There is a nosh afterward, which is really the part where the arguing continues sitting down. Free to attend at the Garfield Theatre. Come with the person you will end up seeing all of them with.