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 Resident
LGBTQ
Religion & Spirituality
Short Films
Social Justice
Women's History Month
Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance

Film Type

Animation
Documentary
Experimental
Feature
Narrative
Shorts Program
Television Series

Program Type

Cinegogue Sessions
Festival
Next Wave

The Armor of Light

The Armor of Light

In her breathtaking directorial debut, Abigail Disney follows evangelical minister Rob Schenck, an anti-abortion activist—and former Jew—as he examines whether it is possible to be pro-gun and pro-life. He teams with Lucy McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, an unarmed teenager murdered in Florida whose case has become a landmark in the fight against stand-your-ground laws. Disney artfully paces the story to show a polarized topic in a fresh light.

A breathtaking 18th century painting on a crumbling wall ignites a noirish mystery and inspires one woman to delve into family secrets, long-buried memories, and perhaps even WWII-era government cover-ups. Dashing around Paris in her trenchcoat and fedora, Esther whispers in dark rooms, forges signatures and draws long, thoughtful puffs on cigarettes (though this may be more French than noir) in her journey to recover family paintings presumably stolen by Nazis.

As I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM

As I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM

Forget whatever you’ve heard about the life and death of Philadelphia-born DJ AM (born Adam Goldstein), the superstar club deejay who attained rock star status and survived a fiery plane crash only to die a short time later of a drug overdose at the age of 36. Director Kevin Kerslake’s haunting and heartbreaking portrait intimately conveys the brief life of an obsessive sonic genius for whom music, fame and love were tragically not enough.

Ashkenaz, a pithy but panoramic view of Israel’s “white” Jews, undermines any preconceived notions of Jewish ethnicity. Director Rachel Leah Jones, a Berkeley native, flits from experts and scholars to just plain folks to reveal a nonhomogeneous Ashkenazi population seen through the eyes of Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Israelis. It’s a fascinating study in diversity within a single word.

By all appearances Palestinian-Israeli surgeon Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman, Lemon Tree, Paradise Now) has it all. As an admired and respected member of his profession he has carved a space for himself and his wife Sihem at the crossroads of two troubled societies. Jaafari’s world is abruptly shattered when Sihem goes missing in a Tel Aviv suicide bombing. As Israeli police evidence mounts, it appears that Sihem could have been responsible.

Fifteen-year-old Audrie Pott in Saratoga, California, and 14-year-old Daisy Coleman in Maryville, Missouri never met. What connects them is the sexual violence and humiliation they suffered in unrelated incidents from groups of boys who got them drunk, assaulted them and posted their actions on the internet. Thanks to probing interviews with strikingly perceptive subjects, this film provides unflinching insight into the entitlement that leads to the condoning of sexual violence. —Zoe PollakScreened at 2016 Sundance Film Festival

About This Film

Traveling from Jamaica to Jerusalem and set against a rock steady soundtrack, Awake Zion director Monica Haim uncovers the connections between davening and the dance hall, payos and dreadlocks, Jews and Rastafarians. By weaving together the perspectives and experiences of scholars and ska artists, rabbis and reggae stars, this rousing documentary takes us around the globe and through time, speaking powerfully to the history and spirituality shared by these two peoples.

Aya unwittingly finds herself holding a passenger pickup sign at the airport for a Mr. Overby (Ulrich Thomsen, The Celebration). He arrives: tall, handsome, and Danish. Enchanted by this random encounter, Aya decides to pose as his driver. The romantic tension between the two strangers builds as they get closer to Mr. Overby’s Jerusalem hotel, yet Aya’s true intentions remain hidden until the surprising final act.

Israel’s submission to the 2015 Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film surprises in many ways. For starters, the screenplay is almost entirely in Farsi, not Hebrew. The semi-autobiographical feature film debut from writer/director Yuval Delshad depicts three generations in the Morgian family, Persian immigrants from Iran to Israel eking out a living as rural turkey farmers. Sensitive performances, gentle pacing and refreshing plot twists combine to weave a richly satisfying story. —Emily Kaiser Thelin

Before the Revolution

Before the Revolution

It seems unbelievable now, but before the 1979 revolution Iran and Israel were close allies. Filmmaker Dan Shadur was only a baby when his family lived in Tehran with a view of the revolution unfolding below their balcony. Here he follows a group of Israeli transplants who witnessed the good life spiral into chaos with the approach of the Islamic revolution in this real life Argo doc thriller.

This is a significant new Holocaust documentary about one of the first camps built to exterminate Poland’s Jews. Belzec saw more than 600,000 perish in gas chambers and mass graves, but in 1943 the camp was razed in an effort to hide what had happened. The film’s focus is on one of Belzec’s few survivors, Braha Rauffmann, who as a child had been secreted away in a woodpile by a Polish woman.

Ben Lee: Catch My Disease

Ben Lee: Catch My Disease

At the age of 14 a nice Jewish boy from Sydney, Australia, became a rock star, and at 16, an international pop star. His name is Ben Lee and like his music, he's still evolving. Featuring interviews with his former girlfriend Claire Danes and friends Winona Ryder, Jason Schwartzman and Michelle Williams, Ben Lee: Catch My Disease is a profoundly moving portrait of an artist’s evolution. [MINIGUIDE 67/70]

Beyond the Fear

Beyond the Fear

In 2005, Israeli scholar and divorced mother of four Larisa Trembovler married Yigal Amir, the infamous assassin of much-loved Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In 2007, after a series of conjugal visits, she gave birth to her fifth child, Amir’s son. It’s their son that documentarians Herz Frank and Maria Kravchenko skillfully build the film around as they reexamine the years of moral complexities surrounding his parents’ union.

Beyond the Walls

Beyond the Walls

About This Film

Blacks and Jews

Blacks and Jews

A groundbreaking documentary about Black/Jewish relations in America produced by a Black/Jewish filmmaking team, Blacks and Jews goes behind explosive headlines to look at how the media shapes and foments conflict. The film features penetrating interviews with Clayborne Carson, Michael Lerner, Salim Muwakkil, Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Cornel West.

Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh

Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh

Hannah Senesh was a Hungarian Jewish resistance fighter, an optimist in the face of dire circumstances and a poet. Roberta Grossman’s first-rate documentary Blessed Is the Match, narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, is a paean to Hannah Senesh’s courage and creativity. This inspirational film features gorgeous images of parachutes floating gracefully in the air, like Senesh’s poem “Blessed Is the Match,” written days before her capture by the Nazis.

Activist filmmaker Judith Helfand does not look the other way when a potential toxin gets too close to home. When her Jewish parents affix vinyl siding to their suburban abode, she gets suspicious. Taking a personal comedic approach, directors Helfand and Gold uncover the impact of vinyl manufacturing and disposal on the atmosphere, the food chain and humans, not a pretty picture. You will never look at plastic the same way again.

Blues by the Beach

Blues by the Beach

When Jack Baxter and Joshua Faudem chose to make a documentary about Mike’s Place, an Anglo-American blues club on a Tel Aviv beach, they figured the boozy international hangout would show a side of Israel different from the all-too-familiar images of terrorism and conflict. But when Mike’s Place is bombed in a suicide attack, their film turns into an unexpectedly vivid account of coping with daily life in the wake of violence.

The presence of famed New York playwright Harold Blumenthal looms over everyone in the weeks following his unexpected death, but life goes on for his family. In attempting to distinguish between the forces they do and don’t have control over, the Blumenthals address the feelings that are holding them back from fulfillment. Writer, director and co-star Seth Fisher delivers a charming, low-key dark comedy with endearing, heartfelt performances.

Seventeen-year-old Naama is thoroughly bored with her overbearing family and uneventful suburban school days. That is until bleached-blonde bad girl Dana shows up with her flirtatious smile and a bag of weed. But while Naama is both partying hard and falling hard for Dana, her sister goes missing, and the whole family is deeply rattled. Blush is a portrait of modern Israel through the eyes of the youth who are pushing the boundaries. —Alexis Whitman

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea

This modern-day Romeo-and-Juliet tale is set in Israel and Gaza. After witnessing a suicide bombing, a girl writes a letter to Gaza seeking understanding and sends it into the Gaza Sea in a bottle. It’s found by a young Gaza man who emails back. Though they live less than 100 kilometers apart, they communicate only through emails and letters. While they often disagree, their relationship deepens as the political situation worsens. [MINIGUIDE 71/70]

Brave Miss World

Brave Miss World

About This Film

Eytan Fox (Walk on Water, Yossi and Jagger) continues his extraordinary run of sleek, chic films that define the contradictions of modern Israeli life. A trio of charming gay and straight twenty-somethings share a flat in a hip Tel Aviv district. But the carefree “bubble” they live in threatens to burst when one of them falls in love with a young Palestinian man.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

...

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