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Coming of Age

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.

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

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

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

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

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

About This Film

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

LGBTQ

The Return of Sarah's Daughters

About This Film

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

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.

Oriented

A striking new documentary from Israel, ORIENTED examines life for gay Israelis and Palestinians in Tel Aviv.

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

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, 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

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

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

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

Those People

Milk

In 1972, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) and his then-lover Scott Smith leave New York for San Francisco, with Milk determined to accomplish something meaningful in his life.

Anti-Semitism

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

About This Film

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

An Algerian emigrant in Paris during World War II is inspired to join the French Resistance when he becomes friends with a Jewish man.

Comedy

The Nasty Girl

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

About This Film

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

Religion & Spirituality

Divan

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 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

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

About This Film

Tikkun

In TIKKUN, a surreal, haunting narrative film, an Orthodox man feels as if he is being tested by God.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About This Film

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem

Milk

In 1972, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) and his then-lover Scott Smith leave New York for San Francisco, with Milk determined to accomplish something meaningful in his life.

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

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

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

About This Film

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, 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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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.

Exhibition Series

Co-Presentation 2007
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Israel in Motion
Magnes
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Filtered By: Daniel Raim Clear All

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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