The Jewish Film Institute presents the fourth annual Pitch + Kvell, celebrating the 2024 JFI Filmmakers in Residence. Join us via Zoom as the Residents pitch their projects to an esteemed panel of film industry leaders. This event is free with registration.
Pitch + Kvell is the culmination of JFI’s annual Filmmakers in Residence program, the only dedicated artist development program in the United States that provides creative, marketing, and production support for emerging and established filmmakers whose documentary projects explore and expand thoughtful consideration of Jewish history, life, culture, and identity.
Now in its fourth year, Pitch + Kvell invites you to take a front-row seat and kvell with us as the 2024 Residents present their projects to a panel of thought leaders in the independent film community for feedback and advice.
Download the Pitch + Kvell Program Guide here to learn more about each project.
2024 Filmmakers in Residence:
Emile Bokaer, We Play Cinema
Udi Nir & Sagi Bornstein, The First Lady
Hervé Cohen, This Little Song
Emma D. Miller, Father Figures
Amanda Rubin, The Third Reich of Dreams: Dreaming Under Dictatorship
Jeremy Borison, Alliance
Panelists:
Ash Hoyle: Programmer at the Sundance Film Festival
Keisha Knight: Director of Funds and Advocacy at the International Documentary Association
Philippe Bellaiche: Filmmaker and Professor at the School of Audio-Visual Arts at Sapir College and Bezalel Art Academy, Israel.
Pitch + Kvell is hosted by Marcia Jarmel, Director of Filmmaker Services. A recording of the event will be made available for a limited time following the live broadcast.
Emile Bokaer: We Play Cinema
We Play Cinema is a multi-generational documentary self-portrait by Emile Bokaer, created in collaboration with his father Tsvi Bokaer. Blending contemporary observational footage with Tsvi’s long-lost 1960s 16mm films, son and father place past and present in direct conversation, to illuminate the lasting truth: cinema is as essential as life itself.
Udi Nir & Sagi Bornstein: The First Lady
Israeli transgender pioneer Efrat Tilma had to flee the country as a teenager. Now in her seventies and a celebrated activist, she must fight for her rights once again, while the country spirals into political and social regression.
Hervé Cohen: This Little Song
Haunted by a childhood melody sung in Arabic by his Jewish grandmother, a filmmaker embarks on a journey across Algeria to rediscover a lost song and unravel the echoes of a once-thriving harmony between Jews and Muslims.
Emma D. Miller: Father Figures
When a retired theater director begins posting deeply intimate conversations with his growing collection of ventriloquist’s dummies, his daughter embarks on a quest to understand his motivations and repair a fraught relationship — using puppets.
Amanda Rubin: The Third Reich of Dreams: Dreaming Under Dictatorship
From Weimar Activist to dream collector to New York celebrity stylist, the untold story of one woman’s undercover mission to collect evidence against the Nazis. A uniquely prophetic and penetrating insight into the psychological effects of totalitarianism.
Jeremy Borison: Alliance
When Yeshiva University’s Pride Alliance sued the institution for denying them an LGBTQ club on campus, the university rushed the case to the Supreme Court claiming an attack on their religious freedom. Now the subject of national attention, YUPA’s fight for equality has become the symbol for LGBTQ issues in the Orthodox community and across the country.
Ash Hoyle is a features Programmer at the Sundance Film Festival and was Guest Festival Director of the 44th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in 2024. At Sundance he focuses on both fiction, nonfiction, and the Midnight sections of the Festival. Previously he was Associate Programmer for shorts and features, working closely with Director of Programming Kim Yutani. Ash’s programming experience also includes Damn These Heels Film Festival, Outfest, Palm Springs Shorts Fest, NewFest NY, Sun Valley Film Festival, Overlook Film Festival, and AFI Fest. Ash is a 2021 Project Involve Fellow on Film Independent’s programming track. Originally from Philadelphia, PA Ash holds a dual degree in Film & English from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Keisha Knight is the Director of Funds and Advocacy at the International Documentary Association (IDA). In this capacity, Keisha oversees a portfolio of IDA’s granting, artist support, and field-building programs, including the IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund, Logan Elevate Grants, Nonfiction Access Initiative, and the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund, among other granting programs. Keisha has served on numerous juries and review panels and is a 2022-2023 Warhol Curatorial Research Fellow. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Sentient.Art.Film and a doctoral candidate in Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University.
Philippe Bellaiche is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose trajectory in the field—from cinematographer to producer to director—has spanned 25 years and four continents. In addition to maintaining a prolific career as a cinematographer, Bellaïche has taught extensively in Israel’s most prestigious film schools and is currently teaching at the School of Audio Visual Arts in Sapir College in Sderot and at the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem.