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Filtered By: 2012 Clear All

50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. & Mrs. Kraus

50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. & Mrs. Kraus

Leaving their own young children behind, Jewish Americans Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus took it upon themselves to get 50 Jewish children out of Austria during WWII. This tense and compelling story, narrated by Alan Alda, is brought to life by detailed private journals and a trove of previously unseen color home movies.

A.K.A. Doc Pomus

A.K.A. Doc Pomus

This musically rich biography pays homage to Doc Pomus, the legendary Brill Building songwriter who authored such enduring rock-and-roll hits as “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “Teenager in Love,” “Viva Las Vegas” and dozens of others for talents as diverse as Dion, Elvis Presley, Dr. John and B.B. King. Like so many of his R&B songwriting colleagues, Doc Pomus was a city-bred Jew. Born Jerome Felder, he spent a lifetime overcoming both visible and private pain through his extraordinary songs. In this spirited documentary, he is revealed as an American original. [MINIGUIDE 94/100]

Alex sees aliyah, immigration to Israel, as a way out of his troubled life dealing hashish in Paris. Plus, he’ll no longer have to clean up his deceitful older brother’s messes. But no plan is simple. To immigrate, Alex needs cash to buy into the restaurant he’ll help a cousin build in Tel Aviv. And just when his ex announces her engagement, her friend falls for him, and it’s mutual.

In this sharp Argentine romantic comedy, Uriel is a dedicated single dad by day and a Jewish Don Juan at night. When Uriel runs into an old girlfriend who dumped him years ago, he is hooked. Daniel Burman, one of Argentina’s leading directors, brilliantly cast the Uruguayan Oscar-winning singer/songwriter Jorge Drexler to play Uriel alongside sexy actress Valeria Bertuccelli. Watch the sparks fly!

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

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

Ben Lee: Catch My Disease

Ben Lee: Catch My Disease

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

In this quiet but intense psychological drama, director Franziska Schlotterer crafts an erotically charged story set in the remote mountains of the Black Forest during WWII. A young Jew fleeing the Nazis is saved by a German peasant couple, but soon discovers that there is an unexpected price to pay for his salvation. The spare but sumptuous cinematography captures the passion, desire and jealousy waiting to explode.

Laugh your way through hilarious stories of American delicatessens while drooling over the wonderful Jewish food being prepared before your eyes.

Filmmaker Residency Showcase

Filmmaker Residency Showcase

Since 2012 the JFI Filmmaker Residency has provided creative, marketing and production support for independent filmmakers. JFI residents are in various stages of completion on their projects whose work promotes the exploration and understanding of Jewish identity and culture.

Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story

Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story

Take a riveting journey into the intrepid exploits of the leader of Operation Entebbe. On July 4, 1976, 30-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan (Yoni) Netanyahu led the daring operation to rescue the 103 Israelis who were held hostage in Uganda. Filmmakers Jonathan Gruber and Ari Daniel Pinchot delicately weave the epic with the intimate in this personal story of a young man who dedicated his life to the service of his people. [MINIGUIDE 71/70]

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]

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.

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]

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.

Hitler's Children

Hitler's Children

Filmmaker Chanoch Ze'evi interviews relatives of high-ranking Nazi officials, who struggle with the guilt of their terrible family legacies.

It Happened in Saint-Tropez

It Happened in Saint-Tropez

Unashamedly romantic, the comedy of manners It Happened in Saint-Tropez begins with a family wedding and funeral.

Just 45 Minutes from Broadway

Just 45 Minutes from Broadway

This highly dramatic comedy is legendary independent filmmaker Henry Jaglom’s tribute to actors and the families who endure them. One daughter, the only member of the family to reject a life in show business, brings home her “civilian” fiancé (Judd Nelson) after a year of estrangement. What follows is a day and night fraught with drama as family members, self-consciously and with great gusto, play out the drama of their own lives. [MINIGUIDE 72/70]

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.

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.

One Day After Peace

One Day After Peace

Ten years ago Robi Damelin’s son, a soldier in the Israeli army, was killed by a Palestinian sniper. Instead of seeking revenge, Robi sets off on a journey to find forgiveness in herself. Originally from South Africa, she travels home to investigate the methods used for ending apartheid, hoping that she can bring the same peacekeeping tactics to Israel to begin the healing process and end the cycle of violence. [MINIGUIDE 70/70]

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.

Red Flag: Spotlight on Alex Karpovsky

Red Flag: Spotlight on Alex Karpovsky

A star of HBO’s hit comedy series Girls and Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture, Alex Karpovsky is one of America’s hottest emerging filmmakers and actors. Describing his onscreen persona as “his little Jewish engine of anxiety and guilt,” Karpovsky is a new generation’s Woody Allen. Red Flag, Karpovsky’s newest film as director/writer/actor, is his most biting satire. Alex Karpovsky will appear live at the Castro Theatre, followed by clips and discussion.

Take a traditional Jewish funeral whose rituals no one can quite recall. Mix in a Yiddishkeit setting in a predominantly Sephardic Jewish community. Add one of the most beautiful cities in the world as your location and top it off with a terrific ensemble cast. The result, Idit Cébula’s charmingly poignant French film Rue Mandar, reminds us that the messy, sometimes humorous and often bittersweet business of death can lead to new beginnings.

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