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Left On Purpose

Left On Purpose

Justin Schein originally set out to make a standard documentary on former Yippie activist Mayer Vishner. But in the middle of shooting, Vishner made it clear he had a different plan. The film ends with his last political act: his exit from this world. Schein’s dilemma becomes the film’s new narrative, as he goes from documentarian to friend to one of Vishner’s last caretakers, ultimately making him complicit in the death of his subject. —Neha TalrejaWinner of the Audience Award at DOC NYC Festival 2015.

The Legend of Juan Jose Mundo

The Legend of Juan Jose Mundo

It’s 1984 in suburban New York and Julie Gornick is hosting a charismatic, larger-than-life Spanish exchange student. As he starts hooking up with the girls in her class, Julie falls in love with him. Or what she thinks is love.

Tony Curtis is mesmerizing as Louis “Lepke” Buchalter in Menahem Golan’s epic drama about the feared leader of Murder, Incorporated. The film reads like a who’s who of New York Jewish gangsters: Dutch Schultz, Gurrah Shapiro, Mendy Weiss, Kid “Twist” Reles and their nemesis, Thomas Dewey. Lepke provides a unique window into the Jewish immigrant experience in the trajectory of a man driven to achieve one version of the American dream.

Les Affinités Recouvrées

Les Affinités Recouvrées

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Let's Fall in Love: A Singles Weekend at the Concord Hotel

Let's Fall in Love: A Singles Weekend at the Concord Hotel

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A Letter to David

A Letter to David

A cinematic letter to director Tom Shoval’s friend David Cunio, who was abducted on October 7, using echoes from their prior collaboration on Youth.

A Letter to Harvey Milk: Harry Weinberg's Notebook

A Letter to Harvey Milk: Harry Weinberg's Notebook

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A Letter Without Words

A Letter Without Words

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Over the past five years, tens of thousands of refugees from sub-Saharan Africa have sought relief and safety in Israel only to find a society bitterly divided on how to treat them. Filmmaker Beth Toni Kruvant examines Israel’s moral obligation to extend aid and comfort to the refugees and the role that race and religion play in the willingness of a community to accept them in their midst.

Life According to Sam

Life According to Sam

The clock is ticking for all of us, but it is ticking faster for Sam Bern. Sam has progeria, an extremely rare age-accelerating disease. When we first meet Sam, he is 13 years old but looks 70. He is a precocious middle school student interested in music and sports, though his ability to participate is limited by his fragile body. Fortunately, Sam’s parents are both doctors. His mom, Dr. Leslie Gordon, is a genetic researcher and is on a crusade to get approval of a drug that will extend Sam’s life as well as those of other children with the disease beyond the average life expectancy of 13–14 years. It is a race against time for Gordon to get her drug trial results published in a reputable medical journal. Sam talks about his mortality but does so with a lack of anger or self pity. Yet like any teenager he has goals for himself, the most pressing of which is to play drums in his high school marching band. Academy Award–winning directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine have created an emotionally uplifting chronicle of determination and optimism in the face of terrible odds with Sam being one of the most inspirational documentary subjects in recent memory.

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg

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A Life Apart: Hasidism in America

A Life Apart: Hasidism in America

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Lifetime Guarantee: Phranc's Adventures in Plastic

Lifetime Guarantee: Phranc's Adventures in Plastic

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Like Father Like Clown

Like Father Like Clown

When the Simpsons have Krusty the Clown over for dinner, he says grace in Hebrew and laments his estrangement from his father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky (voiced by Jackie Mason). Lisa and Bart try repeatedly to reunite them, going so far as to dress Bart as an Orthodox Jew.

Little Horribles: An Evening with Amy York Rubin

Little Horribles: An Evening with Amy York Rubin

If George Costanza and Murphy Brown had a baby, it would be named Amy York Rubin, the creator and star of Little Horribles, a darkly comedic web series that follows the poor decisions of a self-indulgent lesbian. With Little Horribles hailed as one of the top ten web series of 2013 by Variety and called “the lesbian answer to Girls” by the Huffington Post, Rubin has emerged as a bold new comedic voice.

This inspiring documentary profiles four women, each putting tremendous effort into helping women around the world in unique ways. A Brazilian graffiti artist speaks out against domestic violence; a Senegalese hip-hop musician educates young women about the perils of genital mutilation; a classically trained dancer in India helps heal victims of sex trafficking through movement therapy; and a young American finds high-end U.S. markets for poor Kenyan women’s hand-sewn clothing.

Little White Lie

Little White Lie

Daring to ask questions about her true identity, around which her parents had kept a careful silence throughout her entire childhood, filmmaker Lacey Schwartz gently but firmly pulls back the curtain on matters of race and family secrets in her deeply personal and riveting documentary. Schwartz raises larger questions for us all: What factors—race, religion, family, upbringing—make us who we are? And what happens when we are forced to redefine ourselves?

Living in Conflict

Living in Conflict

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The Living Orphan

The Living Orphan

We proudly present a restored print of prolific director Joseph Seiden’s The Living Orphan, courtesy of the National Center for Jewish Film. Based on Sholom Secunda’s Yiddish play Der Yusem, this drama of an immigrant showbiz family features rare footage of New York City in the 1930s. "A recording of a vanished landscape," writes film scholar J. Hoberman, "... as well as a two-hankie backstage domestic saga."

LOCAL ANGEL: THEOLOGICAL POLITICAL FRAGMENTS is a first-person film by New York-based artist Udi Aloni, son of Shulamit Aloni, a founder of Israeli peace and civil rights groups. Grounded in its maker’s progressive politics, the film questions how ancient ideas of place and sanctity inform the contemporary debate over Israel and Palestine. Followed by a panel, The Temple in Time and Space.

Initially scripted by future blacklistee Norma Barzman, who was denied credit, The Locket is a compelling film noir treating a female protagonist with empathy and psychological depth. Laraine Day plays a bride facing a crisis hours before her wedding, prompting a mental breakdown and institutionalization. A neglected gem, and a marker of what the "woman’s film" might have become nearly a quarter-century before feminism.

The Lonely Child

The Lonely Child

“The Lonely Child” is a haunting Yiddish lullaby written during the Holocaust, capturing the heartbreak of a mother and daughter torn apart by war. Eighty years later, the daughter of the child in the song embarks on a powerful journey to trace the song’s unexpected impact across generations.

The Longing: The Forgotten Jews of South America

The Longing: The Forgotten Jews of South America

The poignant and inspiring story of six South Americans who long to affirm their Jewish faith against all odds. They believe they are among millions descended from crypto-Jews, immigrants to the Americas who secretly practiced Judaism despite centuries of draconian prohibition during the Spanish Inquisition. Now their descendants wish to reclaim a heritage and a faith long buried, but face resistance from both within and outside the Jewish communit

Looking for Mr. Israeli

Looking for Mr. Israeli

A personal essay about a self-questioning, tenacious American Jew who sets out to find a crush he saw only in a magazine fifty years ago, while wrestling with his evolving relationship to Israel.

A film about an allegorical musical about a Yom Kippur service that goes off the rails and transforms into an attempted community therapy session.

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Love & Stuff | 3:45pm pst

Love & Stuff | 3:45pm pst

Love & Stuff is a multi-generational love story. Told in the first person, in deep consultation with the past, filmmaker Judith Helfand explores the transformative power of parenting, our complex and emotional attachment to “stuff” and what it is we really need to leave our children.

Despite his job assisting a high-powered San Francisco corporate tax attorney, Josh Kornbluth hasn’t filed his own taxes in years. When his boss finally convinces him to file, so begins an unexpected and hilarious journey that will change his life. Seamlessly blending scenes from Kornbluthss finally convinces him to file, so begins an unexpected and Love & Taxes will capture your heart and make you never want to do your taxes the same way again.

Love Comes Lately

Love Comes Lately

Love Comes Lately evokes the Nobel Prize–winning Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer in word, spirit and deed in a winning film by Jan Schütte. At the center of three intertwined Singer stories is the elderly writer Max, who lives “in a state of permanent confusion,” enhanced by a thriving libido and a vivid imagination that has his dream life merging with his waking, and both with his fictions. Starring Otto Tausig, Rhea Perlman and Tovah Feldshuh.

Love Iranian-American Style

Love Iranian-American Style

She’s smart and articulate, funny and vivacious... and she’s tall. So why, at 25, isn’t she married yet? Cultural anthropology does a screaming loop the- loop in Love Iranian-American Style, a fearless autobiographical look at the filmmaker’s lovelorn life.

Prolific young actor Anton Yelchin was wise beyond his years and influenced everyone around him to strive for more. Love, Antosha tells the story of Yelchin's creative persistence. His devoted Russian parents nurtured his love of acting, exposing him to works of the masters. Filming himself became a tool for his transformation; reflecting on his own performance, he pushed himself to find depth in every role. Often the youngest actor on set, Yelchin's intense focus inspired many actors around him - Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pine, and John Cho share revealing insights into his character. Though he kept it a secret, Yelchin lived with a dangerous health condition, but he never became discouraged. As he grew into his craft, he continually enriched his understanding of the world, embodying an incredible authenticity. As a vivid part of the Sundance Film Festival community, Yelchin premiered in numerous independent features at the Festival: Alpha Dog (2006), Like Crazy (Grand Jury Prize in 2011), and Thoroughbreds (2017). Filmmaker Garret Price crafts a heartwarming and profound coming-of-age story of a singular young artist taken from us too early.

Rare personal recordings, hilarious clips and heartfelt interviews comprise this endearing tribute to a comedy icon.

Lyd is a sci-fi documentary about the city that "connected Palestine to the world" – exploring its history of expulsion and imagining a shared alternative future.

Erin and Charlie escape to the desert to navigate a challenging and unexpected new phase of their relationship. Screens with the Freedom of Expression Award presentation to Daveed Diggs.

Mah-Jongg: The Tiles That Bind

Mah-Jongg: The Tiles That Bind

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