Film Archive | Jewish Film Institute

Exhibition Series

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Filtered By: USA Clear All

Facing Fear

As a 13-year-old, Matthew Boger was thrown out of his home for being gay. While living on the streets of Hollywood, he was savagely beaten in a back alley by a group of neo-Nazis. Twenty-five years later, Boger finds himself in a chance meeting with the same neo-Nazi.

The Falashas

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Family Prayers

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Family Secret

A letter from Romania inspires a woman to travel halfway across the world to meet the brother she never knew she had. Like an archaeologist discovering pieces from the past, she finds the secrets to her late father's life, sparked by the discovery of a photo of a little boy.

Famous Nathan

We all love a good rags-to-riches story, and few are as improbable as the tale of Nathan Handwerker of Nathan’s Famous, the storied hot dog franchise. Famous Nathan draws on hundreds of hours of interview footage, home movies and audio recordings to weave the story of Handwerker as fast food pioneer, upstanding member of the Jewish community and family man. It is a quintessentially American tale of food, family and faith.

Centerpiece Narrative: Fantasy Life

After getting laid off, a thirty-something paralegal in New York starts babysitting his psychiatrist's three granddaughters and falls for their mother, an actress in a rocky marriage.

Farewell

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Fast Times at Ridgemont High

In Amy Heckerling's 1982 classic, a group of Southern California high school students navigate the ups and downs of adolescence, part-time jobs, and emerging sexuality over the course of one school year.

Fast Trip, Long Drop

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Local Spotlight: The Feeling Remains

A filmmaker unravels decades of family secrets and distorted memories, confronting the painful truths of a violent past in a compassionate search for understanding.

Feeling Sexual

about a bold high school student who sets out to seduce her older, self-obsessed family friend while touring his university.

Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles | SFJFF39's OPENING NIGHT FILM

The documentary tells the story behind Broadway musical "Fiddler on The Roof” and its creative roots in early 1960s New York. “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles” includes interviews with the Broadway show’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick, legendary producer Hal Prince, original cast members, such as Austin Pendleton, as well as rare archival footage of choreographer Jerome Robbins.

The Fight

On June 22, 1938, Joe Louis, the pride of black America, took on Max Schmeling, Hitler’s golden boy, for the heavyweight championship of the world. Astonishingly, they both had Jewish managers. This stirring film recounts how the legendary bout became a dramatic test of Hitler’s racial theories and America’s willingness to embrace a black hero.

Fighter

Two Czechoslovakian Jewish men return to Europe together to face their Holocaust histories. The trip takes them on an original and unorthodox exploration of WWII, unearthing stories of joie de vivre, fighting spirit, romance and humor. Beginning as a historical biography, FIGHTER becomes a psychological drama as the two men find their friendship at risk, struggling in their unique ways with feelings of rage and shame.

Film for Thought: Screenings on Saturday Afternoons

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Fire At Will

When parents gather their four adult children over dinner to solidify the family will, the children's self-absorbed agendas send the conversation careening into chaos.

The Fire This Time

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First Cousin Once Removed

Alan Berliner is known for creating original, personal and highly inventive documentaries that utilize home movies, found footage and probing interviews. In his new film the subject is his mother’s first cousin, poet Edwin Honig, who for the past several years has been living with Alzheimer’s. Berliner has chronicled his visits over many years to create a profound study of memory that is both playful and incisive. A gem from a master filmmaker.

Five Weddings and A Felony

Twentysomething Chicago filmmaker Josh Freed’s comic essay documents his real-life inability to commit to a serious relationship even after meeting the incredibly adorable and wise second-grade school teacher Paulina. When five close friends get married and his dad develops a life-threatening illness, Josh begins to question his own life choices in this freewheeling self-portrait that manages to be charming, galling, funny, cringe-inducing, and always compelling.

Closing Night: The Floaters

A struggling musician takes a last-resort job supervising misfits at her childhood Jewish summer camp. Counselors and campers alike must overcome their differences to save the camp.

Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story

Take a riveting journey into the intrepid exploits of the leader of Operation Entebbe. On July 4, 1976, 30-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan (Yoni) Netanyahu led the daring operation to rescue the 103 Israelis who were held hostage in Uganda. Filmmakers Jonathan Gruber and Ari Daniel Pinchot delicately weave the epic with the intimate in this personal story of a young man who dedicated his life to the service of his people. [MINIGUIDE 71/70]

Food and Country

At the height of the pandemic, renowned food critic Ruth Reichl shines a light on America’s broken food industry and the human toll behind the country’s ceaseless effort to create the world’s most abundant food supply.

Food for the Chosen People

A group of LA friends battle for a table at legendary Chinese restaurant Yang Chow to continue the Jewish Christmas Day tradition.

For the Love of Spock

“Live long and prosper.” It’s impossible not to cherish those famous words spoken by the beloved half-human Vulcan. Leonard Nimoy, the man behind the pointy ears, left an indelible mark as an artist and as a mensch. Featuring clips from Nimoy’s career and inspiring interviews with the Star Trek cast, director Adam Nimoy has crafted a loving tribute to not only his father, but also to the man we know as Mr. Spock. —Joshua Moore

Forever Activists: Stories from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

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Forgiving Dr. Mengele

As ten-year-old girls, Eva Mozes Kor and her twin sister suffered at the hands of Nazi geneticist Josef Mengele. Now living in Indiana, Eva has gone public with her extraordinary tale of survival, insisting that only by forgiving the Nazis for their crimes has she managed to escape the horror of her past--a stance that has outraged many of her fellow Mengele twins. Just what does forgiveness mean?Followed in Mt. View by a panel.

The Forward: From Immigrants to Americans

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Four Questions For a Rabbi

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Four Short Films About Love

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FOE Award: Liz Garbus - The Fourth Estate

Prolific documentarian Liz Garbus has been at the forefront of nonfiction filmmaking for decades. From The Farm: Angola, USA to Bobby Fischer Against the World (SFJFF 2011), What Happened, Miss Simone?, and now with The Fourth Estate, her latest documentary about The New York Times' coverage of the Trump Administration's first hundred days, the work of this two-time Academy Award nominee, Peabody winner and Emmy winner is a true embodiment of the Freedom of Expression Award.

The Foxhole Manifesto

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The Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists

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The Freedom to Marry

What’s the definition of a mensch? After watching this inspiring documentary, you’ll have a two-word answer: Evan Wolfson. Founder of the advocacy group Freedom to Marry and the acknowledged “godfather” of the marriage equality movement, Wolfson’s 30-year struggle to bring about justice for millions of gays and lesbians is the heart of this fascinating history that retraces the circuitous path towards legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States. —Peter L. Stein

From Shtetl to Swing

From Shtetl to Swing is a trip through some of the most extraordinary archival footage of American Jewish musical and theatrical talent in the early 20th century, with the unmistakable Harvey Fierstein as the rousing narrator for the journey.

From Swastika to Jim Crow

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The Front

A classic better appreciated decades after its release, The Front is a comedy about a deadly serious subject. Woody Allen portrays a somewhat naïve front for a trio of blacklisted television writers; Zero Mostel, in a role based partly on his own story, plays a Blacklist victim who cannot betray his Jewishness. Walter Bernstein got a much-deserved Oscar® nomination for Best Screenplay.

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