JFI On Demand | Jewish Film Institute

Exhibition Series

2020 JFI Completion Grants
2021 JFI Completion Grants
2022 JFI Completion Grants
2023 JFI Completion Grants
2024 Filmmakers in Residence
2024 JFI Completion Grants
2025 Filmmakers in Residence
40th Holiday Festival
Cinegogue Summer Days
Co-Presentation 2007
Co-Presentation 2008
Co-Presentation 2009
Co-Presentation 2010
Co-Presentation 2013
Co-Presentation 2014
Israel in Motion
JFI/JSP Momentum Awards
Magnes
Member Screening 2005
Member Screening 2006
Member Screening 2011
Member Screening 2012
Member Screening 2013
Member Screening 2014
Member Screening 2015
Member Screening 2016
Member Screening 2017
Member Screening 2018
Member Screening 2020
Member Screening 2021
SFJFF 1981
SFJFF 1982
SFJFF 1983
SFJFF 1984
SFJFF 1985
SFJFF 1986
SFJFF 1987
SFJFF 1988
SFJFF 1989
SFJFF 1990
SFJFF 1991
SFJFF 1992
SFJFF 1993
SFJFF 1994
SFJFF 1995
SFJFF 1996
SFJFF 1997
SFJFF 1998
SFJFF 1999
SFJFF 2000
SFJFF 2001
SFJFF 2002
SFJFF 2003
SFJFF 2004
SFJFF 2005
SFJFF 2006
SFJFF 2007
SFJFF 2008
SFJFF 2009
SFJFF 2010
SFJFF 2011
SFJFF 2012
SFJFF 2013
SFJFF 2014
SFJFF 2015
SFJFF 2016
SFJFF 2017
SFJFF 2018
SFJFF 2019
SFJFF 2021
SFJFF 2023
SFJFF at JCCSF
SFJFF Madrid
SFJFF Moscow
Stories She Tells
Sundance
Urban Adamah
WinterFest 2014
WinterFest 2015
WinterFest 2016
WinterFest 2017
WinterFest 2018
WinterFest 2019
Winterfest 2020
WinterFest 2021
WinterFest 2022
YBCA

JFI On Demand

Anti-Semitism
Black History Month
ChaiFlicks
Cinegogue Sessions
Comedy
Coming of Age
Curator Picks
Filmmaker Distributed
Films for the High Holidays
Holocaust
Israeli Films
J Weekly Top 10 Israeli Films
JFI Completion Grantee
JFI Resident
LGBTQ
Religion & Spirituality
Short Films
Social Justice
Streaming Service
WinterFest
Women's History Month
Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance

Film Type

Animation
Documentary
Experimental
Narrative
Television Series

Program Type

Cinegogue Sessions
Cinegogue Summer Days
Festival
Member Screening
Next Wave
Stories She Tells
Sundance Film Festival
WinterFest 2018
WinterFest 2019
WinterFest 2020
WinterFest 2021

Filtered By: Clear All

Paradise

A compelling tale of loss, betrayal and redemption, Andrei Konchalovsky’s bold, black-and-white World War II drama won the Venice Film Festival’s Silver Lion and was Russia’s entry in the 2017 Academy Awards. Three lives fatefully intersect when Russian countess Olga is arrested for sheltering two Jewish boys in Nazi-occupied France. Echoing the intensity of Laszlo Nemes Son of Saul, Konchalovsky’s deeply spiritual vision is a major contribution to Holocaust cinema.

Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict

Born into great wealth yet emotionally rebellious, American socialite Peggy Guggenheim spent a lifetime—and a fortune—breaking society’s rules to become one of the preeminent art collectors of the 20th century and a tireless champion of the avant- garde. This absorbing documentary profiles the bohemian tastemaker who helped discover such talents as Kandinsky, Cocteau, Dali, and Pollock, while pursuing sexual liaisons with the likes of Samuel Beckett and Paul Bowles.

Plastic Man: The Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish

This delightful documentary follows Jerry Ross Barrish, an unorthodox sculptor in his 70s, as he struggles to achieve commercial success. Daylighting as a bail bondsman and formally a pioneering independent filmmaker, Barrish now sculpts with found plastic—trash, essentially—which he assembles into works of Picasso-esque humanity. Too often art documentaries treat their subjects with reverent distance. But Barrish’s infectious charm and whimsical art will make you want to pick up a pencil and start drawing.

Projections of America

Hollywood screenwriter Robert Riskin’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town won him a 1937 Oscar. Less well known is Riskin’s series of short films, produced to aid America’s WWII effort. The films’ American values reflect his own Jewish, left-leaning principles, countering foreigners’ negative stereotypes of United States citizens. With narration by John Lithgow, director Peter Miller skillfully brings this effort to light.

Quality Balls: The David Steinberg Story

If you’ve never heard of David Steinberg—and even if you have—you’ll be astonished at the scope of his career captured in this very funny doc. The same man whose irreverent routine in 1968 contributed to the demise of the Smothers Brothers show also directed episodes of Seinfeld, Friends and Curb Your Enthusiasm in the 2000s. Steinberg genially recounts his adventures between clips and interviews with comedians he inspired. Preceded by Little Horribles: Road Rage

Rabbi Wolff: A Gentleman Before God

Willy Wolff escaped the Nazis, became a renowned British journalist and didn’t go to rabbinical school till he was in his 50s. Now in his 80s, he leads two communities in Germany and still finds time for yoga, learning Russian and enjoying the racetrack. We go behind the scenes to see the beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking life of a deeply religious man who is rarely seen without a twinkle in his eye.

Rabin in His Own Words

This examination of the life and times of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is constructed largely from archival footage, photographs and interviews, from Rabin’s early days to his tragic death. Director Erez Laufer (One Day After Peace, SFJFF 2012) takes us from Rabin’s childhood, through his experience fighting in three wars, to his assassination, and reminds us of the possibility for peace that remains for those who want it. —Seth Barron

RBG

While most Americans think of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a progressive superhero and the beacon of left-leaning thinking on a court that veers ever-rightward, this raucous and informative documentary portrait reveals the complex history that brought her to this point.

Regarding Susan Sontag

Regarding Susan Sontag reflects the boldness of Sontag’s work and the cultural importance of her thought, through extraordinary archival footage and still photographs, riveting interviews with Sontag’s friends and colleagues, and a rich tapestry of artifacts from popular culture. These are combined with creatively culled and manipulated images to create a nuanced, sophisticated portrait of a great thinker. Many Americans know Sontag’s name; the film shows us who she was, and why her thoughts about topics such as illness, photography, war, terrorism, and torture remain vitally important in the new world of the 21st century.

Rock in the Red Zone

On the edge of the Negev Desert, the city of Sderot became the target of near-constant close-range Qassam rockets after Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza. Sderot’s youth found expression for both their anger and their hope in rock music. Drawn by the music’s energy, director Laura Bialis documents Sderot’s efforts to gain attention from Israel’s large cities, long before the summer of 2014, when longer range rockets reached them, too.

The Roundup

Long a taboo subject in France, the infamous Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup is brought to stirring life in this gripping drama starring Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) and Jean Reno (The Professional). Two days after Bastille Day 1942, more than 13,000 Jews were arrested and interned before being sent to Auschwitz. The Roundup brings us inside these events, revealing both the heartless complicity of the Vichy elite and the heroism of some ordinary citizens.

The Secrets

Naomi, daughter of a revered rabbi, comes to Safed—where the mystical texts of the Kabala were received—to study in an orthodox women’s seminary. Eagerly diving into serious Torah study, she catches the eye of the flirtatious Michelle. Assigned to bring meals to the mysterious Anouk (Fanny Ardant), ill and seeking spiritual redemption, Michelle and Naomi embark upon a secret journey of purifying rituals and forbidden love.

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.

Stalin Thought of You

A portrait of 105-year-old Russian political cartoonist Boris Efimov, whose pointed caricatures filled the pages of satirical magazines from Lenin’s time to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union, Kevin McNeer’s fascinating documentary relates the riveting tale of Efimov’s relationship with brutal dictator Josef Stalin and the tragic fall of his beloved brother, Mikhail. A dizzying, deeply moving chronicle of two siblings and one dictator whose crossed paths illuminate the story of a nation.

Streit's: Matzo and the American Dream

Just as its iconic pink box has graced Passover seder tables for generations of American Jews, so, too, Streit’s matzo factory has stood for some 80 years on the Lower East Side. For many Jews, a family business has been a way to make a living and a way to ensure that the next generation could do better. This is all challenged by the need for modernity, the pressures of foreign competition and enticing real estate offers. —Sara L. Rubin

Vessel

The heroine of this documentary, Rebecca Gomperts, embodies tikkun olam, repairing the world through your actions. The founder of Women on Waves, Gomperts builds a floating clinic to offer abortions where the procedure is banned, but her maiden voyage ends in disaster. She changes strategy, exploiting loopholes to teach women a World Health Organization–endorsed protocol to give themselves abortions at home. Her ingeniousness makes for a surprisingly invigorating tale.

West of the Jordan River

Amos Gitai (Rabin, Free Zone) returns to the occupied territories for the first time since his 1982 documentary Field Diary. West of the Jordan River describes the efforts of citizens, Israelis and Palestinians, who are trying to overcome the consequences of occupation.

Whisky

This masterful drama tells the story of two Jewish Uruguayan brothers. Jacobo lives alone in Montevideo, attached to his antiquated sock factory and the comfort of his routine. When Herman returns to Uruguay for the first time in 20 years, Jacobo asks his long-tenured employee Marta to pretend to be his wife. The three embark on a weekend vacation together, where relationships unfold and jealousies threaten to extinguish any sparks of brotherly love.

Wrestling Jerusalem

Writer/actor Aaron Davidman takes us on a whirlwind journey that presents competing narratives of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. He gracefully embodies 17 characters, moving deftly from male to female, Palestinian to Israeli, American to European. Davidman’s ability to empathize makes him an excellent tour guide. Masterfully shot backstage during a live performance, and in the desert, the film conjures cafes, buses and settlements as well as the deeply human stories they contain. —Stephanie Rapp

Need help using JFI On Demand? See our FAQ page.