Films A-Z
9 Star Hotel
An intimate look inside the lives of Palestinian construction workers who cross illegally into Israel in search of a livelihood.
Addes
This comic yet heartfelt documentary chronicles the controversial renovation of a 100-year-old Syrian synagogue in Jerusalem. When the beadle makes a unilateral decision to remove memorial plaques that have hung in the synagogue for years, the congregation takes matters into its own hands, threatening to spark a conflict of almost biblical proportions.
Aviva My Love
Aviva (Asi Levi) writes magical stories she hopes to publish, but she must also keep her family afloat even if it means sacrificing her own ambitions.
Bad Faith
She's Jewish, he's Muslim, they're having a baby - and that's when the troubles start in this charming romantic comedy from France. Preceded by A Kiss Is a Kiss Is a Kiss.
Between Two Notes
A filmmaker travels across the Middle East in search of the roots of classical Arabic music while uncovering a hidden aspect of her own heritage.
Body and Soul
The quintessential boxing classic. A Jewish boxer (John Garfield) fights his way out of poverty but nearly sells his soul on the way to the top.
Borders
Filmmakers Nurit Kedar and Eran Riklis teamed up to make Borders, a riveting documentary that puts a human face on the neighbors who live alongside Israel's 1,171 kilometers of borders. The film deftly explores the political, cultural and geographical divisions that separate Israelis, Lebanese, Jordanians, Syrians, Egyptians and Palestinians from one another. Some of these borders are peaceful and quiet; others are fraught with fear. But the people who live and work near the borders - an Israeli soldier who "adopts" an Arab family, a Druze bride who leaves her family in the Golan to marry in Lebanon (the real-life story behind Riklis's Syrian Bride), or the Lebanese merchant importing luxury goods from Israel into Southern Lebanon we will meet again in Lebanon Dream - navigate these artificial boundaries with a combination of emotional and physical effort. Director Nurit Kedar will be in attendance.
Bubble, The
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.
Cemetery Club, The
This mesmerizing documentary profiles a vital group of octogenarians who gather weekly to discuss art, politics, philosophy and love. It�s a brilliant and witty portrait of older people who seek an understanding of the narrative of their lives.
Chosen Ones, The
Wendla Nolle travels to Manhattan in search of the face of young Jewish music and serves up a sampler of this hip new generation.
Ezekiel's Wheels
Renowned American-born, Jerusalem-based poet Shirley Kaufman gives an electrifying reading of her new work, a contemplation of longing and the nature of true seeing. The elegiac poem ("wheels and their turnings/can the mind provide/what the eye will/never") is inspired by Kaufman's struggle with loss of sight as eye surgery left her experiencing visions like those of the exiled prophet Ezekiel.
Film Fanatic
Film Fanatic is a captivating portrait of Yehuda Grovais, an energetic Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jew who has made over 50 feature films geared toward members of his community (who are prohibited from watching mainstream movies, but watch his films on disc). Screening with Yoel, Israel and the Pashkevils.
Gary's Story
"No one needs a Jew who's second best," 16-year-old Gary Podvalny's elders like to remind him. Gary's family emigrated from Moscow to San Francisco in 1990 with $300 to its name. Today, the Podvalnys own their own auto shop. "Don't spend your life under a car," his father admonishes. There's no time for pit stops when you're chasing the American dream.
Giraffe, The
In this sexy, taut thriller by SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award winner Dani Levy, a mysterious death links two generations of families in Germany and America.
Gorgeous!
A snappy romantic comedy set in Paris, Gorgeous! celebrates the au courant Parisian woman. Tons of wit, smarts and not an insignificant amount of sex.
His People
Join us for a one-time-only musical event: a 1925 silent Jewish boxing classic set in NY's Lower East Side, accompanied live by Paul Shapiro's jazz sextet playing his new film score.
Hot House
Filmmaker Shimon Dotan probes a startling truth: Israeli prisons are a breeding ground for the next generation of Palestinian leaders and a hotbed for terrorism.
I Am - You Are
I Am You Are presents films by Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers in the award-winning youth media program at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. Preceded by Gary's Story.
I'm Charlie Chaplin
Jay Rosenblatt (2005 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award winner) is back with a delightful look at his daughter Ella's favorite Halloween character. Director will be in attendance in all screenings.
Jews in Shorts
We've combed the globe to find and present the best new Jewish short films, featuring the work of both veteran and up-and-coming directors.
Jonathan
It seems like a straightforward home movie, but we promise Jonathan is anything but. Rather, it is an impossibly prescient piece of filmmaking whose seeming simplicity belies its narrative power. Jonathan tells the story of a little boy who wants to dress up as the Little Mermaid for Purim, and you wouldn't think you could care so much about whether or not he gets to fulfill his dream. Jonathan makes us think again about what little boys are made of.
Just an Ordinary Jew
A journalist in Hamburg wrestles with the contradictions of being a Jew in modern Germany in this tour-de-force monologue from the director of Downfall.
Kiss Is a Kiss Is a Kiss, A
Three of the unlikeliest screen kisses and one draw.
Knowledge Is the Beginning
In the 1990s, conductor Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian-born writer and professor Edward Said created the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. This unusual hybrid of a concert movie and a political documentary chronicles the life of the orchestra.
Ladino - 500 Years Young
Yasmin Levy, an electrifying Israeli singer, is trying to preserve the musical culture of Ladino, the ancient language of the Jews of Spain, now in danger of disappearing.
Lebanon Dream
Veteran filmmaker Nurit Kedar's two documentaries Borders and Lebanon Dream explore the meaning of borders and the travails of those who cross them.
Longing, The: The Forgotten Jews of South America
Five hundred years after the Spanish Inquisition, descendants of crypto-Jews in South America attempt to affirm their Jewish faith against all odds.
Making Trouble
Making Trouble is a laugh-out-loud, impeccably researched documentary that explores six legendary American Jewish women comics: Molly Picon, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker Joan Rivers, Wendy Wasserstein and Gilda Radner.
Max Baer's Last Right Hook
It's wartime 1942, and hapless entrepreneur Yaakov Gendelmayer has an idea for a morale-boosting publicity stunt: bring Jewish former heavyweight boxer Max Baer to Palestine to fight a German boxer, in an effort to recreate Baer's legendary bout against Hitler's darling, Max Schmeling. Sixty years later, Gendelmayer's son comes to Israel to interview old-timers and find out the truth about Max Baer's last right hook. In a hilarious send-up--or is it a valentine?--of the clichés of history documentaries, filmmaker Avida Livny uncovers a story so wonderful it ought to be true...and maybe it is!
Mr. Cortisone, Happy Days
In this intimate tour de force, the director battles cancer and charms one and all looking for salvation and finding it by creating a cinematic masterpiece.
My Fuehrer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler
A depressed Adolf Hitler hires a Jewish acting teacher to reclaim his charisma in this wicked and controversial parody from Germany by Jewish director Dani Levy.
My Mexican Shivah
When the patriarch of a Mexico City family dies suddenly, he leaves behind a complicated web of secrets. This sly and charming dysfunctional-family drama is an affectionate, tearful party that's hard to leave.
My Son, The Hero
Ulmer's 1943 slapstick farce showcases boxer "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom and Roscoe Karns as a con man impressing his war hero son. Preceded by Max Baer's Last Right Hook.
Naturalized
A young Russian Jewish man in New York decides to get circumcised, causing every member of his secular family to express an opinion.
Orders of Love
Jes Benstock (Holocaust Tourist, SFJFF 2006) returns with a graphically innovative exploration of his family tree.
Orthodox Stance
A fascinating journey into the two worlds of Dmitriy Salita, a strictly Orthodox young Russian immigrant in Brooklyn who is also an undefeated professional prizefighter.
Praying With Lior
Deeply human coming-of-age portrait of Lior Liebling, a child with Down syndrome preparing for his bar mitzvah, who is filled with an unquenchable spirit of prayer and singing. Preceded by I'm Charlie Chaplin.
Sidewalk
When does it all begin? How do we become who we become? How did any of us survive the trials and tribulations of childhood?
So Long Are You Young
The unusual story of Samuel Ullman, a Jewish merchant from the deep South, and his remarkable poem, "Youth," which inspired a generation of postwar Japanese. Preceded by Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow's Ezekiel's Wheels.
Sweet Mud
One of the year's most acclaimed international dramas: A 12-year-old boy must care for his emotionally fragile mother on an Israeli kibbutz, learning poignant lessons about thwarted love and human failings. Winner, Sundance Grand Jury Prize.
Three Mothers
A tale of three beautiful triplets from Egypt, told over 60 years, as they come to terms with long-buried secrets and passions.
Tolya
From Jerusalem's Sam Spiegel Film School comes this sweet and funny drama about a toothless immigrant calling home to offer a romantic greeting to his wife.
Touch Away, A
If you thought smartly written, superbly acted television dramas only happen on HBO, think again: A Touch Away takes a slice of contemporary Tel Aviv life and spins out a marvelous multi-family drama. The series revolves around the forbidden love between a young Russian immigrant man and his neighbor, an Orthodox Jewish girl. Eight episodes screen over two days at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
Wasted
Nurit Kedar's Wasted is a candid look at Israeli soldiers who served in the fortress of Beaufort in Southern Lebanon before Israel's withdrawal in 2000.
Weitzman St. No. 10
A Russian Jewish family immigrates to Israel; even stranger than the air raid is the behavior of their new fellow countrymen.
Yedidiah's Collection
This documentary is a fascinating view of the withdrawal from Gaza from the point of view of a young settler boy who collects shrapnel.
Yiddish Soul & Concert Yiddish Soul
This two-part concert film and documentary showcases the stars of Europe's new Yiddish and klezmer music revival, a diverse and intergenerational assortment of musicians.
Yoel, Israel and the Pashkevils
Yoel, Israel and the Pashkevils, an unusual documentary because of its access to a hidden community, about a printer of protest posters (pashkevils) and his zealous nemesis.
Your Younger Daughter Rachel
From Israel's Sapir Academic College comes this accomplished drama about a young woman with an angry, unemployed father and a mother who doesn't speak up for her daughter.