JFI On Demand | Jewish Film Institute

Exhibition Series

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
Women's History Month
Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance

Film Type

Animation
Documentary
Episodic
Experimental
Feature
Narrative
Short
Shorts Program
Television Series

Program Type

Cinegogue Sessions
Cinegogue Summer Days
Festival
Next Wave
Stories She Tells
Sundance Film Festival

Filtered By: - Clear All

Judith Helfand: Freedom of Expression Award 2019 | COOKED: Survival by Zip Code

Judith Helfand: Freedom of Expression Award 2019 | COOKED: Survival by Zip Code

In July 1995, a heat wave overtook Chicago: high humidity and a layer of heat-retaining pollution drove the heat index up to more than 126 degrees. City roads buckled, rails warped, electric grids failed, thousands became ill and people began to die - by the hundreds. Cooked tells the story of this heat wave, the most traumatic in U.S. history, in which 739 Chicago citizens died in a single week, most of them poor, elderly, and African American. Balancing serious and somber with her respectful, albeit ironic and and signature quirkly style, Peabody award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand explores this drama that, when peeled away, reveals the less newsworthy but long-term crisis of pernicious poverty, economic, and social isolation and racism. Cooked is a story about life, death, and the politics of crisis in an American city.

Dancing Dogs of Dombrova, The

Dancing Dogs of Dombrova, The

On a cold winter night, estranged siblings Sarah and Aaron Cotler arrive at an empty train station in Dombrova, Poland. With their only available ride being a determinedly silent driver, they embark on a quest to fulfill their dying grandmother's wish-to find, dig up, and bring home the bones of her favorite childhood dog, Peter. While navigating the many obstacles and colorful characters they encounter on their journey, Sarah and Aaron must come to terms with their own demons and differences, while also contending with a soicety seemingly content to let its past lay buried for good.

Dina and Scott are in love and planning a wedding, a stressful time for most couples. But they are not a typical couple. Dina is a 49-year-old woman with a tragic past. Scott is a Walmart greeter who lives with his parents. Both are adults on the mental development spectrum for whom love, sexuality and independence are fraught with challenges. Dina chronicles this poignant time in their lives as they search for intimacy and acceptance.

Dogs: The Rise and Fall Of An All-girl Bookie Joint

Dogs: The Rise and Fall Of An All-girl Bookie Joint

About This Film

Dolce Fine Giornata

Dolce Fine Giornata

Maria Linde, a free-spirited, Jewish Polish Nobel Prize winner, lives in Tuscany surrounded by warmth and chaos in her family's villa. A loving mother and grandmother, she also fosters a secret flirtation with the much younger Egyptian man who runs a nearby seaside inn. After a terrorist attack in Rome, Maria refuses to succumb to the hysterical fear and anti-immigrant sentiment that quickly emerge, deciding in her acceptance speech of a local honor to boldly decry Europe's eroding democracy-but she is unprepared for the public and personal havoc her comments wreak.

The End of Meat

The End of Meat

This provocative documentary asks, “What would the world look like if we didn’t eat meat?”

Fanny's Journey

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.

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

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.

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.

Forget Baghdad: Jews and Arabs - The Iraqi Connection

Forget Baghdad: Jews and Arabs - The Iraqi Connection

FORGET BAGHDAD: Jews and Arabs - The Iraqi ConnectionThe son of a Shi'ite emigrant family that fled Iraq for political reasons, Swiss film director Samir has created a brilliant tour-de-force in his new documentary FORGET BAGHDAD. This entertaining, ironic and visually stunning film essay is an exploration of the lives of Iraqi Jewish writers in Israel, former members of the Communist Party, in which Samir’s father was also a member.

Each year, the Hermelin family of Detroit come together to celebrate Passover (pesach) - honoring the liberation of the Jews from slavery in ancient Egypt - by eating Gefilte fish, the meal that stars in New York-born director Rachel Fleit's new film. While simple on the surface, gefilte is filled with history and meaning (just like the recipe itself, which includes a stuffing of fish, salt, vegetables and egg). However, "the dish of gefilte isn't about the fish," says the Brooklyn-based writer and director. Instead, "it becomes a lightening rod, in which we project all of our feelings about family, identity, tradition, struggle, loss - and as always, love.""

If you think you know Gilbert Gottfried, the brash, shrill-voiced (“Aflac!”), boundary-pushing comic, think again. In this surprisingly candid documentary portrait, director Neil Berkeley reveals the foul-mouthed comedian in a whole new light as a loving husband and father of two young children. Featuring interviews with comics like Whoopi Goldberg and behind-the-scenes glimpses of Gottfried’s performances, Gilbert separates the man from the act, and what emerges is unexpectedly tender.

Go for Zucker! - An Unorthodox Comedy

Go for Zucker! - An Unorthodox Comedy

Jaeckie Zucker, a hard-drinking, pool-playing, lovable scoundrel in Berlin, is up to his ears in debt. When he learns that his long-estranged mother has willed him a sizeable inheritance, he thinks his ship has come in. But there’s a catch: Jaeckie--who gave up all things Jewish long ago--must first reconcile with his Orthodox Jewish brother, who is coming, family in tow, for the funeral. The madcap adventure that follows finds Jaeckie desperately trying to "pass" as observant, while trying to ditch the funeral so he can play in a high-stakes pool tournament.Politically incorrect, ironic and utterly contemporary, what makes Go for Zucker! such a standout is that, while in the irreverent mode of Mel Brooks and Larry David, this is a comedy from Germany--daring to present Jews in a guilt-free context beyond the Holocaust. Berlin-based writer/director Dani Levy has created a screwball comedy that breaks every taboo.

Henri Dauman: Looking Up

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.

How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire

How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire

Preceded by Woody Before AllenAfter discovering the journals of his mysterious grandmother Maroussia, amiable English director Daniel Edelstyn sets off to Ukraine where he makes a startling discovery. In his family’s impoverished Russian village, he comes upon his great-grandfather’s vodka factory. Edelstyn returns to the UK with the wide-eyed ambition of importing his own brand of spirits and finds his life forever altered by the woman he never met.[MINIGUIDE 65/70]

Sex, drugs, techno, and . . . Arab traditions? What sounds like an unlikely combination exerts a strong emotional attraction in this female dramedy about friendship, love and the search for independence by three young, hip, Palestinian women. When the Muslim—and religious—Nour moves in with hard-partying Laila and Salma, all three begin their own journeys of self-discovery and gain an understanding of the male-dominated society in which they live but refuse to reconcile themselves to.

In Search of Peace (Part One: 1948-1967)

In Search of Peace (Part One: 1948-1967)

About This Film

Incessant Visions- Letters From an Architect

Incessant Visions- Letters From an Architect

This artful documentary illuminates the life and work of German Jewish Expessionist architect Erich Mendelsohn. Mendelsohn’s story unfolds through letters exchanged with his wife Luise, both German Jewish emigres fleeing Nazism. Director Dror deftly juxtaposes the architect’s original drawings with contemporary views of his buildings, weaving in interviews with architects and the people who use these unique structures—a testament to the integrity and timelessness of visionary design.

Intent to Destroy

Intent to Destroy

One hundred years after 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire, Academy Award–nominated documentarian and this year’s Freedom of Expression Award recipient Joe Berlinger reveals the disturbing truth behind Turkey’s well-funded campaign of genocide denial, suppression and intimidation. Berlinger utilizes the filming of The Promise, a $100 million Hollywood film production ambitiously billed as the Armenian Schindler’s List, to explore this historical tragedy and its relevance to the barbaric genocides that followed.

After his engagement falls apart on the evening of his birthday, Joshy’s (Thomas Middleditch, Silicon Valley) best buddies rally together to pull off a much-needed guys-only weekend for their grieving friend. As the partying heats up, Joshy and company continue to distract themselves from their troubles until they finally have to confront the elephant in the room: their feelings. Male bonding has never been more complex . . . and comically awkward.

King of the Roaring 20's- The Story of Arnold Rothstein

King of the Roaring 20's- The Story of Arnold Rothstein

King of the Roaring 20’s—The Story of Arnold Rothstein is a tale of ambition and the corruption of a nice Jewish boy. An Irish cop brings young Arnold home to his old-world father, who turns to mother Esther and says, “This boy has a dybbuk in him.” As Rothstein grows up, he strategically navigates New York’s Democratic politicians, the police, the Saratoga racetrack and the vicissitudes of love and luck.

A la vie (To Life)

A la vie (To Life)

Three women, Auschwitz survivors, are reunited 15 years after the war. They spend a holiday at a seaside resort in northern France. Set at the start of the ’60s, the era’s bright colors and cheerful music mark the end of one period in their lives and the start of another. Friendships forged in horror begin anew with tasty ice cream cones, stylish bikinis, a romantic adventure and basking in the sun.

A cantankerous 88-year-old has waited to fulfill a promise to a friend who helped him escape the Holocaust.

A young Jewish woman from Mexico City finds herself torn between her family and her forbidden love with a non-Jewish man.

1
2
3
4

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