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Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance

Son of Saul
Son of Saul
Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination. While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the body of a boy he takes for his son.
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.
Six Million and One
Six Million and One
Israeli filmmaker David Fisher initiates a road trip that becomes an extraordinary family psychodrama for his siblings at the site of the World War II concentration camp where their father Joseph was interned as a young boy. Traveling in a van they laugh at themselves and question their own willingness to go deeper into their family legacy. Stunningly beautiful forests and meadows silently conceal the reality of their father’s untold story. [MINIGUIDE 71/70]
Denial
Denial
When university professor Deborah E. Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) includes World War II historian David Irving in a book about Holocaust deniers, Irving accuses her of libel and sparks a legal battle for historical truth.
Saviors in the Night
Saviors in the Night
Based on true events, this bravura drama powerfully records one memorable instance of moral courage under desperate conditions. Menne Spiegel, a German Jew, meets his old army comrade Heinrich Aschoff on the eve of a mass deportation of Jews in 1943. Aschoff, a Catholic farmer with a conscience, agrees to shelter Spiegel’s wife Marga and their daughter in spite of the deadly risk to his own family. Saviors in the Night, based on Marga’s best-selling memoir, relates the extraordinary true story of the families’ perilous years together. Join us for Opening Night in San Francisco with special invited guests Marga Spiegel, director Ludi Boeken and principal actor Lia Hoensbroech. Followed by Opening Night Bash at Swedish American Hall.
Run Boy Run
Run Boy Run
Srulik is running for his life. Literally. His once happy family is now dead or dispersed following the Nazi occupation of Poland, and he is alone in the world. Based on a true story, Run Boy Run tells the harrowing tale of young Srulik as he struggles to evade capture by the Nazis and ward off starvation, a harrowing story comprised in equal measures of cruelty and compassion, despair and hope.
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
This sophisticated drama about the life, career and loves of German Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) shines a light on one of the greatest independent thinkers of the 20th century. When New Yorker magazine sends her to Jerusalem in 1961 to witness the trial of the notorious Nazi, Adolph Eichmann, Arendt begins to formulate her now famous concept ”the banality of evil” that opens up a flood of controversy.
The Roundup
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 Zookeeper’s Wife
The Zookeeper’s Wife
Jessica Chastain stars as a working mother who becomes a hero to hundreds during World War II in this adaptation of the best-selling novel The Zookeeper’s Wife.
A Film Unfinished
A Film Unfinished
Filmmaker Yael Hersonski discovers that the Warsaw Ghetto footage that we’ve seen in countless documentaries was actually staged by the Nazis using the actual Jewish inhabitants of the Ghetto as actors. A Film Unfinished is a rigorous and profound documentary that simultaneously exposes the perversity of Nazi propaganda, honors its victims and pays tribute to the resiliency of the filmmaker’s own grandmother and the other survivors of the Ghetto.

Israel at 70: 10 Timeless Films

Peace, war, artistry, history. JFI On Demand has curated 10 timeless films from Israel to stream now, on the occasion of Israel's 70th anniversary. You can find the whole list of films, as well as an op-ed on the Israeli film industry from JFI Executive Director Lexi Leban, on J. the Jewish News of Northern California's website.

Fill the Void thumbnail
Fill the Void
This remarkable feature debut by Rama Burshtein –the first Orthodox woman to make a film meant for wide mainstream distribution – was picked up by Sony Picture Classics and was Israel's Official Submission for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012.
The Gatekeeper thumbnail
The Gatekeepers
The Gatekeepers directed by Dror Moreh features unprecedented testimony by six men who oversaw Israel's internal-security intelligence operation from 1980-2011. The film was groundbreaking for its incredible access to the leaders of Shin Bet who speak openly about closely held state secrets.
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
In Israel there is neither civil marriage nor civil divorce. Only Rabbis can legitimate a marriage or its dissolution. But this dissolution is only possible with full consent from the husband, who in the end has more power than the judges.
Mr. Gaga
Mr. Gaga
Inspiring and tough, charismatic yet prickly, Ohad Naharin is Mr. Gaga, Israel’s rock star choreographer and the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company. He is the subject of this exciting new documentary from returning SFJFF favorite, Tomer Heymann. Naharin invented his own playful style of movement called Gaga and returned to Israel to create some of the most provocative and physically demanding choreography of the 21st century. Winner, Audience Award, SXSW 2016.
A Matter of Size
A Matter of Size
Herzl is a 340-pound chef who lives with his mother, and is immersed in a culture of rigid diet regimes and fitness classes. Just as he and his seriously overweight buddies in the working-class town of Ramle, Israel, seem beaten down by weight-loss failure, Herzl discovers the one place where fat guys can be rock stars: the world of sumo wrestling. An endearing and poignant comic tale, with echoes of The Full Monty, A Matter of Size traces these flawed men’s tender and funny path from body shame to body celebration, and from loneliness to love. A touching movie with a plus-size heart.
Waltz with Bashir thumbnail
Waltz with Bashir
Waltz with Bashir This devastating animated documentary by Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman is a kind of fictionalized documentary using rotoscope-animation techniques with live action footage to depict Folman's search for the traumatic lost memories of his experiences as a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War.
Sand Storm
Sand Storm
Layla, a teenager in a Bedouin village in South Israel has a cell phone, drives a car, and has a secret boyfriend at the college she is attending. She watches from a distance as her mother accepts her father’s second wife into their family, prompting questions about her own future.  This stunning first feature by Israeli director Elite Zexer sympathetically captures the struggle between tradition and modernity in the beautifully stark Negev desert landscape.-Lexi LebanWinner, World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival 2016
The Band's Visit
The Band's Visit
This 2007 film directed by Eran Kolerin is now an award-winning Broadway Musical, so this is a great time to revisit this award-winning Israeli film. A band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force arrives in the middle of the Israeli desert to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab Arts Center only to discover they have taken the wrong bus to the wrong destination.
Footnote
Footnote
Footnote is Joseph Cedar's carefully crafted film about a complex father/son relationship between two scholars. The father has labored for years without much recognition. For the son, everything comes easily. The father takes great pride in once having been mentioned in a footnote of a book by a legendary academic.
Presenting Princess Shaw thumbnail
Presenting Princess Shaw
This 2015 crowd-pleasing documentary from Israeli director Ido Haar is about the touching partnership between YouTube artist Samantha Montgomery (Princess Shaw), and Israeli mashup artist Kutiman.

Women's History Month

Celebrate Women's History Month with films to stream now that champion women in the director's chair and bring women's stories and voices to the forefront of cultural conversation.

Audrie & Daisy
Audrie & Daisy
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
Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
She’s the most famous woman in America you’ve never heard of. The story of television pioneer Gertrude Berg is told with humor and insight in Aviva Kempner’s sparkling film biography. Creator and star of the early TV hit The Goldbergs, Berg combined comedy and social commentary, introduced endearing Jewish characters to middle America and took on the McCarthy blacklist. Yoo-Hoo combines rare clips with celebrity interviews to create a star-studded social history of an American trailblazer. Followed by panel at the Castro.
Sand Storm
Sand Storm
Layla, a teenager in a Bedouin village in South Israel has a cell phone, drives a car, and has a secret boyfriend at the college she is attending. She watches from a distance as her mother accepts her father’s second wife into their family, prompting questions about her own future.  This stunning first feature by Israeli director Elite Zexer sympathetically captures the struggle between tradition and modernity in the beautifully stark Negev desert landscape.-Lexi LebanWinner, World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival 2016
The Women’s Balcony
The Women’s Balcony
A rousing, good-hearted tale about women speaking truth to patriarchal power following an accident during a bar mitzvah celebration that leads to a gender rift in a devout Orthodox community in Jerusalem.
Abortion: Stories Women Tell
Abortion: Stories Women Tell
Award-winning filmmaker and Missouri native Tracy Droz Tragos, director of the Sundance Grand Jury Award–winning documentary Rich Hill and Emmy-winning Be Good Smile Pretty confronts the power of Missouri’s restrictive abortion laws by sensitively telling the intimate stories of women who must surmount every obstacle to access abortion. This timely and relevant film reveals the ultimate connection between the right to choose and the right to live a fully empowered life. —Lexi Leban
Ida
Ida
Poland, 1962. On the eve of her vows, 18-year-old novice Anna meets her estranged aunt Wanda, a cynical Communist judge who shocks the naïve Anna with a stunning revelation
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
This sophisticated drama about the life, career and loves of German Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) shines a light on one of the greatest independent thinkers of the 20th century. When New Yorker magazine sends her to Jerusalem in 1961 to witness the trial of the notorious Nazi, Adolph Eichmann, Arendt begins to formulate her now famous concept ”the banality of evil” that opens up a flood of controversy.
The Nasty Girl
The Nasty Girl
An insightful, merciless black comedy - one of the most viciously funny satires to come out of Germany. Schoolgirl Sonja (Lena Stolze, featured in THE WHITE ROSE) comes from a prominent family and has gained the respect of the people in her small Bavarian town by winning a prize for best essay in a European competition.
Dina
Dina
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.
Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict
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.
La Petite Jerusalem
La Petite Jerusalem
Eighteen-year-old Laura is torn between her Orthodox upbringing and the intellectual and physical pleasures of the secular world. She lives in a low-income suburb of Paris with her tight-knit Tunisian family and is very close to her sister Mathilde. When Laura meets Djamel, an Algerian Muslim émigré, a romance ignites. This passionate drama follows a young woman finding her spiritual, sexual and intellectual true north.
The Tribe
The Tribe
What does Barbie have to teach us about American Jewish identity? San Francisco filmmaker Tiffany Shlain explains it all for you in her fast-paced, witty look at 5,000 years of Jewish history
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
In Israel there is neither civil marriage nor civil divorce. Only Rabbis can legitimate a marriage or its dissolution. But this dissolution is only possible with full consent from the husband, who in the end has more power than the judges.
Afternoon Delight
Afternoon Delight
Rachel is a quick-witted, lovable, yet tightly coiled, thirtysomething steeped in the creative class of Los Angeles’s bohemian Silver Lake neighborhood. Everything looks just right—chic modernist home, successful husband, adorable child and a hipster wardrobe. So why is she going out of her gourd with ennui? Plagued by purposelessness, Rachel visits a strip club to spice up her marriage and meets a stripper whom she becomes obsessed with saving.
Amy
Amy
The Jewish Film Institute presents a special sneak preview of the new, towering documentary AMY, which chronicles the life and career of singer Amy Winehouse.
Talk Amongst Yourselves: Seeing Allred
Talk Amongst Yourselves: Seeing Allred
To some, Gloria Allred is a money-grubbing, shrill feminist prone to tawdry theatrics; to others she’s the most effective and fearless women’s rights attorney in America. In Roberta Grossman and Sophie Sartain's (Hava Nagila: The Movie) intimate, warts-and-all documentary, one thing is certain: Allred’s 40-year devotion to asserting, protecting, and expanding the rights of women is unwavering and her influence unassailable.

WinterFest

Still image from the film A Tale of Love and Darkness
A Tale of Love and Darkness
Natalie Portman’s directorial debut is based on Amos Oz’s memories of growing up in Jerusalem in the years before Israeli statehood with his parents.
Still image from the film Demon
Demon
DEMON is a clever and suspenseful thriller that reinterprets the Jewish legend of the dybbuk, set at a rural Polish wedding. Director Marcin Wrona has wrought an intricate, entertaining and downright gripping film.
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
In Israel there is neither civil marriage nor civil divorce. Only Rabbis can legitimate a marriage or its dissolution. But this dissolution is only possible with full consent from the husband, who in the end has more power than the judges.
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere) lives a lonely life in the margins of New York City power and money; a would-be operator dreaming up financial schemes that never come to fruition, until he meets a charismatic Israeli politician.
The Women’s Balcony
The Women’s Balcony
A rousing, good-hearted tale about women speaking truth to patriarchal power following an accident during a bar mitzvah celebration that leads to a gender rift in a devout Orthodox community in Jerusalem.
Forever Pure
Forever Pure
In this captivating documentary, we meet the players, owners and fans of Beitar Jerusalem Football Club, the most popular and controversial soccer team in Israel and the only club ever to sign an Arab player.
Still image from The Decent One
The Decent One
A recently discovered cache of hundreds of personal letters, diaries and photos belonging to the Nazi Gestapo chief, Heinrich Himmler, seem to reveal a thoughtful, loving husband and devoted father to his daughter.
The Zookeeper’s Wife
The Zookeeper’s Wife
Jessica Chastain stars as a working mother who becomes a hero to hundreds during World War II in this adaptation of the best-selling novel The Zookeeper’s Wife.
Still image from the film Oriented
Oriented
A striking new documentary from Israel, ORIENTED examines life for gay Israelis and Palestinians in Tel Aviv.
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.
Still image from the film Tikkun
Tikkun
In TIKKUN, a surreal, haunting narrative film, an Orthodox man feels as if he is being tested by God.
Yalom's Cure
Yalom's Cure
Bestselling author, popular scholar and existentialist Irvin D. Yalom is one of the most influential living psychotherapists. This cinematic documentary is more than a classic biography.
Supergirl
Supergirl
Naomi Kutin seems like a typical Orthodox Jewish pre-teen, until her extraordinary weight lifting talent thrusts her into news headlines and transforms the lives of her family.
Deli Man
Deli Man
Laugh your way through hilarious stories of American delicatessens while drooling over the wonderful Jewish food being prepared before your eyes.
Talk Amongst Yourselves: Seeing Allred
Talk Amongst Yourselves: Seeing Allred
To some, Gloria Allred is a money-grubbing, shrill feminist prone to tawdry theatrics; to others she’s the most effective and fearless women’s rights attorney in America. In Roberta Grossman and Sophie Sartain's (Hava Nagila: The Movie) intimate, warts-and-all documentary, one thing is certain: Allred’s 40-year devotion to asserting, protecting, and expanding the rights of women is unwavering and her influence unassailable.

LGBTQ

The Return of Sarah's Daughters
The Return of Sarah's Daughters
About This Film
The Freedom to Marry
The Freedom to Marry
What’s the definition of a mensch? After watching this inspiring documentary, you’ll have a two-word answer: Evan Wolfson. Founder of the advocacy group Freedom to Marry and the acknowledged “godfather” of the marriage equality movement, Wolfson’s 30-year struggle to bring about justice for millions of gays and lesbians is the heart of this fascinating history that retraces the circuitous path towards legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States. —Peter L. Stein
House of Z
House of Z
This chronicle of the fascinating career of fashion designer Zac Posen, known to many as a celebrity judge on Project Runway, shows how Posen began designing as a teen. With his family’s support, he enjoyed a meteoric rise. Friendships with famous women (Claire Danes and Natalie Portman) helped catapult him to fame. But when his career stalls, Posen struggles with depression. His plans for a comeback will have audiences cheering for the likeable and talented artist.
Still image from the film Oriented
Oriented
A striking new documentary from Israel, ORIENTED examines life for gay Israelis and Palestinians in Tel Aviv.
The Bubble
The Bubble
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.
Out in the Dark
Out in the Dark
When a handsome Palestinian grad student meets a charming Tel Aviv lawyer at a gay nightclub, it sets in motion both a cross-border love affair as well as a tense drama: Will Nimr’s militant brother in Ramallah discover his secret life? Can Roy’s connections keep Nimr from being deported? Out in the Dark is a taut tale of dangerous love played against a backdrop of the Middle East conflict.
Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House
Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House
Ruthie and Connie, a working-class Jewish lesbian couple in their 60's, share stories of their emergence as a lesbian couple, their previous marriages, and the everyday ups and downs of their relationship- all as a vehicle for exploring Jewish identity.
Uncle Howard
Uncle Howard
Much-admired Jewish filmmaker Howard Brookner epitomized the promise and talent of New York’s vibrant independent film scene of the 1980s, but he has been largely forgotten since his death from AIDS at age 34. In a poignant act of documentary remembrance, Howard’s nephew Aaron, who hero-worshiped his uncle as a child, goes on a treasure hunt through New York’s counterculture to reconstruct Howard’s unconventional life and pay homage to a remarkable young artist. —Peter L. Stein
Trembling Before G-d
Trembling Before G-d
This unprecedented feature documentary shatters assumptions about faith, sexuality and religious fundamentalism. Built around intimately told personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian, the film portrays a group of people who face a profound dilemma
Facing Fear
Facing Fear
As a 13-year-old, Matthew Boger was thrown out of his home for being gay. While living on the streets of Hollywood, he was savagely beaten in a back alley by a group of neo-Nazis. Twenty-five years later, Boger finds himself in a chance meeting with the same neo-Nazi.
Blush
Blush
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
Those People
Those People
The lives, loves, scandals and fixations of a tight-knit group of high society Manhattan youth are dissected with humor and compassion in this sexy drama from first-time feature director Joey Kuhn. The story centers on Charlie, a struggling young artist, whose loyalty to—and longtime crush on—his dashing best friend Sebastian are challenged when Sebastian’s swindling father is jailed and Charlie starts falling in love with someone else.

Anti-Semitism

Bobby Fischer Against the World
Bobby Fischer Against the World
Liz Garbus’s outstanding doc takes us on Fischer’s journey from Jewish child prodigy to world chess master to virulent anti-Semite. Centering on his famous 1972 World Championship match with Boris Spassky, the film plays out like a taut Cold War drama. More than a career biography of the man considered by many to be the greatest chess player ever, this is a complex, fascinating study of genius and madness joined at the hip.
Defamation
Defamation
Israeli director Yoav Shamir (Checkpoint, Five Days) explores the ways contemporary Jews learn and think about anti-Semitism, both real and perceived. Spending time with the Anti-Defamation League’s crusading director Abe Foxman, and with Israeli teens at Auschwitz who assume “everybody hates the Jews,” Shamir worries about the future of the Jewish soul in an atmosphere of persecution. But while he is willing to poke a stick at a sacred cow, he’s too nuanced a filmmaker to let ideology trump thought. A daring documentary.
Jews of Iran
Jews of Iran
After the 1979 Islamic revolution, more than 80 percent of Iran’s Jews abandoned their ancestral land. This film is a loving portrait of the remaining Jewish communities.
La Petite Jerusalem
La Petite Jerusalem
Eighteen-year-old Laura is torn between her Orthodox upbringing and the intellectual and physical pleasures of the secular world. She lives in a low-income suburb of Paris with her tight-knit Tunisian family and is very close to her sister Mathilde. When Laura meets Djamel, an Algerian Muslim émigré, a romance ignites. This passionate drama follows a young woman finding her spiritual, sexual and intellectual true north.
Keep Quiet
Keep Quiet
Extreme in his anti-Semitic beliefs and denial of the Holocaust, Csanád Szegedi rose up through the ranks to a leading position in Hungary’s far-right Jobbik Party, and became a member of the European Parliament. At the height of his political career, documentation surfaced showing that Szegedi’s maternal grandparents were Jewish. In a stunning about-face, Szegedi chose to explore his Jewish roots, study Judaism and make a trip to Auschwitz with Holocaust survivors. —Sara L. Rubin
Welcome to Leith
Welcome to Leith
In 2010 the attempted takeover of a tiny rural North Dakota town by notorious anti-Semite Craig Cobb ignited a national media frenzy. Filmmakers Michael Nichols and Christopher Walker captured the rising tension between machine gun–toting racists and pistol-packing residents leading to Cobb’s armed street patrol that took events to their inexorable conclusion. This chilling document powerfully highlights the rise of hate groups and the often questionable methods used to silence them. TL
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.
Ydessa,The Bears and Etc.
Ydessa,The Bears and Etc.
Pioneering French New Wave director Agnès Varda’s portrait of an eccentric art collector turns darkly mysterious when her collection of teddy bears photos is displayed in an infamous Munich gallery.
Watchers of the Sky
Watchers of the Sky
About This Film
Glickman
Glickman
Marty Glickman was an inspiration to millions. Featuring interviews with Bob Costas, Bill Bradley and Marv Albert, this documentary brilliantly captures Glickman’s life as an athlete, a pioneering sports broadcaster (he coined the term “swish”), and as a passionate advocate of sports as a means of transcending divisions created by race, class and religion. If you loved The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, this movie is for you. [MINIGUIDE 69/70]
Facing Windows
Facing Windows
Facing Windows features dual love stories, one from the 1940s between two Italian Jews and one contemporary story of neighbors who watch each other furtively from facing windows across a street. The erotic tension between a sexy but routine-weary woman (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and her hunky Italian Clark Kent look-alike neighbor (Raoul Bova) gives way to quiet communication and a profound experience when together they befriend Davide , an elderly Jewish man (Massimo Girotti).
The Nasty Girl
The Nasty Girl
An insightful, merciless black comedy - one of the most viciously funny satires to come out of Germany. Schoolgirl Sonja (Lena Stolze, featured in THE WHITE ROSE) comes from a prominent family and has gained the respect of the people in her small Bavarian town by winning a prize for best essay in a European competition.
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.
Indignation
Indignation
The award-winning writer and producer James Schamus (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain) crafts a poignant and faithful adaptation of Philip Roth’s Indignation as his directorial debut. Hailed by Roth himself as the best film adaptation of his work, Indignation is a moving portrait of Marcus Messner, the son of a Kosher butcher who sets off for college in 1950’s Ohio and finds his atheist self at odds with its Christian Midwestern culture.- Lexi LebanScreened at 2016 Sundance Film Festival
Denial
Denial
When university professor Deborah E. Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) includes World War II historian David Irving in a book about Holocaust deniers, Irving accuses her of libel and sparks a legal battle for historical truth.
Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned
Haunting in its relevance for today’s refugee crisis, this star-studded 1976 film evokes the hopes and fears of a people uprooted from their homes en route to a promised land on the MS St. Louis, the ship that brought 937 Jews escaping Germany on the eve of the Shoah in 1939 to the shores of Cuba, where they are forbidden to disembark (only to then be similarly rejected by the United States and Canada)
24 Days
24 Days
The 1986 kidnapping of 24-year-old Ilan Halimi by a suburban Parisian gang of thugs became a cause célèbre because of the anti-Semitic nature of the crime. This thriller based on the true events is expertly helmed by Alexandre Arcady and focuses on the police team and the ransom calls that are the detectives’ only clue to the kidnappers’ psychology. Ilan’s mother has another clue, one that the authorities are regretfully too slow to recognize.
Free Men
Free Men
An Algerian emigrant in Paris during World War II is inspired to join the French Resistance when he becomes friends with a Jewish man.

Filmmaker Distributed

New streaming platforms allow filmmakers to directly distribute their work while keeping the majority of funds made through these sales. Support indedpendent artists by renting or buying these titles.

White: A Memoir in Color
White: A Memoir in Color
Preceded by Kings PointJoel Katz’s (Strange Fruit, SFJFF 2002) insightful personal essay ponders what it means to be white in America. When Katz and his wife are asked to select a race preference for the child they wish to adopt, they begin a quest to understand the difficult notion of identity. After the half-Black, half-white adopted daughter is born, they grapple with the idea of bringing her up in an largely white community. [MINIGUIDE 70/70]
Sidewalk
Sidewalk
When does it all begin—how do we become who we become? How do we get slotted into our places in the social pecking order? How did any of us survive the trials and tribulations of childhood? These are some of the questions that may pass through your mind while watching Duki Dror’s Sidewalk. It reminds us that the touch of our childhood is with us—and marks us—forever.
500 Dunam on the Moon
500 Dunam on the Moon
About This Film
5 Days
5 Days
On August 15, 2005, Israeli defense forces were about to forcibly remove some 8,000 remaining Jewish settlers from their homes, schools, farms and synagogues in Gaza. This documentary gives us a front-row seat to the unfolding drama that many feared would cause catastrophic violence. Deploying eight camera crews simultaneously, Shamir gains unprecedented access to all sides of the confrontation as it happens.Followed in Berkeley by panel discussion.
Ashkenaz
Ashkenaz
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.
Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology
Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology
The kaleidoscope of clips in this wide-ranging documentary is so entertaining one could happily watch it with the sound off. But it would be a shame to miss Tiffany Shlain’s meditations on modern life and technology. The Bay Area–based filmmaker delves into everything from the honeybee crisis to her household’s weekly “technology shabbat” to her father’s struggle with brain cancer, all in an effort to understand our need to connect.
Flipping Out
Flipping Out
Verité filmmaker Yoav Shamir (Checkpoint, 5 Days) hangs out in India’s Himalayan foothills with some of the 30,000 young Israeli men and women who annually escape there, take drugs and often “flip out” after their military service. We also meet the growing band of Israeli social workers and barefoot rabbis who have followed the “lost generation” to their Shangri-La to keep them from going off the edge.
Gypsy Davy
Gypsy Davy
Flamenco, the Gypsy-, Jewish-, Arab- and Andalusian-inspired art form, is loved around the world. But what happens when a white boy with Alabama roots falls in love with flamenco and becomes a renowned flamenco guitarist? Gypsy Davy tells the story of David Jones aka David Serva from the perspective of the five women in his life and his children—one of them, the filmmaker, who was abandoned by the musician when she was a year old. With searing honesty and wry humor, Serva’s daughter Rachel unravels a series of tangled lives and forges new possibilities. [MINIGUIDE 94/100]
The Tribe
The Tribe
What does Barbie have to teach us about American Jewish identity? San Francisco filmmaker Tiffany Shlain explains it all for you in her fast-paced, witty look at 5,000 years of Jewish history
The Village of Peace
The Village of Peace
An engrossing documentary portrait of African Americans who left their home in Chicago in the late 1960s and migrated to the Negev desert where they now refer to themselves as African-Hebrew Israelites, heeding Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to embark upon an exodus to the Promised Land. The thriving utopian community bases itself on teachings from the Torah and practices polygamy, natural birth, veganism and a rigorous adherence to physical and emotional health.
Here One Day
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.
10% - What Makes a Hero?
10% - What Makes a Hero?
Checkpoint (SFJFF 2004) and Defamation (SFJFF 2009) established Israeli documentarian Yoav Shamir as an unapologetic provocateur. Michael Moore executive produced the filmmaker’s newest film, a globetrotting quest to identify the shared characteristics of heroic individuals. From a bonobo preserve in Congo to the suburban home of a Flemish woman whose family harbored Jews during WWII, Shamir takes viewers on a fascinating journey that is sure to spark thoughtful conversation and passionate debate.
Awake Zion
Awake Zion
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.
Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw
Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw
WNBA star Chamique Holdsclaw has always defied expectations. In her youth she seemed destined for trouble having been born to alcoholic parents. But she worked out her frustrations on the basketball court and grew up to become an iconic figure in women’s basketball, revered by some as “the female Michael Jordan.” Her struggle and her subsequent advocacy around mental illness issues embody the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, repairing the world through one’s actions.

Coming of Age

The Matchmaker (2010)
The Matchmaker (2010)
An affectionate, bittersweet feature set in 1960s Haifa: Teenager Arik Burstein’s summer vacation explodes with novel attractions, including the sexy Iraqi-Jewish-American niece of his best friend and a seedy downtown movie theater run by Sylvia and a group of Jewish dwarfs who met at Auschwitz. But it is Yankele Bride—matchmaker, shady businessman and Holocaust survivor—who captivates Arik in Avi Nesher’s vibrant mosaic about coming of age and coming to terms with the past.
Or
Or
Dana Ivgy headlines this powerful drama, which won the Camera d’Or at Cannes and earned Ivgy the Israeli Oscar for Best Actress. With graphic intimacy, Or takes us inside the private lives of Or (Ivgy) and her working-class mother Ruthie (veteran actress Ronit Elkabetz). Or is desperately trying to convince her mother to stop working as a prostitute, but after 20 years in the business, Ruthie finds her options narrowing.
Off White Lies
Off White Lies
Preceded by B-BoyThough set during the Second Lebanon War of 2006, this coming-of-age story from Israeli director Maya Kenig evokes the offbeat charms of Juno. Libby, a shy 13-year-old California resident, is sent to live with her father in Israel, only to discover that he’s a well-intentioned sham. Launched on a modern-day quixotic adventure, they discover a shared talent for telling “off-white lies.” Kenig’s laconic storytelling highlights her actors’ considerable gifts. [MINIGUIDE 69/70]
Tiger Eyes
Tiger Eyes
The first of Judy Blume’s books to be translated to film, Tiger Eyes stars Willa Holland (Gossip Girl, The O.C.) as a teenager grappling with the sudden loss of her father. Crippled by grief, her mom moves the family to New Mexico to stay with her sister. Shell-shocked and culture-shocked, Davey befriends a wise, sexy Native American young man who helps her through this difficult time. Judy Blume in person. [MINIGUIDE 71/70]
Audrie & Daisy
Audrie & Daisy
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
Dorfman in Love
Dorfman in Love
By all appearances, single 28-year-old accountant Deb Dorfman had embraced a life of suburban mediocrity. When a promise to house-sit for her long-time crush—a hunky war correspondent—uproots her from her sheltered San Fernando Valley home and thrusts her into the hub of a newly revitalized downtown LA, Deb’s world is poised to crack open. Transformation is inevitable, but is love? Elliot Gould co-stars in this delightfully quirky indie romantic comedy. [MINIGUIDE 70/70]
Girlfriends
Girlfriends
About This Film
Indignation
Indignation
The award-winning writer and producer James Schamus (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain) crafts a poignant and faithful adaptation of Philip Roth’s Indignation as his directorial debut. Hailed by Roth himself as the best film adaptation of his work, Indignation is a moving portrait of Marcus Messner, the son of a Kosher butcher who sets off for college in 1950’s Ohio and finds his atheist self at odds with its Christian Midwestern culture.- Lexi LebanScreened at 2016 Sundance Film Festival
Adam
Adam
When nice Jewish girl Beth (Rose Byrne) moves into a new apartment, the refreshingly literal, brainy guy next door, Adam (Hugh Dancy), is probably not what her upper-middle-class Jewish mom (Amy Irving) and dad (Peter Gallagher) had in mind for her. But cupid’s arrow strikes these two different denizens of Gotham hard; they have major chemistry and within minutes we find ourselves rooting for them to overcome differences in culture and communication styles.
Natasha
Natasha
Jewish Canadian writer David Bezmozgis directs his acclaimed short story of forbidden teenage love between Mark, a Toronto slacker and his troubled Russian cousin by marriage. Bezmozgis’s highly provocative and deeply poignant coming-of-age drama features the extraordinarily measured performances of Alex Ozerov as Mark and newcomer Sasha K. Gordon as the sexually precocious Natasha, the dark star who forever alters Mark’s staid, suburban existence. —Thomas Logoreci
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.
Off and Running
Off and Running
Avery, an African American teenager and the adopted daughter of two Jewish lesbian moms in Brooklyn, goes on a journey to uncover her roots.
Blush
Blush
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
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.
Love is Thicker Than Water
Love is Thicker Than Water
In this modern-day retelling of the story of Romeo and Juliet, Arthur is a bike messenger from a working-class Welsh mining town and Vida is a cellist and daughter of a wealthy Jewish family from London. Their hipster romance takes on gratifying depth when their families—and their divergent backgrounds—come into play. The film feels simultaneously polished and experimental as it delicately explores hard questions about faith, love and devotion.
The Boy Downstairs
The Boy Downstairs
Zosia Mamet of GIRLS fame stars in this twentysomething romantic comedy that borrows the aesthetic and location of the popular HBO show. Mamet plays Diana, an aspiring writer who moves back to New York City after living in London. Three years ago she left behind mensch and loving boyfriend Ben (Matthew Shear). Now she returns to discover that he lives in the apartment below hers. Things are about to get complicated.
Those People
Those People
The lives, loves, scandals and fixations of a tight-knit group of high society Manhattan youth are dissected with humor and compassion in this sexy drama from first-time feature director Joey Kuhn. The story centers on Charlie, a struggling young artist, whose loyalty to—and longtime crush on—his dashing best friend Sebastian are challenged when Sebastian’s swindling father is jailed and Charlie starts falling in love with someone else.
Presenting Princess Shaw thumbnail
Presenting Princess Shaw
This 2015 crowd-pleasing documentary from Israeli director Ido Haar is about the touching partnership between YouTube artist Samantha Montgomery (Princess Shaw), and Israeli mashup artist Kutiman.

Religion & Spirituality

Divan
Divan
Divan
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?
Next Year in Bombay
Next Year in Bombay
Next Year in Bombay profiles the surprising diversity of India’s Jewish communities, some of which have existed for over 2,500 years. Now, however, they are struggling to maintain their culture and traditions as their populations dwindle. At the heart of the film is the story of a young couple torn between their desire to see Judaism thrive in India and their commitment to providing their children with a Jewish education only possible if they move to Israel.
Orthodox Stance
Orthodox Stance
Dmitriy Salita, formerly of Odessa, Ukraine, is a 24-year-old fervently Orthodox Jew living in Brooklyn, who scrupulously follows the customs and traditions of his faith. He keeps kosher, studies Torah and prays every day. Dmitriy Salita is also an undefeated professional prizefighter managed by a Hasidic rabbi. Is that a contradiction? Hardly, as revealed in this intimate, fascinating journey inside the two worlds of a remarkable young American immigrant. —Mike Silver
Four Questions For a Rabbi
Four Questions For a Rabbi
About This Film
Still image from the film Tikkun
Tikkun
In TIKKUN, a surreal, haunting narrative film, an Orthodox man feels as if he is being tested by God.
Felix & Meira
Felix & Meira
Hadas Yaron (of the internationally acclaimed film Fill the Void) returns to the big screen in Maxime Giroux’s Felix and Meira, a story of an unconventional romance between two people living vastly different lives mere blocks away from one another.
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
In Israel there is neither civil marriage nor civil divorce. Only Rabbis can legitimate a marriage or its dissolution. But this dissolution is only possible with full consent from the husband, who in the end has more power than the judges.
Menashe
Menashe
Joshua Z. Weinstein’s Brooklyn-based Yiddish drama is an authentic, tightly written, compelling story for anyone jonesing to hear more than a bisl (little bit) of the mamaloshen (mother tongue). Menashe, a complex and lovable schlemiel, is a young widower deep in the heart of New York’s ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish community who is fighting for custody of his son and struggling with his aversion to marrying again.

Social Justice

Gideon's Army
Gideon's Army
This Sundance award-winning documentary confronts the legacy of the landmark US Supreme Court decision in Gideon vs. Wainwright, which established the right to legal representation for indigent clients in criminal cases. Filmmaker Dawn Porter tracks three understaffed and underfunded public defenders in the South as they struggle to represent their clients. Gideon's Army shines a much deserved light on these unsung civil rights heroes of our times.
Disturbing The Peace
Disturbing The Peace
This inspiring documentary finds a spirit of compassion and empathy in an unexpected place: among combatants from both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian divide. Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters come together to form Combatants for Peace, a nonviolent group that uses dialogue, theater and art to try to end the conflict. Disturbing the Peace doesn’t shy away from harsh realities and, somehow, still leaves you inspired. —Tamar FoxDirector Stephen Apkon in personPreceded by Hitchhikers, Dir. Yair Agmon
Crime After Crime
Crime After Crime
Yoav Potash’s documentary is a shattering chronicle of Deborah Peagler, an African American woman imprisoned for the 1983 murder of her horribly abusive boyfriend. After a law passes allowing survivors of domestic violence to appeal their sentences, two idealistic lawyers, one an Orthodox Jew, become convinced they can set her free. This is a staggering account of a fight against injustice and a suspect system still imprisoning hundreds of thousands of women across America today.
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
The 1960s’ most famous, rabble-rousing and radical defense attorney is put on the witness stand by two of his two daughters in this riveting documentary. For Sarah and Emily Kunstler, it’s an effort to understand and reconcile with a man of contradictions who defended not only civil rights activists, the Chicago 7 and American Indian militants, but also accused rapists, terrorists and assassins. An exciting portrait of every revolutionary’s ideal= lawyer. Followed by social justice discussion at the Castro.
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]
After Tiller
After Tiller
Screened to great acclaim at Sundance, this documentary about third-trimester abortion hardly sounds life-affirming on its surface. Yet Martha Shane and Lana Wilson inject a welcome dose of rationality to the incendiary topic. With deliberate pacing and a calming soundtrack, they offer an intimate portrait of the only four doctors in the United States who still perform the procedure, despite the assassination of their mentor Dr. George Tiller by an antiabortionist in 2009.
Watchers of the Sky
Watchers of the Sky
About This Film
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.
Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech
Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech
This vital and unexpectedly personal exploration of the right to free speech features prominent voices including the filmmaker’s father, Martin Garbus, who discusses his difficult decision as a young Jewish ACLU attorney to defend the rights of American Nazis in Skokie, Illinois. Coolheaded and utterly engaging, the film traces the embattled history of free expression in the U.S., with instructive emphasis on post-9/11 cases.
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 Trials of Muhammad Ali
The Trials of Muhammad Ali
In the 1960s, Muhammad Ali threw off what he called his “slave name,” Cassius Clay, joined the Nation of Islam and refused to serve in the Vietnam War. Boasting archival interviews including Malcolm X, Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis, Bill Siegel’s documentary tackles some of the greatest themes of our times: power, race, faith, identity and freedom from the legacy of slavery. Like its articulate subject, Siegel’s doc “floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee.”
A Small Act
A Small Act
Can a single act of generosity transform a life? As a poor Kenyan boy, Chris Mburu’s life changed forever when a Jewish schoolteacher in Sweden anonymously sponsored his education. Today a Harvard-educated lawyer, he honors his benefactor (and now friend) by providing scholarships in her name to a new generation of promising but desperately poor Kenyan children. A Small Act rivetingly celebrates this inspiring example of “paying it forward.”
Class Divide
Class Divide
One-hundred-fifteen steps is all that separates a public housing complex from a private school for Manhattan’s elite. Class Divide shines a light on people who live a stone’s throw apart but inhabit completely different worlds. Despite grim statistics about poverty, the film is imbued with optimism as it shares stories from both sides of the street and finds common ground in the hopes and dreams of young people and their families. —Stephanie Rapp
The Freedom to Marry
The Freedom to Marry
What’s the definition of a mensch? After watching this inspiring documentary, you’ll have a two-word answer: Evan Wolfson. Founder of the advocacy group Freedom to Marry and the acknowledged “godfather” of the marriage equality movement, Wolfson’s 30-year struggle to bring about justice for millions of gays and lesbians is the heart of this fascinating history that retraces the circuitous path towards legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States. —Peter L. Stein
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
In Israel there is neither civil marriage nor civil divorce. Only Rabbis can legitimate a marriage or its dissolution. But this dissolution is only possible with full consent from the husband, who in the end has more power than the judges.

Comedy

The Nasty Girl
The Nasty Girl
An insightful, merciless black comedy - one of the most viciously funny satires to come out of Germany. Schoolgirl Sonja (Lena Stolze, featured in THE WHITE ROSE) comes from a prominent family and has gained the respect of the people in her small Bavarian town by winning a prize for best essay in a European competition.
The Producers (2005)
The Producers (2005)
Max is a Broadway producer with a reputation for consistently churning out flops. Leo is a nebbish accountant. Soon after meeting, Leo plants the idea of embezzlement in Max’s head. Before you know it, their get-rich-quick scheme is born. All they have to do is put together the granddaddy of all flops and they’ll be rolling in dough. However, making a disaster isn’t as easy as it seems.
Dough
Dough
After 100 years in business, Nat’s (Jonathan Pryce) third generation Kosher Bakery is in a downward spiral. His customers are moving or dying, and his son has no interest in the family business. Nat reluctantly hires a young Muslim immigrant, Ayyash, a fast learner who accidentally creates a batch of cannabis-infused challah. Soon, business is booming, and things begin to look up for both men, while a new friendship sprouts despite the gulfs of age, race and religion.
Hello I Must be Going
Hello I Must be Going
Celebrated character actress Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures, television’s Two and Half Men) gives a breakout performance as Amy Minsky, a thirtysomething divorcee, back under the suburban Connecticut roof of her parents (a wonderful Blythe Danner and John Rubenstein). Spending her days in sweatpants watching old Marx Brothers movies, Amy has put her life on hold, waiting for something or someone to ignite the spark lacking in her life.Sundance 2012, Opening Night Film[MINIGUIDE 68/70]
The Women’s Balcony
The Women’s Balcony
A rousing, good-hearted tale about women speaking truth to patriarchal power following an accident during a bar mitzvah celebration that leads to a gender rift in a devout Orthodox community in Jerusalem.
Gilbert
Gilbert
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.
Crossing Delancey
Crossing Delancey
A contemporary romantic comedy in which single, sophisticated Isabelle confronts family tradition when her grandmother hires a matchmaker to find her a marriage prospect.
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere) lives a lonely life in the margins of New York City power and money; a would-be operator dreaming up financial schemes that never come to fruition, until he meets a charismatic Israeli politician.
My Awkward Sexual Adventure
My Awkward Sexual Adventure
This raunchy yet oddly sweet romantic sex comedy features writer/actor Jonas Chernick as Jordan, a nerdy accountant, so hopeless in bed that his frustrated girlfriend has begun to nod off during sex. After she breaks up with him, Jordan awakes one morning on the couch of a wise and charming stripper, Julia, who agrees to be his erotic mentor in exchange for sound financial advice.
Love & Taxes
Love & Taxes
Despite his job assisting a high-powered San Francisco corporate tax attorney, Josh Kornbluth hasn’t filed his own taxes in years. When his boss finally convinces him to file, so begins an unexpected and hilarious journey that will change his life. Seamlessly blending scenes from Kornbluthss finally convinces him to file, so begins an unexpected and Love & Taxes will capture your heart and make you never want to do your taxes the same way again.
Very Semi-Serious
Very Semi-Serious
Famed and would-be cartoonists return to the New Yorker week after week to vie for the approval of the acerbic, egotistical, funny and deeply human cartoon editor Bruce Mankoff. From the neurotic Roz Chast to the offbeat Bruce Eric Kaplan, these humorists draw us into their sometimes eccentric, sometimes morose, always delightful world views. Like binging on a year’s worth of New Yorker cartoons, Very Semi-Serious delights and leaves you wanting more.
Alila
Alila
In a working-class Tel Aviv neighborhood, the turbulent and poignant lives of illicit lovers, a divorced couple whose son has gone AWOL from the army, the ex-wife’s younger lover, an elderly Holocaust survivor, illegal foreign workers, and a half-crazed policewoman all converge. Renowned director Amos Gitai’s visually powerful and emotionally masterful ensemble drama is a microcosm of Israeli society.
Who's the Caboose?
Who's the Caboose?
This mockumentary (in the tradition of WAITING FOR GUTHMAN, LIVING IN OBLIVION and THIS IS SPINAL TAP) is a delightfully scathing send-up of L.A.’s comedy biz. Susan, a 20-something New Yorker goes out west for "pilot season,"
Arlo & Julie
Arlo & Julie
In this whimsical romantic comedy, Arlo and Julie are a young couple adrift in Austin, whose lives are upended when Julie starts to receive mysterious packages in the mail. Each one contains more pieces of the same jigsaw puzzle. As they try to solve the mystery, they descend into an obsession that threatens to change everything. The result is an uplifting, surprisingly moving exploration of art and history, love, trust and faith. preceded by A Knock at the Door
Deli Man
Deli Man
Laugh your way through hilarious stories of American delicatessens while drooling over the wonderful Jewish food being prepared before your eyes.
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
Cupcakes
Cupcakes
Set in contemporary Tel Aviv, six diverse best friends gather to watch the wildly popular UniverSong competition. Appalled by the Israeli entry, they decide to create their own and record it on a mobile phone.
The Boy Downstairs
The Boy Downstairs
Zosia Mamet of GIRLS fame stars in this twentysomething romantic comedy that borrows the aesthetic and location of the popular HBO show. Mamet plays Diana, an aspiring writer who moves back to New York City after living in London. Three years ago she left behind mensch and loving boyfriend Ben (Matthew Shear). Now she returns to discover that he lives in the apartment below hers. Things are about to get complicated.
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Filtered By: Daniel Raim Clear All
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story
This sweet documentary chronicles the married couple of storyboard artist Harold Michelson and film researcher Lillian Michelson, two unsung heroes of Hollywood’s Golden Age who worked on some of the most famous films of the era together.

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