Festival Shorts

Don't miss the nine stellar short films in this year's program each of which tells a big story. All narrative shorts compete for the SFJFF Film Movement Award, co-presented with distributor Film Movement, which honors a short narrative film that expresses the Jewish experience in a unique, original, and meaningful way, or provides a fresh perspective on diversity within the Israeli or Jewish community. All documentary shorts compete for the newly inaugurated SFJFF Best Short Documentary Award, a juried award which honors achievements in short documentary filmmaking.

SFJFF 2017 has been transferred to the JFI Film Archive

Jews in Shorts: Documentaries

Jews in Shorts: Documentaries

Meet the fascinating subjects from this year's superb collection of doc shorts: a heavily tattooed Jewish prizefighter; a Holocaust survivor set for immortality as a 3-D digital projection; a legendary NYC mom and pop cafe struggling to keep the lights on; and the wild paintings of gun-toting Nazi-fighting wonder women and the artist who brings them to life.

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Jews in Shorts: Narratives

Jews in Shorts: Narratives

People aren't always what they seem. This year's collection of narrative shorts finds complex people grappling with even more complex relationships: a single mother unexpectedly alone on a sweltering summer day; a father and a daughters separate and profound encounters with the great composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein; a married couple testing their limits on a wild night out; and a gentle cantor who meets a lovely chanteuse while visiting a small Israeli seaside town.

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Bagels in the Blood

Bagels in the Blood

Nestled between shops in a residential neighborhood in French Montreal lies a quiet brownstone building—an old converted house with a wood fired oven in the back. Irwin Shlafman, third-generation owner of famous bagel shop Fairmount Bagel, shows us how it all started. Screens with Body and Soul: An American Bridge

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Facing the Wall

Facing the Wall

Surni, 14, wakes up to the first day without her love, Eli. She is at an Israeli absorption center. She keeps her eyes and ears closed and won’t leave her bed, trying to shut out her new reality and pretending she never left Ethiopia. Screens with Levinsky Park

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The Transfer

The Transfer

Erez, an Israeli commissioned officer, and two other soldiers have been ordered to transfer an Arab prisoner to Megiddo prison. Along the way, a conflict arises that makes them all question their prejudices. Screens with Ben-Gurion, Epilogue

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The F Word

The F Word

Nicole Opper (JFI Filmmaker in Residence) and her partner Kristan are an Oakland-based queer couple who want to adopt a kid. This comedic doc web series chronicles their journey into the foster care system to become fost-adopt parents. They bumble through a bizarre and bureaucratic maze in order to learn everything they can about the troubled institution on which they are staking their dreams of parenthood. Screens with The Guys Next Door

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116 Cameras

116 Cameras

As the Holocaust survivor community ages, the USC Shoah Foundation has embarked on an ambitious new project to transform survivors into 3-D digital projections that will interact with generations to come. 116 Cameras follows Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, as she goes through this unique process and reflects on how her role as a Holocaust speaker has changed over time.

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Hinda and her Sisterrrz

Hinda and her Sisterrrz

As the Holocaust survivor community ages, the USC Shoah Foundation has embarked on an ambitious new project to transform survivors into 3-D digital projections that will interact with generations to come. 116 Cameras follows Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, as she goes through this unique process and reflects on how her role as a Holocaust speaker has changed over time.

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Kid Yamaka

Kid Yamaka

In this deeply human story, Emmy-nominated director Matt Ogens profiles up-and-coming boxer Zachary "Kid Yamaka" Wohlman and explores Wohlman's troubled background in Los Angeles, his training under world-class coach Freddie Roach and his path to personal redemption through boxing, Judaism and sobriety.

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The Last Blintz

The Last Blintz

The closing of the Cafe Edison (aka the Polish Tea Room), the Broadway diner immortalized in Neil Simon's 45 Seconds from Broadway, is not just a story about another famous show business haunt shutting its doors, but the fading away of a piece of America's past.

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Anna

Anna

It's a hot summer day, and for the first time in years Anna (Evgenia Dodina, The Attack, SFJFF 2012) unexpectedly finds herself alone, without her son. She sets out for the day, roaming the streets of her small desert town, looking for a man who can touch her, even if just for one brief moment.

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Mr. Bernstein

Mr. Bernstein

After Debbie hears about her father's life-changing musical experience in a refugee camp, she tracks down the famous conductor years later, with unexpected consequences.

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Be Happy Tonight

Be Happy Tonight

Shuli and Moti are a young Orthodox couple with three children. On a night out together, they travel to the other side of town and decide to change their identities. They want to feel the freedom and temptations that night life has to offer. They slowly start to do things previously forbidden to them. Exposed and confused, they will have to deal with the consequences.

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The Cantor and the Sea

The Cantor and the Sea

Gedaliah, an ultra-Orthodox cantor and eternal bachelor, has a beautiful voice but also has a terrible case of stage fright whenever he has to appear in public. However, when a small community in a sleepy beach town invites him for the New Year prayer, a glimmer of hope enters his heart. The sea, the New Year, and the friendship of a young woman could be his salvation.

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10-Flix Discount Voucher Package

$110 Members / $130 General Public

The 10-Flix Voucher is good for 10 regular priced tickets to any 10 programs of your choice (The 10-Flix Voucher Package can be redeemed for 10 regular priced tickets to any 10 programs of your choice (not good for Special Programs except Centerpiece Films, Body and Soul: An American Bridge at the Castro and the Freedom of Expression Award program). Share with family and friends, fully transferable. Great for gifts! 10-Flix Vouchers cannot guarantee tickets to sold-out shows, so redeem early to ensure availability. ). Share with family and friends, fully transferable. Great for gifts! 10-Flix Vouchers cannot guarantee tickets to sold-out shows, so redeem early to ensure availability. Purchase online or contact the Box Office at 415.621.0568

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