Staff & Board

Lexi Leban joined the Jewish Film Institute as Executive Director in 2011. A longtime member of the Bay Area film community, Leban has over 20 years experience in all aspects of film, from production to distribution to exhibition. Prior to her appointment, she served as the Academic Director of the Digital Filmmaking & Video Production at the Art Institute of California and creator of their Bachelor's degree program. As a documentary filmmaker, Leban has directed award-winning films that focus on women's rights, criminal justice and LGBT issues. Her films have screened widely at festivals in the U.S. and abroad. Her most recent film, Girl Trouble aired nationally on the acclaimed PBS series Independent Lens and an interactive game based on the film debuted at Sundance. She served for 8 years in the marketing and web operation department at New Day Films, a 40 year old filmmaker-run educational distribution company with over 230 award-winning titles. She earned a BA degree in Political Science from Barnard College of Columbia University and an MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University.

Jay Rosenblatt is an internationally recognized filmmaker whose work has received many awards. A selection of his films had theatrical runs at the Film Forum in New York and at theaters around the country. Eight of his films have been at the Sundance Film Festival and several of his films have shown on HBO/Cinemax, the Independent Film Channel and the Sundance Channel. Articles about his work have appeared in the Sunday NY Times Arts & Leisure section, the LA Times, the NY Times, Filmmaker magazine and the Village Voice. Jay is a recipient of a Guggenheim, a USA Artists grant and a Rockefeller Fellowship. He has served on numerous festival juries throughout the world including the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and the Tampere Film Festival in Finland. In 2002, he co-produced and curated the 9/11 program "Underground Zero" which was named one of the Ten Best Films in 2002 by the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2005, Jay received the inaugural Freedom of Expression Award from the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.

Jay is originally from New York and has lived in San Francisco for many years. Since 1989, he has taught film at various universities in the Bay Area, including Stanford University, S.F. State University, and the San Francisco Art Institute. He has a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology and, in a former life, worked as a therapist.

Wendy Bear has been involved with non-profits for many years and worked professionally in the non-profit sector for the past seventeen years. Prior to joining JFI, she was the Chief Financial and Administrative Officer at Children's Council of San Francisco, an Associate Director of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and a financial and operational consultant working with a number of local non-profits. She is a past president of Congregation Beth Sholom, a past board member of the Jewish Community Federation and of Playground, and served as treasurer of JFI. She has an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BS in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nate Gellman graduated with a B.A. in Literature from Bard College in 2014 and moved to the Bay Area to intern for the 34th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. He has since moved into the role of Marketing & Communications Manager. Through strong command of written and verbal communications strategies and current best practices in digital marketing and advertising, Nate crafts comprehensive marketing campaigns for all JFI and SFJFF initiatives, as well as working closely with JFI's hired PR firm to receive media attention for its exploits. Nate is proficient in metrics-based marketing tactics such as organic and paid social media advertising, conversion pixel tracking, retargeting, email marketing, and website development and management, as well as graphic design and sponsorship negotiations. He also brings strong strategic relationships with counterparts at other Bay Area arts organizations to his work with JFI and an encyclopedic knowledge of developments in the independent film and marketing industries. Having grown up in the Jewish community of Los Angeles, Nate brings a personal understanding of shifting demographics and modes of thinking to his marketing and communications responsibilities, particularly in his work with the JFI Next Wave initiative.

Phone: 415.621.0556 x213

Joshua Moore is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in San Francisco. His debut feature film, I Think It's Raining had its world premiere at the prestigious Karlovy Vary International Film Festival where it was nominated for the Independent Camera Award and received glowing reviews from Screen Daily and Variety. I Think it's Raining was the Opening Night selection of the San Francisco Film Society's Cinema By the Bay Festival and like his most recent film, Keep A Tidy Soul, has played in many film festivals around across the globe before acquiring distribution on digital platforms across North America. Joshua is a graduate of San Francisco State University Department of Cinema, and has worked for Michael Douglas, Francis Coppola, and Programmed for the Mill Valley Film Festival. When he's not making or curating films, you can find Joshua riding along the Northern California coastline on his vintage motorcycle.

Joyce Gómez began working at the JFI in the spring of 2017 as the Web Coordinator. While studying film at UC Berkeley, she developed a strong interest in filmic preservation, content accessibility, and media archeology. With a role that allowed her to manifest these interests, she helped build the JFI On Demand archive. Although Joyce has mainly worked with digital media, she has also helped archive a collection of 8mm and 16mm film. While she has now taken on the role of Administrative Coordinator, she remains of a strong proponent of film conservation and its archival methods. Apart from working at the JFI, she is working on several structural film projects that explore the ideas of audio-visual dissonance, and semiotics.

Have a question or comment and not sure who to reach? Contact the main office number or email and we will direct you to the appropriate staff member.