Film Archive | Jewish Film Institute

Exhibition Series

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Facing the Wall

On her first morning in an Israeli absorption center, Sureni does everything she can to shut out her new reality and pretend she never left Ethiopia.

Facing the Wind

Facing the Wind is the story of 13-year-old Oran, who lost his eyesight and five members of his family in a terrorist attack. Despite his blindness, Oran is going to make his dream come true and keep on sailing.

Facing Windows

Facing Windows features dual love stories, one from the 1940s between two Italian Jews and one contemporary story of neighbors who watch each other furtively from facing windows across a street. The erotic tension between a sexy but routine-weary woman (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and her hunky Italian Clark Kent look-alike neighbor (Raoul Bova) gives way to quiet communication and a profound experience when together they befriend Davide , an elderly Jewish man (Massimo Girotti).

The Falashas

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Falsch

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False Flag

Not since Prisoners of War has there been such a provocative, nail-biting espionage thriller on Israeli TV. In False Flag five Israeli citizens wake up one morning to discover that they are suspects in the kidnapping of the Iranian minister of defense. The five become wanted and news coverage turns their world upside down. Their attempts to deny involvement are in vain. Even their loved ones question, could they be guilty? —Lexi Leban

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.

Fanny's Journey

Riveting from the first frame to the last, Fanny’s Journey is the true and absorbing story of a 13-year-old girl who is separated from her parents in Nazi-occupied France. Fanny is brave and determined and leads her younger sisters and a group of Jewish children towards sanctuary in Switzerland. Expertly directed and well acted, the film emphasizes the resilience of these young heroes and is especially relevant in the present moment.

Fantasy - Another Country

Two drag queens in quirly center of Tel Aviv. The Arab is never questioned by the police as he has a light teint. The Jew keeps being arrested because he's dark. Both, however, are full of queer joy.

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.

Far From Maine

As if speaking to a childhood Palestinian friend killed by Israeli police in 2000, an Arab-Jewish Israeli filmmaker meditates on lifelong personal grief, collective trauma, and Israel-Palestine today.

Farewell

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Farewell USSR

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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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Father and Son

Marcel and Pawel Lozinski, father and son, have studied dozens of subjects as documentary filmmakers. The one subject left unexamined, until now, has been their relationship. In Father and Son, they undertake a journey across time and distance as they use a road trip from Poland to Paris to compare their divergent perceptions of a shared past. This is a moving, intimate film you won’t soon forget. Preceded by Hollow Land.

The Father, The Son and The Rav Kalmenson

Yoel is honoring Shabbat in the neighborhood synagogue when his rabbi announces to him that his son is “lighting up”.

Father's Footsteps

Close-knit, loving and in for a heap of trouble, the Tunisian-Israeli Maimon family arrives in mid-1970s Paris footloose and free with only a VW bus to its name. Much to the dismay of suffering mom Mireille (Yael Abacassis), hapless father Felix (Gad Elmaleh) soon gets mixed up with local crime boss Serge (Richard Berry), forcing their sons to grow up too soon. This smartly written feature was nominated for five Israeli Academy Awards (Ophir Awards).

Fear Not, Jacob!

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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.

The Feldmann Case

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Fellow Travelers

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Feminist Film Movement Panel

A free panel with women filmmakers discussing representation in the wake of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements.

Festival Community Shabbat

Gather in the JCCSF atrium for a community Shabbat to mark the midway point of SFJFF46 and celebrate the world premiere of "I Don’t Know What I’m Doing Here."

Fever At Dawn

A Swedish refugee camp doctor gives Holocaust survivor Miklós six months to live. But the young man refuses to die before meeting the love of his life. He sends letters to 117 Hungarian women in sex-segregated camps throughout Sweden. The response of 19-year old Lilli captures his heart and his imagination. Péter Gárdos’s romantic drama, based upon his novel of his parents’ post-Holocaust courtship creates indelible images of heartbreak and hope. —Sara L. Rubin

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.

Fig Tree

14 year old Jewish Mina, is trying to navigate between a surreal routine dictated by the civil war in Ethiopia and her last days of youth with her Christian boyfriend Eli. When she discovers that her family is planning to immigrate to Israel and escape the war, she weaves an alternate plan in order to save Eli. But in times of war, plans tend to go wrong. Marsha's coming of age film debut film is based on her childhood memories of a civil-war-torn Ethiopia.

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.

Fill the Void

This remarkable feature debut by Rama Burshtein –the first Orthodox woman to make a film meant for wide mainstream distribution – was picked up by Sony Picture Classics and was Israel's Official Submission for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012.

The Film Class

The Film Class explores the black Bedouins’ legacy of slavery through the astonished eyes of the current generation of women.

Film Fanatic

Film Fanatic is a captivating portrait of Yehuda Grovais, an energetic Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jew who has made over 50 feature films geared toward members of his community (who are prohibited from watching mainstream movies, but watch his films on disc). Preceded by Yoel, Israel and the Pashkevils, an unusual documentary because of its access to a hidden community, about a printer of protest posters (pashkevils) and his zealous nemesis.

Film for Thought: Screenings on Saturday Afternoons

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