Sometimes, a movie festival begins with a set organizing principle. Other times, a theme develops after the films are selected.

This year’s International Film Festival of Eastern Connecticut manages to do both.

The 23rd annual festival presented by the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut boasts an eclectic lineup of comedies and dramas, documentaries and fictional pieces. It is centered on this: the desire to screen “the best new cinema that portrays the breadth and depth of the Jewish experience from engaging, unexpected and even unconventional perspectives.”

Within that framework, another focus presented itself. Jerry Fischer, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut, says, “There seems to have been revealed an underlying theme, which is going against the grain. So we have a movie, ‘Who’s Going to Love Me Now?,’ and it’s about gay rights. We have the big blockbuster film that we’re doing, ‘Denial,’ and that’s about Holocaust revisionism, denial, whatever you want to call it. Then, we have ‘The Wedding Plan’ and ‘The Women’s Balcony,’ which are both movies are about the role of women in Orthodox religious society and how to rebel or confront or change or cope with the restrictions that women have.”

He continues, “So there seems to have been a theme that just fell into place of pushing back, changing, confronting dilemmas. ... It’s all about pushing against things that need to be pushed against, whether it’s Holocaust denial or anti-gay stuff or anti-women stuff.”

Maybe that notion is in the zeitgeist, maybe it is the spirit of the times, he says. When asked whether that festival theme reflects some of the public’s “pushing back” against President Trump, he says that wasn’t the intent.

But what did come into the festival organizing committee’s thoughts, Fischer says, “is the struggles in traditional societies when they confront issues like women’s rights or gay rights.”

He spoke, for instance, about Israel.

“It’s a very young country. They’re still really trying to sort things out, and they have serious divisions, and the ultra-Orthodox religious right holds the lever of power in Israel. They try and hold them here, too, the whole issue of … the right to choose and the male domination factor are serious issues, and they’re very serious in Israel also,” Fischer says. He adds that, in Israel, a lot of women are veiled and Jewish Orthodox women are dressed very modestly, with the latter often publicly chastised if the males in the community think they’re not dressed modestly enough.

The festival had a “soft opening,” as Fischer put it, on May 24 with a feel-good film, “On the Map,” about the true underdog story of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 1977 win in the European Cup.

It really gets into gear, though, with the screening of “Denial” Sunday at the Garde. Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt (played by Rachel Weisz) is sued by David Irving (Timothy Spall), who accuses her of libel for declaring him a Holocaust denier.

Among the other releases that follow is “The Wedding Plan” on Wednesday at Mystic Luxury Cinemas. In Israel, a 32-year-old woman is a month away from her wedding when her fiancé bolts. The bride decides to keep the wedding date in the hope that a new Mr. Right will come along in time.

On June 8, the festival will screen “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” at the B.P. Learned Center in New London. The documentary focuses on a young Jewish gay man raised in a religious family. Because of his sexual orientation, he has to leave the kibbutz and heads to London. When he is diagnosed HIV positive, he faces his family again.

Producer Harvey Chertok, who lives in western Connecticut, will be on hand to discuss his 1987 movie “The Impossible Spy,” which stars John Shea and the late Eli Wallach. It’s about Israel’s Six Day War, and Shea plays Eli Cohen, whose spy mission in Syria made him an Israeli hero.

The committee that puts together the International Film Festival of Eastern Connecticut consists of about a dozen people who screen more than 50 films for consideration for each year’s event.

“We have discussions and arguments. It’s a lively committee,” Fischer says.

He says they revisit certain questions every year — how many movies should focus on Israel and Palestine, for example. Some folks argue that every movie shouldn’t deal with the Holocaust; Fischer says, “I actually speak (out) that the Holocaust was an incredibly significant event in the history of the world, in the history of the Jewish people, so don’t try to squeeze the theme out, because it’s important.”

On a much lighter note, every year, festival organizers choose a food movie to screen. This year’s is “The Pickle Recipe,” in which a party MC in Detroit is a debt-ridden single father whose daughter’s bat mitzvah is coming up; he agrees to steal his grandmother’s famous but closely guarded dill pickle recipe and give it to his disreputable uncle. In the spirit of the film: Viewers can nosh on a deli dinner before the screening for $18.

The festival has added venues over the years, allowing a wider audience to see these films closer to where they are. For a long time, the Olin Science Center at Connecticut College was the sole screening site. This year, the fest will bring movies to the Garde, Conn College and B.P. Learned Mission, all of New London; Mystic Luxury Cinemas; and Temple Bnai Israel in Willimantic.

Fischer says the festival has gone from an Israeli Jewish focus to something broader, with films this year from Germany and Holland, among other countries.

“It’s really turned into an international film festival, and that’s been very exciting,” he says.

Festival schedule

Admission is $10 for each screening. 

Sunday: “Denial,” 3 p.m., Garde Arts Center, New London

Wednesday: “The Wedding Plan,” 7 p.m., Mystic Luxury Cinemas

June 8: “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” and “El Yehudia,” 7 p.m., B.P. Learned Center, New London

June 11: “The Pickle Recipe” and “The Last Blintz,” 7 p.m., Olin Science Center, Connecticut College

June 11: “Secrets of War” and “Joe’s Violin,” 7 p.m., Temple Bnai Israel, Willimantic

June 12: “The Impossible Spy,” 7 p.m., Olin Science Center, Connecticut College

June 14: “Secrets of War” and “Joe’s Violin,” 7 p.m., Olin Science Center, Connecticut College

June 15: “The People vs. Fritz Bauer,” 7 p.m., Olin Science Center, Connecticut College

June 18: “The Women’s Balcony,” 7 p.m., Olin Science Center, Connecticut College