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Filtered By: M Clear All

The remarkable and controversial story of Benjamin Netanyahu's rise to power, reflected through four decades of public appearances that changed Israel forever.

King of the Corner

King of the Corner

Leo Spivak is drifting through life without a compass. His father is aging fast, his teenage daughter is rebelling, his protégé is after his job and his wife is losing her patience. A twist of fate and some bizarre wisdom from a "freelance rabbi" help Leo navigate the murky waters of his life and turn his crisis into a second-chance.

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.

The Kingdom of Survival

The Kingdom of Survival

M.A. Littler’s film is one part travelogue and one part paean to eight radical thinkers—including Noam Chomsky, Joe Bageant and Bob Meisenbach—who have tried to make the world a better place. If you are uncomfortable with questioning capitalism, then stay home and check your investments online. If you are interested in questioning authority as a form of tikkun olam, then this beautifully filmed exploration of ideas is for you. [MINIGUIDE 70/70]

Knowledge Is the Beginning

Knowledge Is the Beginning

Conductor Daniel Barenboim believes that “a life without music is impoverished.” In the 1990s, Barenboim and the late Palestinian-born writer Edward Said created the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, comprising talented young musicians from Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Tunisia. The film, an unusual hybrid of a concert movie and a documentary about artistic diplomacy, eloquently chronicles the life of the orchestra.

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.

How does a small country like Israel become the world’s third largest weapons manufacturer and exporter? And how does the never-ending fighting in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank help Israel invent, develop and test its military products and innovations before selling them to the highest bidder? In this chilling documentary we go on a surreal journey into the world of arms dealing and security exporting in Israel.

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

The Last White Knight

The Last White Knight

Forty-three years after being assaulted by notorious Klansman Delay de la Beckwith on the way to a courthouse in Greenwood, Mississippi, filmmaker and activist Paul Saltzman returns to the same spot to face his former adversary. What follows is a chilling conversation about history and the current state of race relations. Mississippi transplant Morgan Freeman and singer/activist Harry Belafonte comment on that ugly time, not so long ago.

The Law in These Parts

The Law in These Parts

Inventive Israeli filmmaker Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (Inner Tour, SFJFF 2001; James’ Journey to Jerusalem) conducts an award-winning investigation into the legal system that has governed Palestinians in the West Bank since the 1967 war. Interviewing the judges and lawyers entrusted with interpreting the law, the filmmaker raises the core issue: Can a modern democracy impose a prolonged military occupation on another people while retaining its core democratic values? [MINIGUIDE 67/70]

The First Lebanon War - June, 1982. A lone tank is dispatched to search a hostile town that has already been bombarded by the Israeli Air Force. What seems to be a simple mission gradually spins out of control.

Left On Purpose

Left On Purpose

Justin Schein originally set out to make a standard documentary on former Yippie activist Mayer Vishner. But in the middle of shooting, Vishner made it clear he had a different plan. The film ends with his last political act: his exit from this world. Schein’s dilemma becomes the film’s new narrative, as he goes from documentarian to friend to one of Vishner’s last caretakers, ultimately making him complicit in the death of his subject. —Neha TalrejaWinner of the Audience Award at DOC NYC Festival 2015.

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

Tony Curtis is mesmerizing as Louis “Lepke” Buchalter in Menahem Golan’s epic drama about the feared leader of Murder, Incorporated. The film reads like a who’s who of New York Jewish gangsters: Dutch Schultz, Gurrah Shapiro, Mendy Weiss, Kid “Twist” Reles and their nemesis, Thomas Dewey. Lepke provides a unique window into the Jewish immigrant experience in the trajectory of a man driven to achieve one version of the American dream.

Over the past five years, tens of thousands of refugees from sub-Saharan Africa have sought relief and safety in Israel only to find a society bitterly divided on how to treat them. Filmmaker Beth Toni Kruvant examines Israel’s moral obligation to extend aid and comfort to the refugees and the role that race and religion play in the willingness of a community to accept them in their midst.

Liberty Heights

Liberty Heights

This semi-autobiographical film by Barry Levinson follows various members of the Kurtzman clan, a Jewish family living in suburban Baltimore during the 1950s. As teenaged Ben (Ben Foster) completes high school, he falls for Sylvia (Rebekah Johnson), a black classmate, creating inevitable tensions.

Life According to Sam

Life According to Sam

The clock is ticking for all of us, but it is ticking faster for Sam Bern. Sam has progeria, an extremely rare age-accelerating disease. When we first meet Sam, he is 13 years old but looks 70. He is a precocious middle school student interested in music and sports, though his ability to participate is limited by his fragile body. Fortunately, Sam’s parents are both doctors. His mom, Dr. Leslie Gordon, is a genetic researcher and is on a crusade to get approval of a drug that will extend Sam’s life as well as those of other children with the disease beyond the average life expectancy of 13–14 years. It is a race against time for Gordon to get her drug trial results published in a reputable medical journal. Sam talks about his mortality but does so with a lack of anger or self pity. Yet like any teenager he has goals for himself, the most pressing of which is to play drums in his high school marching band. Academy Award–winning directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine have created an emotionally uplifting chronicle of determination and optimism in the face of terrible odds with Sam being one of the most inspirational documentary subjects in recent memory.

Still image from Life After Beth

Life After Beth

In this Jewish zombie romcom, Zach (Dane DeHaan) is devastated by the unexpected death of his girlfriend, Beth (Aubrey Plaza). But when she miraculously comes back to life, Zach takes full advnatage of the opportunity to share and experience all the things he regretted not doing with her before.

A Life in Dirty Movies

A Life in Dirty Movies

A Life in Dirty Movies is an affectionate documentary about legendary sexploitation director Joe Sarno, “the Ingmar Bergman of 42nd Street,” and his loyal wife and collaborator Peggy. The film follows the Sarnos for a year, as 88-year-old Joe struggles to get a new film project off the ground. The film’s intimate perspective reveals a filmmaker’s golden years and his hope for renewed relevance. With John Waters.

Edward G. Robinson (born Emmanuel Goldenberg) is riveting as the ruthless Italian American mobster Caesar Enrico Bandello in this classic gangster film set in Prohibition era Chicago. One of the great iconic Jewish actors of the last century, Robinson seethes as Caesar (known as Rico), a maniacal, ambitious crook whose archetypal journey inspired Martin Scorsese to call the film "a morality play."

This inspiring documentary profiles four women, each putting tremendous effort into helping women around the world in unique ways. A Brazilian graffiti artist speaks out against domestic violence; a Senegalese hip-hop musician educates young women about the perils of genital mutilation; a classically trained dancer in India helps heal victims of sex trafficking through movement therapy; and a young American finds high-end U.S. markets for poor Kenyan women’s hand-sewn clothing.

Little White Lie

Little White Lie

Daring to ask questions about her true identity, around which her parents had kept a careful silence throughout her entire childhood, filmmaker Lacey Schwartz gently but firmly pulls back the curtain on matters of race and family secrets in her deeply personal and riveting documentary. Schwartz raises larger questions for us all: What factors—race, religion, family, upbringing—make us who we are? And what happens when we are forced to redefine ourselves?

Live and Become

Live and Become

In this sweeping, emotional saga from the director of Train of Life, an Ethiopian boy from a Sudanese refugee camp is airlifted to Israel during Operation Moses, which transported 8,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1984. Adopted by a Mizrahi family, Shlomo grows up, falls in love and serves in the Israeli army but is plagued throughout by two secrets: He was not born a Jew and is not an orphan. Radu Mihaileanu has created a monumental drama following one young man’s epic quest for his roots and identity.See also: Spotlight On: Ethiopian Jews and Jews of Color

Long Distance (2020)

Long Distance (2020)

Rachel is losing her sight to the point she can't even call her daughter who is in labor on the other side of the world. Seeking for help, she opens her door to passersby strangers, striving for one moment of connection.

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