Film Archive | Jewish Film Institute

Exhibition Series

2020 Filmmakers in Residence
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2026 JFI Completion Grants
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Filtered By: USA Clear All

Screenagers

Are your kids scrolling through life, missing out on a childhood filled with imagination and outdoor adventure? Are you multitasking on your device, half listening to your child talk about his or her day? You are not alone. In Screenagers, filmmaker Delaney Ruston examines the impact of digital devices on our lives and the fraught household negotiations taking place around them. Screenagers will be followed by bagels and a post-film discussion. —Lexi Leban

In Search of Israeli Cuisine

Renowned chef Michael Solomonov explores a diverse world of food drawn from more than 100 cultures. Chefs, farmers, vintners, cheese makers and home cooks discuss their roots and show specialties that both preserve and update traditional recipes using global inspiration. Uniquely and lovingly prepared shakshuka, boreka, maqluba, couscous and a kugel that challenges expectations are just a few of the irresistible dishes featured. Warning: This movie will make you hungry!

The Search

Future blacklistee Paul Jarrico scripted The Search, arguably the best early film to treat the Holocaust theme. A mother searches for her son lost during the war, while a GI (Montgomery Clift) befriends a boy in a UN camp in occupied Germany. Its surprisingly realistic depiction of the trauma of war earned Oscar® nominations for Best Picture and Best Direction for Fred Zinnemann (High Noon, From Here to Eternity).

The Second Coming

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The Secret Art of Human Flight (Local Spotlight)

In this heartwarming and captivating tale, a young widower seeks escape from grief by training with an eccentric stranger who claims his methods will allow the man to fly.

Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During World War II

SECRET LIVES tells the story of Jewish children saved from the Nazis by non-Jews. The film deftly examines biological ties and the poignant reunions between children and their survivor parents. JOHNNY & JONES is a pitch-perfect documentary that interweaves the story of these pioneers of European swing with the making of a modern opera based on their lives, and features their rich recordings.

Seder-Masochism

Loosely following a traditional Passover Seder, the events of Exodus are retold by Moses, Aharon, the Angel of Death, Jesus, and the director's own father. But there's another side to this story: that of the Goddess, humankind's original deity. Seder-Masochism resurrects the Great Mother in a tragic struggle against the forces of Patriarchy.

Seeds

Seeds, an exceptional documentary, introduces us to ten courageous teenagers who gather together for three life-changing weeks at the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine. Back home, it’s impossible to believe that an Israeli and a Palestinian can share a bunk, let alone a laugh or a hug. Seeds sends a strong message of hope in a media landscape that is bursting with images of violence and intolerance.

Seltzer Works

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The Sentence

An intimate documentary about the impact a mother’s incarceration for a nonviolent drug offense has on her family.

Setup, Punch

Showing that there is always a reason to laugh, stand-up comic Reuben Stein (Elijah Wood) does the most daring set of his life. The consequences will change his life forever.

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.

Shalom Ireland

This fascinating film tells the story of the Irish Jews, highlighting the problem of maintaining Jewish community in Diaspora. The little-known history of Irish Jewry begins in the Middle Ages, but the modern Jewish community has its roots in the flight from pogroms in Eastern Europe around the turn of the century.preceded by THE LAST JEWISH TOWN

Shalom Y'all

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Shari & Lamb Chop | Opening Night

Before Mister Rogers there was Shari Lewis, best known for her skillful ventriloquism as the human counterpart to the beloved sock puppet Lamb Chop.

SHARING THE SCREEN: 20 YEARS OF ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN CINEMA AT THE JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL [program]

SHARING THE SCREEN: 20 YEARS OF ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN CINEMA AT THE JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL Janis Plotkin, former executive director of the SFJFF, will screen a compilation of clips from 20 years of Israeli cinema, a fascinating look at a complex society through the eyes of its social commentators and artists. Janis will present clips representing the voices and views of independent Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, as they chronicled the struggle for peace in the Middle East.

The Shidduch

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Shiva Baby | Next Wave Spotlight | 6pm pst

As a sugar baby, Danielle is financially pampered by her sugar daddy Max in exchange for companionship and sexual favors. When she joins her family at a shiva, shortly after leaving his house, her day takes an unexpected turn: apparently against all odds, she runs into Max with his accomplished wife and crying baby.

Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness

Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness presents a riveting portrait of the man who transformed Yiddish from a vernacular language into a literary one and, in the process, gave us much loved characters such as Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof. Interweaving excerpts from Aleichem’s work with interviews and archival photographs and footage, the film brings to life a lost world of Yiddish culture on the cusp of dramatic change.

Shorts: S-M-L-XL, All Styles [program]

Try these eclectic Jewish shorts on for size. From classics to irregulars, casual to formal, there’s something for every taste. 100% great Jewish film. No ironing necessary. Nine shorts, from an animated Holocaust story and a 1931 archival gem about an auditioning cantor to a sendup of music videos and a documentary sampler of youth-made films.

Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech

This vital and unexpectedly personal exploration of the right to free speech features prominent voices including the filmmaker’s father, Martin Garbus, who discusses his difficult decision as a young Jewish ACLU attorney to defend the rights of American Nazis in Skokie, Illinois. Coolheaded and utterly engaging, the film traces the embattled history of free expression in the U.S., with instructive emphasis on post-9/11 cases.

Shtick, Shmaltz, and Shtereotypes: Jewish Presence in Early Film Comedy (1912-1940) [program]

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The Shvitz

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The Silver Crown

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Sister Rose's Passion

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Sleeping With the Fishes

Alexis Fish’s life is a mess: Her husband is dead, her once successful party planning business is no more and anti-anxiety pills are the only thing keeping her going. When an aunt dies, she must return home and face her ever-disapproving mother and her well-intentioned but overzealous big sister. Writer/director Nicole Gomez Fisher’s delightful debut brings this quirky story of a dysfunctional yet loving Latino Jewish family to uproarious life.

A Small Act

Can a single act of generosity transform a life? As a poor Kenyan boy, Chris Mburu’s life changed forever when a Jewish schoolteacher in Sweden anonymously sponsored his education. Today a Harvard-educated lawyer, he honors his benefactor (and now friend) by providing scholarships in her name to a new generation of promising but desperately poor Kenyan children. A Small Act rivetingly celebrates this inspiring example of “paying it forward.”

Snow Day

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Snowy

Snowy, a four-inch-long pet turtle, has lived an isolated life in the family basement. With help from a team of experts and his caretaker, Uncle Larry, we ask: Can Snowy be happy, and what would it take?

So Long Are You Young

Why can many Japanese business titans recite the words of an obscure poem by a 19th- century Jewish merchant from Alabama? This eloquent and heartfelt documentary tells the dual story of Samuel Ullman, an unusual Jew from the American South, and his remarkable poem, “Youth,” which inspired a generation of postwar Japanese eager for new watchwords to live by. Preceded by Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow’s Ezekiel’s Wheels.

Soft Boil

Lulu takes a job as a nanny only to discover that her new boss isn’t who she expected.

Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa

Abby Ginzburg’s powerful doc begins with footage of the aftermath of the car bombing that nearly took the life of South African activist Albie Sachs. The badly wounded Sachs, a fighter for racial equality since he was a teenager, went on to become a member of Nelson Mandela’s Constitutional Court. This inspiring chronicle highlights Sachs’s lifelong quest for justice, which eventually led to a meeting with the man who attempted to end his life.

Some vacation.

What could possibly go wrong when Dad decides to take the family along on his business road trips and call them vacations?

Something to Remember Me By

A romantic connection is put in peril when a bathroom debacle ensues after a one-night stand.

Song of a Jewish Cowboy

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Song of Radauti

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