JFI Filmmakers in Residence

Filmmaker Residency Year

2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2024
2025

Film Type

Animation
Documentary
Experimental
Narrative
Television Series

Country

Category

Feature
Short
Television
Web Series

Meika Rouda: My Peeps are Whiteys

Meika Rouda: My Peeps are Whiteys

MY PEEPS ARE WHITEYS is an exploration of identity and how we become who we are. Meika Rouda was adopted as a newborn and never knew her biological background until she was in her thirties and trying to make a family of her own. Because she has exotic looks, she often had people tell her what ethnicity they thought she might be, and in turn sometimes took on those identities to see if they fit.

Melinda Hess: Letter from Cloudcroft

Melinda Hess: Letter from Cloudcroft

Finding an old suitcase, filmmaker, daughter Melinda Hess looks inside and finds an unopened letter from the piles of her Jewish family’s ephemeral materials. The discovery of the 1946 letter inspires her journey to uncover an American Space Race story as seen through a daughter and Father story lens, revealing the true story of how we got to the moon from the rocket slave camps of the Holocaust.

Nico Opper: The F Word

Nico Opper: The F Word

Watch the journey unfold in this short comedic docuseries about one queer couple's journey to parenthood through the foster-to-adoption process. Along the way they seek out advice from other fost-adopt families and expand their search in ways they never imagined.

Nora Mariana Salim: Alina

Nora Mariana Salim: Alina

As Nazis separate children from their parents in the Warsaw Ghetto, a gang of women risks everything to smuggle their friend’s three-month-old baby to safety. Inspired by true events. Starring Alia Shawkat (ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, SEARCH PARTY), Edin Gali (MAD MEN), Rebeca Robles (BETTER THINGS), Erika Soto (VIDA), and Mark McCullough (LOGAN LUCKY).

Rebecca Pierce: Half Freedom

Rebecca Pierce: Half Freedom

Two African refugee activists fight against their community’s planned mass deportation from Israel, struggling alongside their Israeli and Palestinian neighbors.

Sam Radutzky & Josh Fruend: Joyva

Joyva, the 113-year-old, family-run candy company, a beloved household name amongst Jewish Americans that’s woven into the fabric of their traditions, is at risk of going out of business, along with its legacy and four generations of dreams, which the great-grandchildren must now fight to save.

Sari Gilman: One Family

Sari Gilman: One Family

ONE FAMILY is about the wildly divergent views on Israel that exist within the filmmaker's own Jewish family. A hybrid of fiction and nonfiction, it is a meditation on the meaning of home and belonging.

Shaina Feinberg: None of this Matters

When a struggling filmmaker befriends an unassuming, elderly director, she discovers a Hollywood legend whose unique model for teaching has influenced some of the most iconic artists over the past 50 years.

Simon Mendes: Wrestling with Legacy: The Carlebach Story

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach was a spiritual and musical icon for 20th-century Jews. What will happen to his cherished legacy after posthumous sexual abuse allegations?

Steve Pressman: Holy Silence

Steve Pressman: Holy Silence

HOLY SILENCE, a documentary film from Emmy-nominated director Steven Pressman, takes a fresh look at a topic that has sparked controversy for decades. During the years leading up to World War II, what was the Vatican's reaction to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany? And after the war began, how did the pope respond to the horrors of the Holocaust?

Theo Rigby: Si Pudiera Quedarme / If I Could Stay

Theo Rigby: Si Pudiera Quedarme / If I Could Stay

When undocumented mothers Jeanette and Ingrid face deportation and separation from their young children, they and their communities rally support to keep them safe despite the risks. A story of courage and allyship, Si Pudiera Quedarme is a timely look at the transformative power of communities uniting for justice.

Toby Freilich: Maintenance Artist

What happens when high art meet trash? Watch this first feature documentary about Mierle Laderman Ukeles, globally-renowned artist-in-residence at NYC’s Sanitation Department. Religiously observant, Ukeles’ humanistic approach to Jewish tradition inspires her largely secular work.

Udi Nir & Sagi Bornstein: The First Lady

Israeli transgender pioneer Efrat Tilma had to flee the country as a teenager. Now in her seventies and a celebrated activist, she must fight for her rights once again, while the country spirals into political and social regression.

Yael Bridge: Los Últimos Judíos de Guantánamo / The Last Jews of Guantanamo

A brief glimpse into the lives of the dwindling but passionate community of the Jews of Guantanamo.

Yael Luttwak: My Favorite Neoconservative

Yael Luttwak: My Favorite Neoconservative

Yael Luttwak (SFJFF 2012 Filmmaker in Residence) returns home and turns her camera on her father, famed Department of Defense military strategist Edward Luttwak. The film offers a rare and complex glimpse of beltway politics through these political polar opposites.

Yoav Potash: Among Neighbors

Yoav Potash: Among Neighbors

In a town where history has been silenced, an eyewitness to murder speaks out in search of the boy she loved.

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