PG has been known to be incorrect if these do not show up
HD Cinema (104): Me & My Matchmaker (1996, Doc)
Summary: Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava may have popularized the idea of matchmaking with their well-known song in Fiddler on the Roof, but in Jewish tradition the familiar yente figure has been around for centuries. And according to Mark Wexler's film Me and My Matchmaker, she's still got her job cut out for her.
Irene Nathan is an Orthodox Jewish woman who runs a service for single Jews. For $400 a year, she'll fix clients up with people she thinks are properly suited for them. With more than 200 marriages to her credit (and only four of them ending in divorce), she's got a good track record. Yet what starts out as a straightforward documentary about a matchmaker turns into a self-exploration of the filmmaker as Irene wrests control of this film. "You'll have to convert," Irene tells the half-Jewish Wexler, as she won't let a Jewish woman marry a gentile. But she's determined to marry off the 39-year-old bachelor. Turning questions back on him, she asks him what he's looking for in a woman. When he replies, "A goddess," she smiles and says they're short on goddesses this season. Astutely, she asks him if he's making this film just to meet women (making this documentary reminiscent of Sherman's March and 20 Dates), and indeed at times this seems to be what Wexler is after. He dates two of Irene's clients and also brings to her a woman he began dating in California. The relationship between Nathan and Wexler is complex, and this charming and humorous film is an insightful exposé into finding a mate. --Jenny Brown
HD Cinema (104): O Amor Natural *** (1997, Doc)
Summary: A documentary on Brazil's relationship with the poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, and to their own sexuality.
