A Bittersweet Portrait of ‘Last Klezmer’

The Sunset 5’s Cinema Judaica series continues Wednesday with a one-week run of Yale Strom’s “The Last Klezmer,” which introduces us to the ebullient, irresistible Leopold Kozlowski, Eastern Europe’s last remaining prewar master of klezmer, Jewish folk music.

We not only witness Kozlowski’s tireless efforts in ensuring the survival of klezmer but also accompany him from his home in Krakow on his first visit in more than 40 years to his hometown outside Lvov in the Ukraine. The experience is bittersweet in the fullest sense: He is confronted with the places where his parents and brother died in the Holocaust while experiencing a joyous reunion with the friend with whom he managed to escape from a death camp and hide in a forest until liberation by the Russians.

This fine documentary is not the first to suggest that Polish Gentiles have become intrigued with Jewish culture now that there are so few Jews left in Poland.

Gay Stories: “Boy’s Life” (opening Friday at the Sunset 5) is composed of three sensitive short films dealing with a young gay man’s coming of age.

Brian Sloan’s “Pool Days” brings gentle humor to a 17-year-old lifeguard (Josh Weinstein) whose sexual identity becomes defined when mutual attraction occurs between him and a handsome swimmer (Nick Poletti); Raoul O’Connell’s wryly amusing “A Friend of Dorothy’s” tells of a boyish NYU freshman (O’Connell himself) coping with his attraction to his roommate (Kevin McClatchy), and Robert Lee King’s “The Disco Years,” the most complex of the three, deals with a high school student (Matt Nolan) who has a dream romance only to find his lover (Russell Scott Lewis) go swiftly into denial.

Information: (213) 848-3500.