2026 Filmmakers in Residence

Meet the talented cohort of filmmakers in the 2026 JFI Filmmaker Residency and learn more about their projects.

2026 Filmmakers in Residence

Abraham Troen: Family Pictures (WT)

Abraham Troen: Family Pictures (WT)

When violence claims a mother and great granddaughter a century apart, one family’s past and present collide, forcing each generation to decide what legacy of peace, justice and dignity they will carry forward.

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Zoe Potkin: HAPPY FAMILY

Zoe Potkin: HAPPY FAMILY

HAPPY FAMILY follows the return of an estranged father who, with advanced Parkinson’s and nowhere to go, is taken in by the women he once left behind—his ex-wife and four daughters—suddenly tasked with keeping him alive.

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Yasmin Hed: IPI

Yasmin Hed: IPI

When a filmmaker unearths 16mm footage filmed by her late father of a musical born in apartheid South Africa, she locates the forgotten performers whose stories of resilience, long buried by history, finally rise through the transcendent power of music and dance.

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Jacob Fertig: Offcuts

Jacob Fertig: Offcuts

After the death of a disabled child, a family confronts conflicting memories of the institution where he lived. His concealed existence becomes the subject of collective reckoning as scenes from the past unspool.

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Russ Finkelstein: Our Home Is Not Of This World

Russ Finkelstein: Our Home Is Not Of This World

Our Home Is Not Of This World follows the work of a medical examiner’s office in Texas that identifies people who die crossing the border, revealing its personal, political and spiritual significance.

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Ira Eduardovna: The Iron Road

Ira Eduardovna: The Iron Road

While recovering from a brain injury, a filmmaker creates an animated film tracing her family's journey from Soviet Uzbekistan, uncovering legends of migration and a railway that echoes across generations.

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