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Two must-see movie screenings in Philly this week

There are special screenings this week for a documentary about the dysfunctional child-support system in Philadelphia, 'Where's Daddy?, and the controversial Israeli movie 'Foxtrot.'

Rel Dowdell (left) speaks with Ogbonna Hagins in the film “;Where’s Daddy? Hagins, a former schoolteacher, is now a self-employed scrapper and junk collector who says that work has freed him up to be a better father.
Rel Dowdell (left) speaks with Ogbonna Hagins in the film “;Where’s Daddy? Hagins, a former schoolteacher, is now a self-employed scrapper and junk collector who says that work has freed him up to be a better father.Read morestaff

While Black Panther is getting most of the box office headlines this week, moviegoers should be aware of two noteworthy stand-alone screenings in Philadelphia this week.

There is a screening at 7 p.m. Monday at the Roxy Theater of Rel Dowdell's new feature documentary Where's Daddy?, a film that examines the dysfunctional child-support system in America, and in Philadelphia in particular, with special attention to the consequences for black families. The doc interviews fathers and mothers, the lawyers who represent them, and the psychologists who assess the impact on fragmented families.

"Most of the African American men I spoke to in this film you can see it's been a deep wound," Dowdell told the Inquirer and Daily News last year. "There's embarrassment with this situation, and there's pain."

After the screening, there will be a Q&A session with Dowdell, Philadelphia Eagles' former Pro Bowl receiver Fred Barnett, hip-hop artist Freeway, and Philadelphia Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, and the head of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, Keir Grey.

On Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Kimmel Center, there will be a Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival screening of Samuel Maoz's Foxtrot, winner of top Israeli film awards including best picture and the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The film, starring Lior Ashkenazi as a father who learns his Israeli soldier son has been killed in the line of duty,  has been hotly debated in its home country due, among other things, to its depiction of a fictitious incident involving Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians, leading to a military cover-up. Foxtrot,  financed by the government's film fund, has been criticized by the conservative administration. Israeli culture minister Miri Regev condemned the movie, which nonetheless won several Ophir awards, the Israeli equivalent of the Academy Awards. The film is slated for a theatrical release in Philadelphia later this year.

The film will be followed by a panel discussion including film journalist Amir Bogen, Rider University media strategist Howard Joffe, Eran Polishuk of Israel's Office for Cultural Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel, New York, and Bat El Trabelsi of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.