Film Archive | Jewish Film Institute

Exhibition Series

2020 Filmmakers in Residence
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2024 JFI Completion Grants
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2026 JFI Completion Grants
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Film Type

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Television Series

Henri Dauman: Looking Up

As one of the preeminent photographers of the 20th century, self-taught Henri Dauman took the international photojournalism scene by storm with his cinematic images that redefined the methods of capturing historical icons. Leaving behind his past as an orphaned Holocaust survivor, Dauman created a new life for himself in New York City, where his timeless style quickly gained momentum amidst high society and celebrity culture. Exploring both the photographer's traumatic past and the contrasting vibrancy of the city that would define his work, director Peter Jones's film is a testament to the resilience and perseverance of the man behind the camera.

Herd

Working on her family’s ranch as they raise cattle for slaughter, 10-year-old Naama contemplates philosophical questions regarding life and death.

Here One Day

Nina Williams Leichter, the brilliant wife of a New York state senator, committed suicide by jumping from her apartment window. Years later, her daughter, filmmaker Kathy Leichter, returns to her parent’s home and discovers audiocassettes in which her mother reveals the extent of her mental anguish. This powerful personal statement threads together the disparate strands of Williams’ sorrow, ultimately becoming a moving evocation of life itself.

Herskovits At the Heart of Blackness

Three different narratives of Israel’s 1948 war of independence unfold side by side through the images of a British photojournalist, a Zionist movie producer and a Palestinian photographer. Preceded by Herskovits At the Heart of Blackness, a fascinating, visually innovative biography revealing the pioneering work and controversial legacy of American Jewish anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits, a towering scholar often credited with inventing the field of African studies in the 1920s through the 50s.

Hervé Cohen: This Little Song

Haunted by a childhood melody sung in Arabic by his Jewish grandmother, a filmmaker embarks on a journey across Algeria to rediscover a lost song and unravel the echoes of a once-thriving harmony between Jews and Muslims.

Hester Street

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Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger

Esther Blueberger has thick glasses, parents who don’t understand her, a pet duck and no friends at her hoity-toity school where her classmates all look identical. She and her twin brother are approaching their bar/bat mitzvah, a rite of passage that coincides with Esther’s inner turmoil. On the road to greater self-awareness, Esther encounters kissing, sex, class differences, questions of loyalty and an indestructible urge to be herself. Cathy Randall’s wacky/serious coming-of-age comedy mines the phenomenon of good girls going bad—or rather, finding themselves—and sports sunlit, color-drenched production design and peerless acting by Diane Catanzariti, Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) and Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine, Mary and Max).

Hey Workers!

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Hidden Children

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Hide and Seek

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Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust

This astute and masterful documentary explores post-Holocaust questions of faith and a father’s hope for a more tolerant world. Daum and his wife Rivka undertake a journey to Poland with their sons, both of whom are married Orthodox yeshiva students living in Jerusalem. The Daums are seeking traces of their families’ history, including the Polish family who hid Rivka’s father during WWII.

High Five

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High Street

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Highway 65

A young woman disappears in a burning hot summer in Afula. Nobody is looking for her, except for one police investigator who won't let it go.

Hilla Medalia: Missing Vivian Silver

On the morning of October 7th, renowned peace activist Vivian Silver was assumed to be abducted by Hamas from her kibbutz near Gaza. As Israel launches a devastating attack on the Gaza Strip, Vivian’s sons, and beloved Jewish and Palestinian friends, struggle to hold onto Silver's vision and hope for peace.

Himmo: King of Jerusalem

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Hinda and her Sisterrrz

As the Holocaust survivor community ages, the USC Shoah Foundation has embarked on an ambitious new project to transform survivors into 3-D digital projections that will interact with generations to come. 116 Cameras follows Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, as she goes through this unique process and reflects on how her role as a Holocaust speaker has changed over time.

Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School

Shulamit Izen knew she was a lesbian in ninth grade. Her sexuality put her at odds with the administration of her Boston-area Jewish high school and her interpretation of her religion. Rather than give up her Judaism, Shulamit questions it. Thus begins a dramatic clash between this confident young woman, other students and the religious policy commission of the school.

His People

Silent classic with jazz score performed live! Join us for a one-time-only musical event: a silent Jewish boxing classic, accompanied by Paul Shapiro’s New York-based jazz sextet performing his new film score. HIS PEOPLE is a nostalgic and entertaining tale of life on the Lower East Side of New York, circa 1925. Two sons of poor immigrant parents take very different paths in their efforts to achieve the American dream. One becomes a lawyer and the other a professional boxer. Themes of love, loyalty, tradition and assimilation permeate this silent gem. Paul Shapiro’s Yiddish-inflected jazz score performed at the Castro makes this a special musical evening.

History (La Storia)

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A History of Israeli Cinema

An engrossing retrospective documentary covering the evolution of Israeli cinema from the earliest days of pre-1948 filmmaking to the present-day renaissance of the Israeli film industry. Clips from classic films, interwoven with testimonials from key players and pioneers of Israeli cinema, bring to life the different ways that Israeli artists have created and changed their cinematic self-image as the nation itself evolved. A “must see” for any fan of Israeli cinema and a fabulous introduction for the uninitiated.

Hitchhikers: An Israeli Roadside Odyssey

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Hitmakers: The Teens Who Stole Pop Music

A bunch of Jewish kids from Brooklyn jump-started the music business in the 1960s, and it’s never been the same. Hitmakers is a fabulously entertaining look at the amazing convergence of talent at Manhattan’s Brill Building, including songwriters Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, and Neil Sedaka. These were magical years, when smart kids from Brooklyn hopped the subway into Manhattan with crumpled song sheets, swept along by the passion and raw energy of rock ‘n roll.

Holden Kepecs: Star in the Ring

Documentary film that tells the story of the time when Jews dominated the sport of boxing.

Centerpiece Documentary: Holding Liat

After Liat Beinin Atzili is kidnapped on October 7, 2023, her Israeli American family faces their own conflicting perspectives as they fight for her release.

Holidaze

This triptych of stories from SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project, produced by Citizen Film (see page xx), delivers candid, funny observations of do-it-yourself holiday rituals. Teenage co-directors from a range of backgrounds consider the mysterious relevance of ritual in secular, multicultural lives.

Hollow Land

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Take Action Spotlight: Hollywood Does Abortion

Since the 1970s, depictions of abortion in film and television have both impacted and reflected shifting attitudes towards the procedure and those who choose it. This incisive documentary examines the undeniable impact that the American entertainment industry has had on that fight.

Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies, and the American Dream

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The Holocaust Tourist: Whatever Happened to Never Again?

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Centerpiece Documentary: Holofiction

This experimental film explores the visual representation of the Holocaust through a montage of thousands of excerpts from film and television from 1938 to the present to critically examine how Holocaust imagery has been codified and reproduced in cinema across decades.

Holy Land

Gripping from start to finish, Holy Land documents the lives of those who call the West Bank home as you’ve never seen them before. Following three Israelis and three Palestinians, from an ultra-orthodox Jewish settler to a left-wing Israeli activist to a young Palestinian protestor, over the course of a year, this fascinating documentary paints a complex portrait of the people who live, fight and sometimes die for the land they consider holy.

The Holy Office

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Holy Zoo

In Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo, Israelis and Palestinians work alongside one another to tend to the zoo’s elephants, crocodiles and rhinos. Inevitably, tensions within and across animal species reflect themselves in the mostly good-natured, always edgy interactions between employees, who lead regular tours of Muslim and Jewish schoolchildren through the zoo’s grounds. Katharina Waisburd’s keen eye results in an unforgettable lens into the current conflict in the Holy Land. Preceded by The Mute’s House. —Zoe Pollak

Homage By Assassination

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Homage to Chagall - The Colours of Love

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