Film Archive | Jewish Film Institute

Exhibition Series

2020 Filmmakers in Residence
2020 JFI Completion Grants
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2021 JFI Completion Grants
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2022 JFI Completion Grants
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2023 JFI Completion Grants
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2024 JFI Completion Grants
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2025 JFI Completion Grants
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2026 JFI Completion Grants
Cinegogue Summer Days
JFI Filmmakers in Residence
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Pre-2020 Filmmaker In Residence
SFJFF 1981
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Film Type

Animation
Documentary
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Television Series

Filtered By: USA Clear All

Arlo & Julie

In this whimsical romantic comedy, Arlo and Julie are a young couple adrift in Austin, whose lives are upended when Julie starts to receive mysterious packages in the mail. Each one contains more pieces of the same jigsaw puzzle. As they try to solve the mystery, they descend into an obsession that threatens to change everything. The result is an uplifting, surprisingly moving exploration of art and history, love, trust and faith. preceded by A Knock at the Door

The Armor of Light

In her breathtaking directorial debut, Abigail Disney follows evangelical minister Rob Schenck, an anti-abortion activist—and former Jew—as he examines whether it is possible to be pro-gun and pro-life. He teams with Lucy McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, an unarmed teenager murdered in Florida whose case has become a landmark in the fight against stand-your-ground laws. Disney artfully paces the story to show a polarized topic in a fresh light.

Art / Tech

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Art and Heart: The World of Isaiah Sheffer

Art and Heart, Catherine Tambini’s spirited documentary celebrates the life of Isaiah Sheffer, the founding artistic director of Symphony Space and host of Selected Shorts on public radio who inspired everyone from Leonard Nimoy to Stephen Colbert. Paired with Making Morning Star. Academy Award–nominated filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar’s intimate documentary relates the creation of Morning Star, a new opera by composer Ricky Ian Gordon as he brings 11 years of ideation to life. —Neha TalrejaPreceded by Making Morning Star

As I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM

Forget whatever you’ve heard about the life and death of Philadelphia-born DJ AM (born Adam Goldstein), the superstar club deejay who attained rock star status and survived a fiery plane crash only to die a short time later of a drug overdose at the age of 36. Director Kevin Kerslake’s haunting and heartbreaking portrait intimately conveys the brief life of an obsessive sonic genius for whom music, fame and love were tragically not enough.

As If It Were Yesterday

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At Home in Utopia

“The Coops,” which housed 1,200 pioneering families in cooperative Bronx apartment complexes, symbolized an experiment in justice and equality from 1926 through the 1950s. This affectionate documentary portrays those who embraced communist, socialist and union movements from their “fortress of the working class.” It mixes political, social and economic gravity with humor, contemporary interviews with archival black & white footage, and puts human faces on a history that’s a legacy for many American Jews.

At the Crossroads: Jews in Eastern Europe Today

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Audrie & Daisy

Fifteen-year-old Audrie Pott in Saratoga, California, and 14-year-old Daisy Coleman in Maryville, Missouri never met. What connects them is the sexual violence and humiliation they suffered in unrelated incidents from groups of boys who got them drunk, assaulted them and posted their actions on the internet. Thanks to probing interviews with strikingly perceptive subjects, this film provides unflinching insight into the entitlement that leads to the condoning of sexual violence. —Zoe PollakScreened at 2016 Sundance Film Festival

The Auschwitz Bagel

Three siblings are forced to reckon with their father’s new sexuality and familial dysfunction at a particularly awkward time—their great aunt’s funeral. Playing as part of Eat Up! Short & Sweet Festival Shorts Program

Autism in Love

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Autobiography of a Jeep

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Avital

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Awake Zion

Have you ever wondered why Jews and Rastafarians share the same Star of David and references to Zion? Awake Zion, featuring a vibrant soundtrack, answers that question and more as it reveals the connections between Jewish and reggae culture.

Awake Zion

Traveling from Jamaica to Jerusalem and set against a rock steady soundtrack, Awake Zion director Monica Haim uncovers the connections between davening and the dance hall, payos and dreadlocks, Jews and Rastafarians. By weaving together the perspectives and experiences of scholars and ska artists, rabbis and reggae stars, this rousing documentary takes us around the globe and through time, speaking powerfully to the history and spirituality shared by these two peoples.

Baby Face

Baby Face is a provocative pre-Code film starring Barbara Stanwyck as Lily Powers. who “sleeps her way to the top.”

Backseat Bingo

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Bad Jews in My Kitchen

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B-Boy

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Be Fruitful and Multiply

How do ultra-Orthodox women really feel about bearing and raising 10, 12, even 16 children? Be Fruitful and Multiply profiles four women in New York and Israel in a compelling look at the responsibilities and joys of procreation.

Before You Know It

Stage manager Rachel Gurner still lives in her childhood apartment - along with her off-kilter actress sister, Jackie; eccentric playwright father Mel; and deadpan preteen niece Dodge - above the tiny theatre they own and operate. Level-headed and turtleneck-wearing Rachel is the only thing standing between her family and utter chaos. Then, in the wake of a sudden family tragedy, Rachel and Jackie learn their presumed-deceased mother is actually alive and thriving as a soap-opera star. Now the sisters' already-precarious balance turns upside down, and Rachel must figure out how to liberate herself from this surreal imbroglio. Co-writer/director/star Hannah Pearl Utt is a triple threat with an impeccable sense of timing and a flair for juxtaposing unpredictable elements. Just as pragmatic Rachel and off-the-wall Jackie seem to hail from different planets while inhabiting the same universe, so too do the film's over-the-top moments and characters coexist alongside subtle, grounded ones. Equal parts madcap comedy, adult coming-of-age story, and poignant drama, Before You Know It gleefully defies categorization, and that is its genius.

Beginning With The End

For 10 years, English teacher Bob Kane has offered Hospice Care as an elective for Harley High School seniors wishing to help people at the end of their lives. What might an iPhone-toting teenager have in common with an 85-year-old too weak to lift up a hand? Emmy-winning director Dave Marshall provides plenty of answers in this moving film that bridges the gap between generations and is a testament to human connection.

Ben Berkowitz: Vagrant Viking

Peter Freuchen may have looked upon himself as a vagrant, but the world will once again know him for what he really was: an indomitable Viking, who spoke his mind and fought for the betterment of humanity.

Bending the Arc

Thirty years ago, a group of young, enthusiastic, and caring friends came together with a goal that was both simple and complex: to provide health care for all, particularly the poor in the developing world. This inspiring documentary charts the success of Partners in Health, an NGO which builds hospitals and delivers health care throughout the world as they work to bend the arc toward justice.

BENITA

The life and legacy of experimental filmmaker Benita Raphan are honored in this deeply felt new work by her friend and mentor, Alan Berliner, who pieces together her archive in a collaborative piece that captures Raphan’s boundless creative energy.

The Bent Tree

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Besa: The Promise

Preceded by 55 SocksDuring World War II, the Balkan kingdom of Albania offered unconditional asylum to European Jews. After Germany overran the small country, Albanian families, most of them Muslim, made a sacred oath to offer protection to the refugees. Decades later, an Albanian Muslim makes an emotional journey to Israel to fulfill a promise made by his father to the Jewish family he sheltered. [MINIGUIDE 62/70]

Best Man: Best Boy and All of Us Twenty Years Later

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Between Two Worlds

Who speaks for Jews today? In this personal essay, Snitow and Kaufman embark on an intimate, far-ranging exploration of the ideological fissures running through contemporary Jewish life. They turn their camera on recent flashpoints in American Jewish identity, including campus debates over divestment from Israel and the 2009 controversy stemming from SFJFF’s screening of Rachel. The filmmakers ask how each generation reshapes, reclaims or rejects its parents’ definition of community values. Followed by panel in S.F.

Beyond the Bolex

The Bolex camera has been a trusty tool for filmmakers since its introduction in the 1920s. In this personal film, Alyssa Bolsey delves into her family's history to uncover the story of the camera's inventor, her great-grandfather, Jacques Bolsey. A Russian refugee living in neutral Switzerland during WWI, Bolsey developed the iconic Bolex as a way to democratize image-making. Archival footage and interviews with renowned filmmakers who still swear by Bolsey's invention offer an ode to the man and his movie camera.

Beyond The Duplex Planet

Artist David Greenberger, whose quirky publication The Duplex Planet shared the insights of nursing home seniors, is now a senior himself and has much to say about art and conversation.

Brownsville Black and White

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Big Sonia

When you first catch sight of the light in her eyes, it is hard to imagine that Sonia Warshawski lived through one of the darkest periods of human history. Yet this 92-year-old, who drives herself to her tailoring business six days a week with a set of brightly painted fingernails and an equally vibrant smile, was forced to come of age in Auschwitz and now shares her story with school children and prisoners alike.

The Big Story

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Bin and Jerry's Fundamental Principles

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The Binding of Itzik

A middle aged Hasidic bookbinder, in his search for binding materials, stumbles across a craigslist ad offering "binding lessons for submissive women." He responds to it, becoming entangled in an emotionally intense BDSM relationship with a stranger on the internet that threatens to unravel his quiet life.

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