Film Topics
Black Over White
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Black Over White chronicles the Ethiopian concert tour by Israeli-Ethiopian-Yemenite world-beat band The Idan Raichel Project.
Amharic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Music
Flipping Out
Every year, the cloud forests of India’s Himalayan foothills provide the ideal escape for some 30,000 young Israelis just released from mandatory military service.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yoav Shamir
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural
Home-Made Hero
From Tel Aviv University, a thrilling story of a mad woman soldier who kidnaps an innocent cab driver for a fatal mission.
It Kinda Scares Me
A gritty, funny documentary about a Tel Aviv drama coach (Tomer Heymann) and the talented, “delinquent� students he coaches.
Jews in Shorts
From rapid koshering services to the tale of a macho young man afraid to jump from a high place, and capped by a sneak preview of the latest film from SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project, this program is a fun and sometimes poignant sample of young Jewish creativity.
TOPICS: 20-Somethings
Mom, I Didn't Kill Your Daughter
Lior and Yuval are a couple; Lior comes from a kibbutz near the Dead Sea and Yuval was born in central Israel. Like many couples, they are opposites: Lior is opinionated and Yuval is introverted. Both were born as women, but throughout their lives they identified as male.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Orna Ben Dor
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Family Relationships, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance, Women
Stalags–Holocaust and Pornography in Israel
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During the early 1960s, a new pulp lit emerged in Israel. “Stalags� pocketbooks featured camp prisoners sexually assaulted by buxom SS officers. Controversial and popular, Stalags were condemned as porn. This documentary asks, what did they really mean?
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ari Libsker
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II
Tel Aviv by Girls
This free-spirited and mesmerizing docu-fiction hybrid explores the complexity of modern womanhood and the fragility of human relationships.
French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tiffany Tavernier, Eliette Abecassis
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Drama, French, Romance, Women
Bilin My Love
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An important documentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seen through one village’s struggle, using stunning guerilla aesthetics that capture unique moments of desperation, courage and fear.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Shai Carmeli Pollak
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Jerusalem Is Proud to Present
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In 2006, Jerusalem hosted the World Pride events, which were planned to culminate in a gay pride parade. Nitzan Gilady’s award-winning documentary weaves together the passions of gay rights activists and religious Jews, Muslims and Christians who oppose them.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Nitzan Gilady
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, LGBT
Praying In Her Own Voice
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An excellent documentary about the contentious struggle of Women of the Wall for the right to wear prayer shawls and read Torah scrolls aloud at the Western Wall.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yael Katzir
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli Diversity, Orthodox Judaism, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
Being Jewish in France
Yves Jeuland’s extraordinary documentary captures centuries of Jewish life in France in two episodes broadcast on French television to critical acclaim.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yves Jeuland
TOPICS: Anti-Semitism, French, History, Immigration
Facing Windows
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Two 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.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ferzan Ozpetek
TOPICS: Anti-Semitism, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, LGBT, Romance
Arab Labor
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Whether it leaves you in stitches or up in arms, this irreverent Israeli Arab sitcom will bring you the Middle East conflict as you’ve never seen it before.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ron Ninio
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Bridge Over the Wadi
Bridge Over the Wadi documents a rocky year in the life of an Arab-Jewish primary school.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann, Barak Heymann
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity
My Father's Palestinian Slave
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This intimate documentary portrays the unlikely friendship between an undocumented Palestinian worker and his Israeli employer, veteran peace activist Moshe Amirav.
Hebrew, Swedish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Appenzeller, Nathanel Goldman Amirav
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Three Times Divorced
The harrowing story of a Gaza-born woman locked in the battle of a lifetime for custody of her six children, and locked out of the legal process.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ibtisam Mara'ana
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Palestinian, Women
A Fool's Dream
Lev Syrkin was a successful artist in Moscow who dreamed of pursuing artistic and personal freedom in Israel.
Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ido Bahat, Daniel Syrkin
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Russia & the former Soviet Union
The Danube Exodus
A cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II tells the devastating story of the Peereboom family. Screening with The Danube Exodus.
English
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II, Immigration, Music
Description of a Memory
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Nearly 50 years after Chris Marker’s landmark 1961 documentary about Israel, Description of a Struggle, Dan Geva’s film engages with and pays tribute to its progenitor. Clearly Marker’s film left a lasting impression on the Israeli-born Geva, who uses images from the original film as a springboard to uncovering the many changes that have taken place in the physical and political landscapes of Israel and in its inhabitants.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Dan Geva
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, History
Description of a Struggle
A young boy joyfully rides a pushcart down the hilly streets of Haifa, a humped camel crosses a street, and an innocent girl paints an unseen picture in what may best represent the emergence of a new country and its unknown future.
The Maelstrom: A Family Chronicle
A cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II tells the devastating story of the Peereboom family.
Dutch, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Family Relationships, Holocaust & World War II
Miss Universe 1929—Lisl Goldarbeiter, A Queen in Wien
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The dramatic life of a Jewish Viennese beauty queen as recorded in home movies by the man who loved her from a distance—her cousin.
English, Hungarian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Biography, Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Women
A Fool's Dream
Lev Syrkin was a successful artist in Moscow who dreamed of pursuing artistic and personal freedom in Israel.
Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ido Bahat, Daniel Syrkin
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Russia & the former Soviet Union
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
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This wonderful and often hilarious documentary follows a once famous Canadian heavy metal band, founded in the 1970s by two nice Jewish boys, and still rocking on.
English
DIRECTOR: Sacha Gervasi
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Music, North American Jewish Community
Dancing Alfonso
Dancing Alfonso is a pitch-perfect portrait of a vital widower who finds a physical practice that sustains him, and community and creativity in the rhythms and movement of flamenco.
French, Hebrew, Spanish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Barak Heymann
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Dance, Romance, Seniors
The Danube Exodus
A cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II tells the devastating story of the Peereboom family. Screening with The Danube Exodus.
English
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II, Immigration, Music
Love Comes Lately
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Three intertwined stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. At the center is the elderly writer Max (Otto Tausig), whose vivid imagination merges life with fiction. Co-starring Rhea Perlman & Tovah Feldshuh.
English
DIRECTOR: Jan Schütte
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Central European, Drama, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
The Maelstrom: A Family Chronicle
A cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II tells the devastating story of the Peereboom family.
Dutch, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Family Relationships, Holocaust & World War II
Out of Focus
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Out of Focus captures the creativity of Ohad Naharin, Israel’s “rock star� choreographer and director of Batsheva Dance Company.
Stalags–Holocaust and Pornography in Israel
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During the early 1960s, a new pulp lit emerged in Israel. “Stalags� pocketbooks featured camp prisoners sexually assaulted by buxom SS officers. Controversial and popular, Stalags were condemned as porn. This documentary asks, what did they really mean?
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ari Libsker
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II
Two Lives Plus One
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In this comedic drama, a Parisian schoolteacher’s newfound independence puts a strain on her conventional family when an attractive publisher takes an interest in her writing.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Idit Cebula
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Drama, Family Relationships, French, Romance, Women
Facing the Wind
Facing the Wind is the story of 13-year-old Oran, who lost his eyesight and five members of his family in a terrorist attack. Despite his blindness, Oran is going to make his dream come true and keep on sailing.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Gilad Reshef
TOPICS: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Middle East Conflict, Youth
Max Minsky and Me
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A fun, family-oriented comedy about a bookish 12-year-old girl in modern Berlin who neglects her bat mitzvah studies in order to become a basketball player.
German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Anne Justice
TOPICS: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Central European, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Youth
Sixty Six
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A London boy’s bar mitzvah party is threatened by a coinciding soccer match in this charming nostalgic comedy. Helena Bonham Carter and Stephen Rea co-star.
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
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Roberta Grossman’s first-rate documentary Blessed Is the Match, narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, is a paean to Hungarian resistance fighter and poet Hannah Senesh.
English
DIRECTOR: Roberta Grossman
TOPICS: Biography, Family Relationships, History, Human Rights and Social Justice, Women
Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story
An inspiring portrait of South Africa’s outrageous, controversial and brilliant political satirist (and occasional drag entertainer) Pieter-Dirk Uys, who now uses humor and rage to combat HIV/AIDS.
Miss Universe 1929—Lisl Goldarbeiter, A Queen in Wien
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The dramatic life of a Jewish Viennese beauty queen as recorded in home movies by the man who loved her from a distance—her cousin.
English, Hungarian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Biography, Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Women
Operation Mural Casablanca 1961
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Operation Mural is the incredible but true story of the smuggling of 530 Jewish Moroccan children to Israel, under the guise of a holiday trip to Switzerland, in the spring of 1961.
English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yehuda Kaveh
TOPICS: Biography, History, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim, Seniors
Perlasca, An Italian Hero
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What makes a man risk his life for people he doesn’t know? Perlasca is a taut drama about one Italian man’s remarkable courage in saving 5,200 Hungarian Jews.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Alberto Negrin
TOPICS: Biography, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews
Stefan Braun
Fabulous archival footage of Tel Aviv’s gay life from the 1950s immerses us in the world of society furrier Stefan Braun and the man who loved, worshipped and stood by him for 39 years, Eliezer Rath.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Itamar Alcalay
TOPICS: Biography, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance
Love Comes Lately
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Three intertwined stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. At the center is the elderly writer Max (Otto Tausig), whose vivid imagination merges life with fiction. Co-starring Rhea Perlman & Tovah Feldshuh.
English
DIRECTOR: Jan Schütte
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Central European, Drama, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
Max Minsky and Me
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A fun, family-oriented comedy about a bookish 12-year-old girl in modern Berlin who neglects her bat mitzvah studies in order to become a basketball player.
German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Anne Justice
TOPICS: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Central European, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Youth
Miss Universe 1929—Lisl Goldarbeiter, A Queen in Wien
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
The dramatic life of a Jewish Viennese beauty queen as recorded in home movies by the man who loved her from a distance—her cousin.
English, Hungarian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Biography, Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Women
Saved By Deportation: An Unknown Odyssey of Polish Jews
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With wit and charm, this documentary follows two lively eighty-somethings back to the scene where, by a fluke of history, they survived the Holocaust: in Stalin’s Siberian gulag.
English, Polish, Russian, Uzbek, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Slawomir Grunberg
TOPICS: Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Seniors
Tell Your Children
This beautifully crafted and powerful fiction short is the story of a little girl surviving the January 1945 mass murders by the Arrow Cross at the Danube's bank in Hungary.
Toyland
1942: what happens when a German kid believes that his Jewish neighbors are going to Toyland? A beautiful and moving story about lies and guilt.
German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Jochen Alexander Freydank
TOPICS: Central European, Holocaust & World War II
A Trip to Prague
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Does everyone need to meet a nice Jewish girl? With striking illustrations and deadpan narration, this film relates a funny anecdote about the Jewish instinct to make a shiddach (fix-up).
Alice and I
What does a broken-hearted French guy would do with three older Jewish ladies in one car? Find out as Simon, while driving his aunt and her two friends, gets a phone call from his irritable girlfriend.
Arab Labor
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Whether it leaves you in stitches or up in arms, this irreverent Israeli Arab sitcom will bring you the Middle East conflict as you’ve never seen it before.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ron Ninio
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Max Minsky and Me
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A fun, family-oriented comedy about a bookish 12-year-old girl in modern Berlin who neglects her bat mitzvah studies in order to become a basketball player.
German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Anne Justice
TOPICS: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Central European, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Youth
Sixty Six
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A London boy’s bar mitzvah party is threatened by a coinciding soccer match in this charming nostalgic comedy. Helena Bonham Carter and Stephen Rea co-star.
Dancing Alfonso
Dancing Alfonso is a pitch-perfect portrait of a vital widower who finds a physical practice that sustains him, and community and creativity in the rhythms and movement of flamenco.
French, Hebrew, Spanish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Barak Heymann
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Dance, Romance, Seniors
Out of Focus
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Out of Focus captures the creativity of Ohad Naharin, Israel’s “rock star� choreographer and director of Batsheva Dance Company.
Arab Labor
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Whether it leaves you in stitches or up in arms, this irreverent Israeli Arab sitcom will bring you the Middle East conflict as you’ve never seen it before.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ron Ninio
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Emotional Arithmetic
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A surprise visitor (Gabriel Byrne) triggers turbulent childhood memories of love and loss among war survivors (Susan Sarandon, Max von Sydow) in this achingly beautiful story set in modern Quebec. Co-starring Christopher Plummer.
English
DIRECTOR: Paolo Barzman
TOPICS: Drama, Holocaust & World War II, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
Facing Windows
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Two 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.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ferzan Ozpetek
TOPICS: Anti-Semitism, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, LGBT, Romance
In Treatment
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Imagine you are in therapy and your shrink is a thoughtful, badly dressed bear of a man who resembles Israeli actor Assi Dayan. Then imagine that when the transference and countertransference are flying so fast you can see trails, your shrink goes to talk to his shrink—who happens to be the all-knowing Israeli grande dame of cinema, Gila Almagor.
Love Comes Lately
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Three intertwined stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. At the center is the elderly writer Max (Otto Tausig), whose vivid imagination merges life with fiction. Co-starring Rhea Perlman & Tovah Feldshuh.
English
DIRECTOR: Jan Schütte
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Central European, Drama, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
Max Minsky and Me
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
A fun, family-oriented comedy about a bookish 12-year-old girl in modern Berlin who neglects her bat mitzvah studies in order to become a basketball player.
German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Anne Justice
TOPICS: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Central European, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Youth
Perlasca, An Italian Hero
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
What makes a man risk his life for people he doesn’t know? Perlasca is a taut drama about one Italian man’s remarkable courage in saving 5,200 Hungarian Jews.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Alberto Negrin
TOPICS: Biography, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews
The Secrets
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Naomi and Michelle come to Safed to study in an orthodox women’s seminary. While seeking spiritual knowledge, they embark upon a secret journey of rituals and forbidden love.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Avi Nesher
TOPICS: Drama, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Orthodox Judaism, Romance, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
Sixty Six
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A London boy’s bar mitzvah party is threatened by a coinciding soccer match in this charming nostalgic comedy. Helena Bonham Carter and Stephen Rea co-star.
Strangers
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Handsome Eyal and knockout Rana meet by chance on a subway in Berlin. But he’s Israeli and she’s Palestinian—setting in motion a passionate story exploring the boundaries of nationality, culture and the heart.
Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Guy Nattiv, Erez Tadmor
TOPICS: Drama, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Palestinian, Romance
Tehilim
A father’s mysterious disappearance throws his family into a personal and spiritual crisis in this engrossing, beautifully acted drama set in modern Jerusalem.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Raphaël Nadjari
TOPICS: Drama, Family Relationships, Orthodox Judaism, Spirituality & Jewish Identity
Tel Aviv by Girls
This free-spirited and mesmerizing docu-fiction hybrid explores the complexity of modern womanhood and the fragility of human relationships.
French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tiffany Tavernier, Eliette Abecassis
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Drama, French, Romance, Women
Two Lives Plus One
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
In this comedic drama, a Parisian schoolteacher’s newfound independence puts a strain on her conventional family when an attractive publisher takes an interest in her writing.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Idit Cebula
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Drama, Family Relationships, French, Romance, Women
A Fool's Dream
Lev Syrkin was a successful artist in Moscow who dreamed of pursuing artistic and personal freedom in Israel.
Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ido Bahat, Daniel Syrkin
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Russia & the former Soviet Union
Ashkenaz
A pithy but panoramic view of Israel’s “white� Jews, revealing a surprisingly diverse group, seen through the eyes of a Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Israelis.
English, Hebrew, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Rachel Leah Jones
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim
Georgia My Love
Noga Gamlieli playfully captures the beauty and spunk of Maya and Manana, Georgian immigrants to Israel who express their love for Georgia through their strongest talents: music and dance.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Noga Gamlieli
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Music, Russia & the former Soviet Union
Spell Your Name
In today’s Kiev, masked characters in colorful traditional attire dance in a circle for the winter celebration of Koliada; one dancer steps forward, pulls fake products from his pockets and begins a barter monologue, enacting the traditional stereotype of “the Jew.�
Russian, Ukrainian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Sergey Bukovsky
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Holocaust & World War II, Russia & the former Soviet Union, Seniors
Arab Labor
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Whether it leaves you in stitches or up in arms, this irreverent Israeli Arab sitcom will bring you the Middle East conflict as you’ve never seen it before.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ron Ninio
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Baghdad Twist
Joining a small but growing number of films about the Jews of Iraq, Baghdad Twist—by Baghdad-born Joe Balass (Nana, George and Me, SFJFF 1998)—is an evocation of a lost world, one of reed boat rafting on the Euphrates, spice markets and doing the Twist. Wonderful archival footage melds with the recollections of Valentine, the director’s mother, in exploring one family’s choices and the way historical realities shaped them.
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
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Roberta Grossman’s first-rate documentary Blessed Is the Match, narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, is a paean to Hungarian resistance fighter and poet Hannah Senesh.
English
DIRECTOR: Roberta Grossman
TOPICS: Biography, Family Relationships, History, Human Rights and Social Justice, Women
The Maelstrom: A Family Chronicle
A cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II tells the devastating story of the Peereboom family.
Dutch, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Family Relationships, Holocaust & World War II
Max Minsky and Me
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
A fun, family-oriented comedy about a bookish 12-year-old girl in modern Berlin who neglects her bat mitzvah studies in order to become a basketball player.
German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Anne Justice
TOPICS: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Central European, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Youth
Mom, I Didn't Kill Your Daughter
Lior and Yuval are a couple; Lior comes from a kibbutz near the Dead Sea and Yuval was born in central Israel. Like many couples, they are opposites: Lior is opinionated and Yuval is introverted. Both were born as women, but throughout their lives they identified as male.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Orna Ben Dor
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Family Relationships, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance, Women
My Father's Palestinian Slave
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This intimate documentary portrays the unlikely friendship between an undocumented Palestinian worker and his Israeli employer, veteran peace activist Moshe Amirav.
Hebrew, Swedish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Appenzeller, Nathanel Goldman Amirav
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
My Olympic Summer
8mm home movies from the 1970s and the discovery of an unopened letter from his mother are the potent and poetic ingredients of San Francisco–based director Daniel Robin’s reexamination of his parents’ relationship, set against the background of his own failed marriage. His father’s participation in the 1972 Israeli Olympic hostage crisis plays a crucial role.
English, German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Daniel Robin
TOPICS: Family Relationships, Local Filmmakers
The Quest for the Missing Piece
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The Quest for the Missing Piece is a hilarious romp through the debate over circumcision.
German, Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Oded Lotan
TOPICS: Family Relationships, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Spirituality & Jewish Identity
Sixty Six
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A London boy’s bar mitzvah party is threatened by a coinciding soccer match in this charming nostalgic comedy. Helena Bonham Carter and Stephen Rea co-star.
Tehilim
A father’s mysterious disappearance throws his family into a personal and spiritual crisis in this engrossing, beautifully acted drama set in modern Jerusalem.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Raphaël Nadjari
TOPICS: Drama, Family Relationships, Orthodox Judaism, Spirituality & Jewish Identity
Three Times Divorced
The harrowing story of a Gaza-born woman locked in the battle of a lifetime for custody of her six children, and locked out of the legal process.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ibtisam Mara'ana
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Palestinian, Women
Tulip Time—The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano
The popular Trio Lescano—three Dutch Jewish sisters—were the 1930s Italian equivalent of the Andrews Sisters in the 30s, until fascism forced them into silence.
Dutch, Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tonino Boniotti, Marco De Stefanis
TOPICS: Family Relationships, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, Music, Women
Two Lives Plus One
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In this comedic drama, a Parisian schoolteacher’s newfound independence puts a strain on her conventional family when an attractive publisher takes an interest in her writing.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Idit Cebula
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Drama, Family Relationships, French, Romance, Women
Alice and I
What does a broken-hearted French guy would do with three older Jewish ladies in one car? Find out as Simon, while driving his aunt and her two friends, gets a phone call from his irritable girlfriend.
Being Jewish in France
Yves Jeuland’s extraordinary documentary captures centuries of Jewish life in France in two episodes broadcast on French television to critical acclaim.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yves Jeuland
TOPICS: Anti-Semitism, French, History, Immigration
Tel Aviv by Girls
This free-spirited and mesmerizing docu-fiction hybrid explores the complexity of modern womanhood and the fragility of human relationships.
French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tiffany Tavernier, Eliette Abecassis
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Drama, French, Romance, Women
Two Lives Plus One
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
In this comedic drama, a Parisian schoolteacher’s newfound independence puts a strain on her conventional family when an attractive publisher takes an interest in her writing.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Idit Cebula
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Drama, Family Relationships, French, Romance, Women
We Were Exodus
The men who volunteered to crew the Exodus were a ragtag team of Jewish World War II veterans from several countries and mariners with a conscience from all over the world. Their recollections are the masts upon which Jean-Michel Vecchiet hangs the structure of his impeccably researched documentary about the ship Exodus ’47, which was both haven and prison to thousands of Holocaust survivors.
English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Jean-Michel Vecchiet
TOPICS: French, History, Immigration
At Home in Utopia
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
“The Coops,� cooperative Bronx apartments, symbolized an experiment in justice and equality. Tthis documentary portrays the workers who embraced communist, socialist and union movements.
English, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Michal Goldman
TOPICS: History, Human Rights and Social Justice, North American Jewish Community
Baghdad Twist
Joining a small but growing number of films about the Jews of Iraq, Baghdad Twist—by Baghdad-born Joe Balass (Nana, George and Me, SFJFF 1998)—is an evocation of a lost world, one of reed boat rafting on the Euphrates, spice markets and doing the Twist. Wonderful archival footage melds with the recollections of Valentine, the director’s mother, in exploring one family’s choices and the way historical realities shaped them.
Being Jewish in France
Yves Jeuland’s extraordinary documentary captures centuries of Jewish life in France in two episodes broadcast on French television to critical acclaim.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yves Jeuland
TOPICS: Anti-Semitism, French, History, Immigration
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
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Roberta Grossman’s first-rate documentary Blessed Is the Match, narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, is a paean to Hungarian resistance fighter and poet Hannah Senesh.
English
DIRECTOR: Roberta Grossman
TOPICS: Biography, Family Relationships, History, Human Rights and Social Justice, Women
Description of a Memory
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Nearly 50 years after Chris Marker’s landmark 1961 documentary about Israel, Description of a Struggle, Dan Geva’s film engages with and pays tribute to its progenitor. Clearly Marker’s film left a lasting impression on the Israeli-born Geva, who uses images from the original film as a springboard to uncovering the many changes that have taken place in the physical and political landscapes of Israel and in its inhabitants.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Dan Geva
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, History
Description of a Struggle
A young boy joyfully rides a pushcart down the hilly streets of Haifa, a humped camel crosses a street, and an innocent girl paints an unseen picture in what may best represent the emergence of a new country and its unknown future.
Facing Windows
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Two 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.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ferzan Ozpetek
TOPICS: Anti-Semitism, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, LGBT, Romance
The Film Class
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The Film Class explores the black Bedouins’ legacy of slavery through the astonished eyes of the current generation of women.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Rosenwaks
TOPICS: History, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Women
The Old Stores
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
A wistful portrait of Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s quirky small shops—a button store, an (analog) watch repair shop, an old-fashioned barber—as they wrestle with their fast-paced surroundings and contemplate change in the face of modernization.
Operation Mural Casablanca 1961
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Operation Mural is the incredible but true story of the smuggling of 530 Jewish Moroccan children to Israel, under the guise of a holiday trip to Switzerland, in the spring of 1961.
English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yehuda Kaveh
TOPICS: Biography, History, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim, Seniors
Perlasca, An Italian Hero
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What makes a man risk his life for people he doesn’t know? Perlasca is a taut drama about one Italian man’s remarkable courage in saving 5,200 Hungarian Jews.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Alberto Negrin
TOPICS: Biography, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews
We Were Exodus
The men who volunteered to crew the Exodus were a ragtag team of Jewish World War II veterans from several countries and mariners with a conscience from all over the world. Their recollections are the masts upon which Jean-Michel Vecchiet hangs the structure of his impeccably researched documentary about the ship Exodus ’47, which was both haven and prison to thousands of Holocaust survivors.
English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Jean-Michel Vecchiet
TOPICS: French, History, Immigration
The Danube Exodus
A cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II tells the devastating story of the Peereboom family. Screening with The Danube Exodus.
English
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II, Immigration, Music
Emotional Arithmetic
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A surprise visitor (Gabriel Byrne) triggers turbulent childhood memories of love and loss among war survivors (Susan Sarandon, Max von Sydow) in this achingly beautiful story set in modern Quebec. Co-starring Christopher Plummer.
English
DIRECTOR: Paolo Barzman
TOPICS: Drama, Holocaust & World War II, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
Every Day the Impossible: Jewish Women in the Partisans
Of 30,000 Jewish partisans fighting the Nazis and their allies, 10 percent were women. This little gem of a documentary recognizes the unique contributions of women partisans during World War II. The stories of these courageous women, who had to battle sexism within their ranks as well as fascism in Europe, are riveting.
Facing Windows
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Two 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.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ferzan Ozpetek
TOPICS: Anti-Semitism, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, LGBT, Romance
The Maelstrom: A Family Chronicle
A cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II tells the devastating story of the Peereboom family.
Dutch, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Family Relationships, Holocaust & World War II
Miss Universe 1929—Lisl Goldarbeiter, A Queen in Wien
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The dramatic life of a Jewish Viennese beauty queen as recorded in home movies by the man who loved her from a distance—her cousin.
English, Hungarian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Biography, Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Women
Perlasca, An Italian Hero
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
What makes a man risk his life for people he doesn’t know? Perlasca is a taut drama about one Italian man’s remarkable courage in saving 5,200 Hungarian Jews.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Alberto Negrin
TOPICS: Biography, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews
Saved By Deportation: An Unknown Odyssey of Polish Jews
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With wit and charm, this documentary follows two lively eighty-somethings back to the scene where, by a fluke of history, they survived the Holocaust: in Stalin’s Siberian gulag.
English, Polish, Russian, Uzbek, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Slawomir Grunberg
TOPICS: Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Seniors
Spell Your Name
In today’s Kiev, masked characters in colorful traditional attire dance in a circle for the winter celebration of Koliada; one dancer steps forward, pulls fake products from his pockets and begins a barter monologue, enacting the traditional stereotype of “the Jew.�
Russian, Ukrainian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Sergey Bukovsky
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Holocaust & World War II, Russia & the former Soviet Union, Seniors
Stalags–Holocaust and Pornography in Israel
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During the early 1960s, a new pulp lit emerged in Israel. “Stalags� pocketbooks featured camp prisoners sexually assaulted by buxom SS officers. Controversial and popular, Stalags were condemned as porn. This documentary asks, what did they really mean?
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ari Libsker
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II
Tell Your Children
This beautifully crafted and powerful fiction short is the story of a little girl surviving the January 1945 mass murders by the Arrow Cross at the Danube's bank in Hungary.
Toyland
1942: what happens when a German kid believes that his Jewish neighbors are going to Toyland? A beautiful and moving story about lies and guilt.
German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Jochen Alexander Freydank
TOPICS: Central European, Holocaust & World War II
Tulip Time—The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano
The popular Trio Lescano—three Dutch Jewish sisters—were the 1930s Italian equivalent of the Andrews Sisters in the 30s, until fascism forced them into silence.
Dutch, Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tonino Boniotti, Marco De Stefanis
TOPICS: Family Relationships, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, Music, Women
Volevo Solo Vivere (I Only Wanted to Live)
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A unique window into the Italian Jewish Holocaust experience, this documentary features testimonies of nine Italians who survived Auschwitz, including Liliana Segre, who will be present for an onstage interview after the screening.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Mimmo Calopresti
TOPICS: Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews
At Home in Utopia
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
“The Coops,� cooperative Bronx apartments, symbolized an experiment in justice and equality. Tthis documentary portrays the workers who embraced communist, socialist and union movements.
English, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Michal Goldman
TOPICS: History, Human Rights and Social Justice, North American Jewish Community
Bilin My Love
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
An important documentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seen through one village’s struggle, using stunning guerilla aesthetics that capture unique moments of desperation, courage and fear.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Shai Carmeli Pollak
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Roberta Grossman’s first-rate documentary Blessed Is the Match, narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, is a paean to Hungarian resistance fighter and poet Hannah Senesh.
English
DIRECTOR: Roberta Grossman
TOPICS: Biography, Family Relationships, History, Human Rights and Social Justice, Women
The Film Class
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
The Film Class explores the black Bedouins’ legacy of slavery through the astonished eyes of the current generation of women.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Rosenwaks
TOPICS: History, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Women
Jerusalem Is Proud to Present
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In 2006, Jerusalem hosted the World Pride events, which were planned to culminate in a gay pride parade. Nitzan Gilady’s award-winning documentary weaves together the passions of gay rights activists and religious Jews, Muslims and Christians who oppose them.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Nitzan Gilady
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, LGBT
Praying In Her Own Voice
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An excellent documentary about the contentious struggle of Women of the Wall for the right to wear prayer shawls and read Torah scrolls aloud at the Western Wall.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yael Katzir
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli Diversity, Orthodox Judaism, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
Three Times Divorced
The harrowing story of a Gaza-born woman locked in the battle of a lifetime for custody of her six children, and locked out of the legal process.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ibtisam Mara'ana
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Palestinian, Women
To See if I'm Smiling
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To See If I’m Smiling tells the powerful stories of six Israeli women soldiers who did their army service in combat units in the occupied territories.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tamar Yarom
TOPICS: Human Rights and Social Justice, Middle East Conflict, Women
A Fool's Dream
Lev Syrkin was a successful artist in Moscow who dreamed of pursuing artistic and personal freedom in Israel.
Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ido Bahat, Daniel Syrkin
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Russia & the former Soviet Union
A Hebrew Lesson
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The process of learning a language is always fraught with humor, frustration—and pantomime. A Hebrew Lesson opens with a scene that might seem familiar, as Yoela, the teacher at a Hebrew immersion class (or ulpan) in Tel Aviv, introduces herself in Hebrew relying on simple body language.
Chinese, English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: David Ofek
TOPICS: Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity
Ashkenaz
A pithy but panoramic view of Israel’s “white� Jews, revealing a surprisingly diverse group, seen through the eyes of a Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Israelis.
English, Hebrew, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Rachel Leah Jones
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim
Being Jewish in France
Yves Jeuland’s extraordinary documentary captures centuries of Jewish life in France in two episodes broadcast on French television to critical acclaim.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yves Jeuland
TOPICS: Anti-Semitism, French, History, Immigration
Black Over White
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Black Over White chronicles the Ethiopian concert tour by Israeli-Ethiopian-Yemenite world-beat band The Idan Raichel Project.
Amharic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Music
The Danube Exodus
A cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II tells the devastating story of the Peereboom family. Screening with The Danube Exodus.
English
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II, Immigration, Music
Georgia My Love
Noga Gamlieli playfully captures the beauty and spunk of Maya and Manana, Georgian immigrants to Israel who express their love for Georgia through their strongest talents: music and dance.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Noga Gamlieli
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Music, Russia & the former Soviet Union
Operation Mural Casablanca 1961
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Operation Mural is the incredible but true story of the smuggling of 530 Jewish Moroccan children to Israel, under the guise of a holiday trip to Switzerland, in the spring of 1961.
English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yehuda Kaveh
TOPICS: Biography, History, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim, Seniors
We Were Exodus
The men who volunteered to crew the Exodus were a ragtag team of Jewish World War II veterans from several countries and mariners with a conscience from all over the world. Their recollections are the masts upon which Jean-Michel Vecchiet hangs the structure of his impeccably researched documentary about the ship Exodus ’47, which was both haven and prison to thousands of Holocaust survivors.
English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Jean-Michel Vecchiet
TOPICS: French, History, Immigration
A Hebrew Lesson
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
The process of learning a language is always fraught with humor, frustration—and pantomime. A Hebrew Lesson opens with a scene that might seem familiar, as Yoela, the teacher at a Hebrew immersion class (or ulpan) in Tel Aviv, introduces herself in Hebrew relying on simple body language.
Chinese, English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: David Ofek
TOPICS: Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity
Arab Labor
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Whether it leaves you in stitches or up in arms, this irreverent Israeli Arab sitcom will bring you the Middle East conflict as you’ve never seen it before.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ron Ninio
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Ashkenaz
A pithy but panoramic view of Israel’s “white� Jews, revealing a surprisingly diverse group, seen through the eyes of a Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Israelis.
English, Hebrew, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Rachel Leah Jones
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim
Black Over White
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Black Over White chronicles the Ethiopian concert tour by Israeli-Ethiopian-Yemenite world-beat band The Idan Raichel Project.
Amharic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Music
Bridge Over the Wadi
Bridge Over the Wadi documents a rocky year in the life of an Arab-Jewish primary school.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann, Barak Heymann
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity
Eyes Wide Open
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What does Israel mean to American Jews today? Veteran filmmaker Paula Weiman-Kelman goes behind the scenes of the ubiquitous bus tours that clog Israel’s ancient landmarks to explore the complex relationship between the American Jewish community and the 60-year-old Jewish state.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Paula Weiman-Kelman
TOPICS: Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, North American Jewish Community, Spirituality & Jewish Identity
The Film Class
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
The Film Class explores the black Bedouins’ legacy of slavery through the astonished eyes of the current generation of women.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Rosenwaks
TOPICS: History, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Women
Flipping Out
Every year, the cloud forests of India’s Himalayan foothills provide the ideal escape for some 30,000 young Israelis just released from mandatory military service.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yoav Shamir
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural
Jerusalem Is Proud to Present
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
In 2006, Jerusalem hosted the World Pride events, which were planned to culminate in a gay pride parade. Nitzan Gilady’s award-winning documentary weaves together the passions of gay rights activists and religious Jews, Muslims and Christians who oppose them.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Nitzan Gilady
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, LGBT
My Father's Palestinian Slave
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This intimate documentary portrays the unlikely friendship between an undocumented Palestinian worker and his Israeli employer, veteran peace activist Moshe Amirav.
Hebrew, Swedish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Appenzeller, Nathanel Goldman Amirav
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Roads
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Thirteen-year-old Ismayil searches for a new life for himself and his younger brother outside the Arab drug slums of the Israeli city of Lod.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Lior Geller
TOPICS: Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity
Strangers
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Handsome Eyal and knockout Rana meet by chance on a subway in Berlin. But he’s Israeli and she’s Palestinian—setting in motion a passionate story exploring the boundaries of nationality, culture and the heart.
Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Guy Nattiv, Erez Tadmor
TOPICS: Drama, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Palestinian, Romance
Three Times Divorced
The harrowing story of a Gaza-born woman locked in the battle of a lifetime for custody of her six children, and locked out of the legal process.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ibtisam Mara'ana
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Palestinian, Women
Arab Labor
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Whether it leaves you in stitches or up in arms, this irreverent Israeli Arab sitcom will bring you the Middle East conflict as you’ve never seen it before.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ron Ninio
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Bilin My Love
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
An important documentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seen through one village’s struggle, using stunning guerilla aesthetics that capture unique moments of desperation, courage and fear.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Shai Carmeli Pollak
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Bridge Over the Wadi
Bridge Over the Wadi documents a rocky year in the life of an Arab-Jewish primary school.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann, Barak Heymann
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity
My Father's Palestinian Slave
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
This intimate documentary portrays the unlikely friendship between an undocumented Palestinian worker and his Israeli employer, veteran peace activist Moshe Amirav.
Hebrew, Swedish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Appenzeller, Nathanel Goldman Amirav
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Roads
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Thirteen-year-old Ismayil searches for a new life for himself and his younger brother outside the Arab drug slums of the Israeli city of Lod.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Lior Geller
TOPICS: Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity
Strangers
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Handsome Eyal and knockout Rana meet by chance on a subway in Berlin. But he’s Israeli and she’s Palestinian—setting in motion a passionate story exploring the boundaries of nationality, culture and the heart.
Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Guy Nattiv, Erez Tadmor
TOPICS: Drama, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Palestinian, Romance
Three Times Divorced
The harrowing story of a Gaza-born woman locked in the battle of a lifetime for custody of her six children, and locked out of the legal process.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ibtisam Mara'ana
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Palestinian, Women
A Fool's Dream
Lev Syrkin was a successful artist in Moscow who dreamed of pursuing artistic and personal freedom in Israel.
Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ido Bahat, Daniel Syrkin
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Russia & the former Soviet Union
A Hebrew Lesson
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
The process of learning a language is always fraught with humor, frustration—and pantomime. A Hebrew Lesson opens with a scene that might seem familiar, as Yoela, the teacher at a Hebrew immersion class (or ulpan) in Tel Aviv, introduces herself in Hebrew relying on simple body language.
Chinese, English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: David Ofek
TOPICS: Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity
Arab Labor
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Whether it leaves you in stitches or up in arms, this irreverent Israeli Arab sitcom will bring you the Middle East conflict as you’ve never seen it before.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ron Ninio
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Ashkenaz
A pithy but panoramic view of Israel’s “white� Jews, revealing a surprisingly diverse group, seen through the eyes of a Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Israelis.
English, Hebrew, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Rachel Leah Jones
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim
Bilin My Love
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
An important documentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seen through one village’s struggle, using stunning guerilla aesthetics that capture unique moments of desperation, courage and fear.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Shai Carmeli Pollak
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Black Over White
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Black Over White chronicles the Ethiopian concert tour by Israeli-Ethiopian-Yemenite world-beat band The Idan Raichel Project.
Amharic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Music
Bridge Over the Wadi
Bridge Over the Wadi documents a rocky year in the life of an Arab-Jewish primary school.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann, Barak Heymann
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity
The Film Class
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
The Film Class explores the black Bedouins’ legacy of slavery through the astonished eyes of the current generation of women.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Rosenwaks
TOPICS: History, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Women
Georgia My Love
Noga Gamlieli playfully captures the beauty and spunk of Maya and Manana, Georgian immigrants to Israel who express their love for Georgia through their strongest talents: music and dance.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Noga Gamlieli
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Music, Russia & the former Soviet Union
Mom, I Didn't Kill Your Daughter
Lior and Yuval are a couple; Lior comes from a kibbutz near the Dead Sea and Yuval was born in central Israel. Like many couples, they are opposites: Lior is opinionated and Yuval is introverted. Both were born as women, but throughout their lives they identified as male.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Orna Ben Dor
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Family Relationships, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance, Women
The Old Stores
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
A wistful portrait of Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s quirky small shops—a button store, an (analog) watch repair shop, an old-fashioned barber—as they wrestle with their fast-paced surroundings and contemplate change in the face of modernization.
Operation Mural Casablanca 1961
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Operation Mural is the incredible but true story of the smuggling of 530 Jewish Moroccan children to Israel, under the guise of a holiday trip to Switzerland, in the spring of 1961.
English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yehuda Kaveh
TOPICS: Biography, History, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim, Seniors
Praying In Her Own Voice
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
An excellent documentary about the contentious struggle of Women of the Wall for the right to wear prayer shawls and read Torah scrolls aloud at the Western Wall.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yael Katzir
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli Diversity, Orthodox Judaism, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
The Quest for the Missing Piece
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The Quest for the Missing Piece is a hilarious romp through the debate over circumcision.
German, Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Oded Lotan
TOPICS: Family Relationships, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Spirituality & Jewish Identity
Roads
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Thirteen-year-old Ismayil searches for a new life for himself and his younger brother outside the Arab drug slums of the Israeli city of Lod.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Lior Geller
TOPICS: Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity
The Secrets
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Naomi and Michelle come to Safed to study in an orthodox women’s seminary. While seeking spiritual knowledge, they embark upon a secret journey of rituals and forbidden love.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Avi Nesher
TOPICS: Drama, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Orthodox Judaism, Romance, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
Stefan Braun
Fabulous archival footage of Tel Aviv’s gay life from the 1950s immerses us in the world of society furrier Stefan Braun and the man who loved, worshipped and stood by him for 39 years, Eliezer Rath.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Itamar Alcalay
TOPICS: Biography, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance
Three Times Divorced
The harrowing story of a Gaza-born woman locked in the battle of a lifetime for custody of her six children, and locked out of the legal process.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ibtisam Mara'ana
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Palestinian, Women
Facing Windows
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Two 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.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ferzan Ozpetek
TOPICS: Anti-Semitism, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, LGBT, Romance
Perlasca, An Italian Hero
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
What makes a man risk his life for people he doesn’t know? Perlasca is a taut drama about one Italian man’s remarkable courage in saving 5,200 Hungarian Jews.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Alberto Negrin
TOPICS: Biography, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews
Tulip Time—The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano
The popular Trio Lescano—three Dutch Jewish sisters—were the 1930s Italian equivalent of the Andrews Sisters in the 30s, until fascism forced them into silence.
Dutch, Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tonino Boniotti, Marco De Stefanis
TOPICS: Family Relationships, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, Music, Women
Volevo Solo Vivere (I Only Wanted to Live)
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A unique window into the Italian Jewish Holocaust experience, this documentary features testimonies of nine Italians who survived Auschwitz, including Liliana Segre, who will be present for an onstage interview after the screening.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Mimmo Calopresti
TOPICS: Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews
A Trip to Prague
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Does everyone need to meet a nice Jewish girl? With striking illustrations and deadpan narration, this film relates a funny anecdote about the Jewish instinct to make a shiddach (fix-up).
Facing Windows
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Two 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.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ferzan Ozpetek
TOPICS: Anti-Semitism, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, LGBT, Romance
It Kinda Scares Me
A gritty, funny documentary about a Tel Aviv drama coach (Tomer Heymann) and the talented, “delinquent� students he coaches.
Jerusalem Is Proud to Present
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In 2006, Jerusalem hosted the World Pride events, which were planned to culminate in a gay pride parade. Nitzan Gilady’s award-winning documentary weaves together the passions of gay rights activists and religious Jews, Muslims and Christians who oppose them.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Nitzan Gilady
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, LGBT
Mom, I Didn't Kill Your Daughter
Lior and Yuval are a couple; Lior comes from a kibbutz near the Dead Sea and Yuval was born in central Israel. Like many couples, they are opposites: Lior is opinionated and Yuval is introverted. Both were born as women, but throughout their lives they identified as male.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Orna Ben Dor
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Family Relationships, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance, Women
The Quest for the Missing Piece
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The Quest for the Missing Piece is a hilarious romp through the debate over circumcision.
German, Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Oded Lotan
TOPICS: Family Relationships, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Spirituality & Jewish Identity
The Secrets
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Naomi and Michelle come to Safed to study in an orthodox women’s seminary. While seeking spiritual knowledge, they embark upon a secret journey of rituals and forbidden love.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Avi Nesher
TOPICS: Drama, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Orthodox Judaism, Romance, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
Stefan Braun
Fabulous archival footage of Tel Aviv’s gay life from the 1950s immerses us in the world of society furrier Stefan Braun and the man who loved, worshipped and stood by him for 39 years, Eliezer Rath.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Itamar Alcalay
TOPICS: Biography, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance
Every Day the Impossible: Jewish Women in the Partisans
Of 30,000 Jewish partisans fighting the Nazis and their allies, 10 percent were women. This little gem of a documentary recognizes the unique contributions of women partisans during World War II. The stories of these courageous women, who had to battle sexism within their ranks as well as fascism in Europe, are riveting.
Four Questions For a Rabbi
Four Questions for a Rabbi is a poignant and thoughtful documentary begun by Bay Area filmmaker Stacey Ross and completed after her death by renowned documentarian and master found-footage alchemist Jay Rosenblatt (2005 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award). Ross asks profound questions, including: What is the role of Judaism and the Jewish soul?
English
DIRECTOR: Stacey Ross, Jay Rosenblatt
TOPICS: Local Filmmakers, North American Jewish Community, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
My Olympic Summer
8mm home movies from the 1970s and the discovery of an unopened letter from his mother are the potent and poetic ingredients of San Francisco–based director Daniel Robin’s reexamination of his parents’ relationship, set against the background of his own failed marriage. His father’s participation in the 1972 Israeli Olympic hostage crisis plays a crucial role.
English, German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Daniel Robin
TOPICS: Family Relationships, Local Filmmakers
Arab Labor
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Whether it leaves you in stitches or up in arms, this irreverent Israeli Arab sitcom will bring you the Middle East conflict as you’ve never seen it before.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ron Ninio
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Bilin My Love
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An important documentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seen through one village’s struggle, using stunning guerilla aesthetics that capture unique moments of desperation, courage and fear.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Shai Carmeli Pollak
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Facing the Wind
Facing the Wind is the story of 13-year-old Oran, who lost his eyesight and five members of his family in a terrorist attack. Despite his blindness, Oran is going to make his dream come true and keep on sailing.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Gilad Reshef
TOPICS: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Middle East Conflict, Youth
My Father's Palestinian Slave
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This intimate documentary portrays the unlikely friendship between an undocumented Palestinian worker and his Israeli employer, veteran peace activist Moshe Amirav.
Hebrew, Swedish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Appenzeller, Nathanel Goldman Amirav
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
To See if I'm Smiling
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To See If I’m Smiling tells the powerful stories of six Israeli women soldiers who did their army service in combat units in the occupied territories.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tamar Yarom
TOPICS: Human Rights and Social Justice, Middle East Conflict, Women
Ashkenaz
A pithy but panoramic view of Israel’s “white� Jews, revealing a surprisingly diverse group, seen through the eyes of a Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Israelis.
English, Hebrew, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Rachel Leah Jones
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim
Baghdad Twist
Joining a small but growing number of films about the Jews of Iraq, Baghdad Twist—by Baghdad-born Joe Balass (Nana, George and Me, SFJFF 1998)—is an evocation of a lost world, one of reed boat rafting on the Euphrates, spice markets and doing the Twist. Wonderful archival footage melds with the recollections of Valentine, the director’s mother, in exploring one family’s choices and the way historical realities shaped them.
Operation Mural Casablanca 1961
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Operation Mural is the incredible but true story of the smuggling of 530 Jewish Moroccan children to Israel, under the guise of a holiday trip to Switzerland, in the spring of 1961.
English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yehuda Kaveh
TOPICS: Biography, History, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim, Seniors
Interschriber
Never heard of an interschriber? Uri Kowalski talks passionately about his obscure profession: designing signatures. Each signature, like choreography, expresses the essence of a human life through its shape and movement.
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
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This wonderful and often hilarious documentary follows a once famous Canadian heavy metal band, founded in the 1970s by two nice Jewish boys, and still rocking on.
English
DIRECTOR: Sacha Gervasi
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Music, North American Jewish Community
Black Over White
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Black Over White chronicles the Ethiopian concert tour by Israeli-Ethiopian-Yemenite world-beat band The Idan Raichel Project.
Amharic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tomer Heymann
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Immigration, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Music
The Danube Exodus
A cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II tells the devastating story of the Peereboom family. Screening with The Danube Exodus.
English
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Holocaust & World War II, Immigration, Music
Georgia My Love
Noga Gamlieli playfully captures the beauty and spunk of Maya and Manana, Georgian immigrants to Israel who express their love for Georgia through their strongest talents: music and dance.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Noga Gamlieli
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Music, Russia & the former Soviet Union
Tulip Time—The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano
The popular Trio Lescano—three Dutch Jewish sisters—were the 1930s Italian equivalent of the Andrews Sisters in the 30s, until fascism forced them into silence.
Dutch, Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tonino Boniotti, Marco De Stefanis
TOPICS: Family Relationships, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, Music, Women
A Trip to Prague
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Does everyone need to meet a nice Jewish girl? With striking illustrations and deadpan narration, this film relates a funny anecdote about the Jewish instinct to make a shiddach (fix-up).
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
This wonderful and often hilarious documentary follows a once famous Canadian heavy metal band, founded in the 1970s by two nice Jewish boys, and still rocking on.
English
DIRECTOR: Sacha Gervasi
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Music, North American Jewish Community
At Home in Utopia
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“The Coops,� cooperative Bronx apartments, symbolized an experiment in justice and equality. Tthis documentary portrays the workers who embraced communist, socialist and union movements.
English, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Michal Goldman
TOPICS: History, Human Rights and Social Justice, North American Jewish Community
Emotional Arithmetic
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A surprise visitor (Gabriel Byrne) triggers turbulent childhood memories of love and loss among war survivors (Susan Sarandon, Max von Sydow) in this achingly beautiful story set in modern Quebec. Co-starring Christopher Plummer.
English
DIRECTOR: Paolo Barzman
TOPICS: Drama, Holocaust & World War II, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
Eyes Wide Open
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What does Israel mean to American Jews today? Veteran filmmaker Paula Weiman-Kelman goes behind the scenes of the ubiquitous bus tours that clog Israel’s ancient landmarks to explore the complex relationship between the American Jewish community and the 60-year-old Jewish state.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Paula Weiman-Kelman
TOPICS: Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, North American Jewish Community, Spirituality & Jewish Identity
Four Questions For a Rabbi
Four Questions for a Rabbi is a poignant and thoughtful documentary begun by Bay Area filmmaker Stacey Ross and completed after her death by renowned documentarian and master found-footage alchemist Jay Rosenblatt (2005 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award). Ross asks profound questions, including: What is the role of Judaism and the Jewish soul?
English
DIRECTOR: Stacey Ross, Jay Rosenblatt
TOPICS: Local Filmmakers, North American Jewish Community, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
Holidaze
This triptych of stories from SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project, produced by Citizen Film, delivers candid, funny observations of do-it-yourself holiday rituals. Teenage co-directors from a range of backgrounds consider the mysterious relevance of ritual in secular, multicultural lives.
English
TOPICS: North American Jewish Community, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Youth
In the Family
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In this gripping documentary, filmmaker Joanna Rudnick turns the camera on herself as she struggles with an impossible choice—–remove her healthy breasts and ovaries or risk a staggeringly high likelihood of developing aggressive cancer. Followed by filmmaker Q&A.
Love Comes Lately
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Three intertwined stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. At the center is the elderly writer Max (Otto Tausig), whose vivid imagination merges life with fiction. Co-starring Rhea Perlman & Tovah Feldshuh.
English
DIRECTOR: Jan Schütte
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Central European, Drama, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
888-Go-Kosher
A day in the life of New York's only rapid-response koshering service. A humorous and enlightening documentary look at the Jewish Orthodox world.
Praying In Her Own Voice
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An excellent documentary about the contentious struggle of Women of the Wall for the right to wear prayer shawls and read Torah scrolls aloud at the Western Wall.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yael Katzir
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli Diversity, Orthodox Judaism, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
The Secrets
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Naomi and Michelle come to Safed to study in an orthodox women’s seminary. While seeking spiritual knowledge, they embark upon a secret journey of rituals and forbidden love.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Avi Nesher
TOPICS: Drama, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Orthodox Judaism, Romance, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
Tehilim
A father’s mysterious disappearance throws his family into a personal and spiritual crisis in this engrossing, beautifully acted drama set in modern Jerusalem.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Raphaël Nadjari
TOPICS: Drama, Family Relationships, Orthodox Judaism, Spirituality & Jewish Identity
Arab Labor
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Whether it leaves you in stitches or up in arms, this irreverent Israeli Arab sitcom will bring you the Middle East conflict as you’ve never seen it before.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ron Ninio
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Bilin My Love
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
An important documentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seen through one village’s struggle, using stunning guerilla aesthetics that capture unique moments of desperation, courage and fear.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Shai Carmeli Pollak
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
My Father's Palestinian Slave
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This intimate documentary portrays the unlikely friendship between an undocumented Palestinian worker and his Israeli employer, veteran peace activist Moshe Amirav.
Hebrew, Swedish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Appenzeller, Nathanel Goldman Amirav
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Middle East Conflict, Palestinian
Strangers
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Handsome Eyal and knockout Rana meet by chance on a subway in Berlin. But he’s Israeli and she’s Palestinian—setting in motion a passionate story exploring the boundaries of nationality, culture and the heart.
Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Guy Nattiv, Erez Tadmor
TOPICS: Drama, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Palestinian, Romance
Three Times Divorced
The harrowing story of a Gaza-born woman locked in the battle of a lifetime for custody of her six children, and locked out of the legal process.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ibtisam Mara'ana
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Palestinian, Women
Dancing Alfonso
Dancing Alfonso is a pitch-perfect portrait of a vital widower who finds a physical practice that sustains him, and community and creativity in the rhythms and movement of flamenco.
French, Hebrew, Spanish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Barak Heymann
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Dance, Romance, Seniors
Emotional Arithmetic
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A surprise visitor (Gabriel Byrne) triggers turbulent childhood memories of love and loss among war survivors (Susan Sarandon, Max von Sydow) in this achingly beautiful story set in modern Quebec. Co-starring Christopher Plummer.
English
DIRECTOR: Paolo Barzman
TOPICS: Drama, Holocaust & World War II, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
Facing Windows
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Two 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.
Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ferzan Ozpetek
TOPICS: Anti-Semitism, Drama, History, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, LGBT, Romance
Love Comes Lately
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Three intertwined stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. At the center is the elderly writer Max (Otto Tausig), whose vivid imagination merges life with fiction. Co-starring Rhea Perlman & Tovah Feldshuh.
English
DIRECTOR: Jan Schütte
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Central European, Drama, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
Mom, I Didn't Kill Your Daughter
Lior and Yuval are a couple; Lior comes from a kibbutz near the Dead Sea and Yuval was born in central Israel. Like many couples, they are opposites: Lior is opinionated and Yuval is introverted. Both were born as women, but throughout their lives they identified as male.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Orna Ben Dor
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Family Relationships, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance, Women
The Secrets
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Naomi and Michelle come to Safed to study in an orthodox women’s seminary. While seeking spiritual knowledge, they embark upon a secret journey of rituals and forbidden love.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Avi Nesher
TOPICS: Drama, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Orthodox Judaism, Romance, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
Stefan Braun
Fabulous archival footage of Tel Aviv’s gay life from the 1950s immerses us in the world of society furrier Stefan Braun and the man who loved, worshipped and stood by him for 39 years, Eliezer Rath.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Itamar Alcalay
TOPICS: Biography, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance
Strangers
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Handsome Eyal and knockout Rana meet by chance on a subway in Berlin. But he’s Israeli and she’s Palestinian—setting in motion a passionate story exploring the boundaries of nationality, culture and the heart.
Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Guy Nattiv, Erez Tadmor
TOPICS: Drama, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Palestinian, Romance
Tel Aviv by Girls
This free-spirited and mesmerizing docu-fiction hybrid explores the complexity of modern womanhood and the fragility of human relationships.
French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tiffany Tavernier, Eliette Abecassis
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Drama, French, Romance, Women
Two Lives Plus One
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In this comedic drama, a Parisian schoolteacher’s newfound independence puts a strain on her conventional family when an attractive publisher takes an interest in her writing.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Idit Cebula
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Drama, Family Relationships, French, Romance, Women
A Fool's Dream
Lev Syrkin was a successful artist in Moscow who dreamed of pursuing artistic and personal freedom in Israel.
Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ido Bahat, Daniel Syrkin
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Art, Literature, & Dance, Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Russia & the former Soviet Union
Georgia My Love
Noga Gamlieli playfully captures the beauty and spunk of Maya and Manana, Georgian immigrants to Israel who express their love for Georgia through their strongest talents: music and dance.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Noga Gamlieli
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Music, Russia & the former Soviet Union
Spell Your Name
In today’s Kiev, masked characters in colorful traditional attire dance in a circle for the winter celebration of Koliada; one dancer steps forward, pulls fake products from his pockets and begins a barter monologue, enacting the traditional stereotype of “the Jew.�
Russian, Ukrainian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Sergey Bukovsky
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Holocaust & World War II, Russia & the former Soviet Union, Seniors
Dancing Alfonso
Dancing Alfonso is a pitch-perfect portrait of a vital widower who finds a physical practice that sustains him, and community and creativity in the rhythms and movement of flamenco.
French, Hebrew, Spanish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Barak Heymann
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Dance, Romance, Seniors
Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story
An inspiring portrait of South Africa’s outrageous, controversial and brilliant political satirist (and occasional drag entertainer) Pieter-Dirk Uys, who now uses humor and rage to combat HIV/AIDS.
Emotional Arithmetic
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
A surprise visitor (Gabriel Byrne) triggers turbulent childhood memories of love and loss among war survivors (Susan Sarandon, Max von Sydow) in this achingly beautiful story set in modern Quebec. Co-starring Christopher Plummer.
English
DIRECTOR: Paolo Barzman
TOPICS: Drama, Holocaust & World War II, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
Every Day the Impossible: Jewish Women in the Partisans
Of 30,000 Jewish partisans fighting the Nazis and their allies, 10 percent were women. This little gem of a documentary recognizes the unique contributions of women partisans during World War II. The stories of these courageous women, who had to battle sexism within their ranks as well as fascism in Europe, are riveting.
Love Comes Lately
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Three intertwined stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. At the center is the elderly writer Max (Otto Tausig), whose vivid imagination merges life with fiction. Co-starring Rhea Perlman & Tovah Feldshuh.
English
DIRECTOR: Jan Schütte
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Central European, Drama, North American Jewish Community, Romance, Seniors
The Old Stores
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A wistful portrait of Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s quirky small shops—a button store, an (analog) watch repair shop, an old-fashioned barber—as they wrestle with their fast-paced surroundings and contemplate change in the face of modernization.
Operation Mural Casablanca 1961
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Operation Mural is the incredible but true story of the smuggling of 530 Jewish Moroccan children to Israel, under the guise of a holiday trip to Switzerland, in the spring of 1961.
English, French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yehuda Kaveh
TOPICS: Biography, History, Immigration, Israeli Diversity, Mizrakhim, Seniors
Saved By Deportation: An Unknown Odyssey of Polish Jews
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With wit and charm, this documentary follows two lively eighty-somethings back to the scene where, by a fluke of history, they survived the Holocaust: in Stalin’s Siberian gulag.
English, Polish, Russian, Uzbek, Yiddish, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Slawomir Grunberg
TOPICS: Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Seniors
Spell Your Name
In today’s Kiev, masked characters in colorful traditional attire dance in a circle for the winter celebration of Koliada; one dancer steps forward, pulls fake products from his pockets and begins a barter monologue, enacting the traditional stereotype of “the Jew.�
Russian, Ukrainian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Sergey Bukovsky
TOPICS: Eastern European Jews, Holocaust & World War II, Russia & the former Soviet Union, Seniors
888-Go-Kosher
A day in the life of New York's only rapid-response koshering service. A humorous and enlightening documentary look at the Jewish Orthodox world.
Eyes Wide Open
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
What does Israel mean to American Jews today? Veteran filmmaker Paula Weiman-Kelman goes behind the scenes of the ubiquitous bus tours that clog Israel’s ancient landmarks to explore the complex relationship between the American Jewish community and the 60-year-old Jewish state.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Paula Weiman-Kelman
TOPICS: Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, North American Jewish Community, Spirituality & Jewish Identity
Four Questions For a Rabbi
Four Questions for a Rabbi is a poignant and thoughtful documentary begun by Bay Area filmmaker Stacey Ross and completed after her death by renowned documentarian and master found-footage alchemist Jay Rosenblatt (2005 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award). Ross asks profound questions, including: What is the role of Judaism and the Jewish soul?
English
DIRECTOR: Stacey Ross, Jay Rosenblatt
TOPICS: Local Filmmakers, North American Jewish Community, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
Holidaze
This triptych of stories from SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project, produced by Citizen Film, delivers candid, funny observations of do-it-yourself holiday rituals. Teenage co-directors from a range of backgrounds consider the mysterious relevance of ritual in secular, multicultural lives.
English
TOPICS: North American Jewish Community, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Youth
Praying In Her Own Voice
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
An excellent documentary about the contentious struggle of Women of the Wall for the right to wear prayer shawls and read Torah scrolls aloud at the Western Wall.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yael Katzir
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli Diversity, Orthodox Judaism, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
The Quest for the Missing Piece
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The Quest for the Missing Piece is a hilarious romp through the debate over circumcision.
German, Hebrew, Russian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Oded Lotan
TOPICS: Family Relationships, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Spirituality & Jewish Identity
The Secrets
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Naomi and Michelle come to Safed to study in an orthodox women’s seminary. While seeking spiritual knowledge, they embark upon a secret journey of rituals and forbidden love.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Avi Nesher
TOPICS: Drama, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Orthodox Judaism, Romance, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
Tehilim
A father’s mysterious disappearance throws his family into a personal and spiritual crisis in this engrossing, beautifully acted drama set in modern Jerusalem.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Raphaël Nadjari
TOPICS: Drama, Family Relationships, Orthodox Judaism, Spirituality & Jewish Identity
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
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Roberta Grossman’s first-rate documentary Blessed Is the Match, narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, is a paean to Hungarian resistance fighter and poet Hannah Senesh.
English
DIRECTOR: Roberta Grossman
TOPICS: Biography, Family Relationships, History, Human Rights and Social Justice, Women
The Film Class
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The Film Class explores the black Bedouins’ legacy of slavery through the astonished eyes of the current generation of women.
Arabic, English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Uri Rosenwaks
TOPICS: History, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli Diversity, Women
Four Questions For a Rabbi
Four Questions for a Rabbi is a poignant and thoughtful documentary begun by Bay Area filmmaker Stacey Ross and completed after her death by renowned documentarian and master found-footage alchemist Jay Rosenblatt (2005 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award). Ross asks profound questions, including: What is the role of Judaism and the Jewish soul?
English
DIRECTOR: Stacey Ross, Jay Rosenblatt
TOPICS: Local Filmmakers, North American Jewish Community, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
In the Family
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
In this gripping documentary, filmmaker Joanna Rudnick turns the camera on herself as she struggles with an impossible choice—–remove her healthy breasts and ovaries or risk a staggeringly high likelihood of developing aggressive cancer. Followed by filmmaker Q&A.
Miss Universe 1929—Lisl Goldarbeiter, A Queen in Wien
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
The dramatic life of a Jewish Viennese beauty queen as recorded in home movies by the man who loved her from a distance—her cousin.
English, Hungarian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Péter Forgács
TOPICS: Art & Experimental Film, Biography, Central European, Holocaust & World War II, Women
Mom, I Didn't Kill Your Daughter
Lior and Yuval are a couple; Lior comes from a kibbutz near the Dead Sea and Yuval was born in central Israel. Like many couples, they are opposites: Lior is opinionated and Yuval is introverted. Both were born as women, but throughout their lives they identified as male.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Orna Ben Dor
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Family Relationships, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Romance, Women
Praying In Her Own Voice
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
An excellent documentary about the contentious struggle of Women of the Wall for the right to wear prayer shawls and read Torah scrolls aloud at the Western Wall.
English, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Yael Katzir
TOPICS: Activism, Human Rights and Social Justice, Israeli Diversity, Orthodox Judaism, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
The Secrets
View trailer | More info | Buy tickets
Naomi and Michelle come to Safed to study in an orthodox women’s seminary. While seeking spiritual knowledge, they embark upon a secret journey of rituals and forbidden love.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Avi Nesher
TOPICS: Drama, Israeli Diversity, LGBT, Orthodox Judaism, Romance, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Women
Tel Aviv by Girls
This free-spirited and mesmerizing docu-fiction hybrid explores the complexity of modern womanhood and the fragility of human relationships.
French, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tiffany Tavernier, Eliette Abecassis
TOPICS: 20-Somethings, Drama, French, Romance, Women
Three Times Divorced
The harrowing story of a Gaza-born woman locked in the battle of a lifetime for custody of her six children, and locked out of the legal process.
Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Ibtisam Mara'ana
TOPICS: Arab Culture, Family Relationships, Human Rights and Social Justice, Inter-faith relationship/ Intercultural, Israeli & Arab Relations, Israeli Diversity, Palestinian, Women
To See if I'm Smiling
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To See If I’m Smiling tells the powerful stories of six Israeli women soldiers who did their army service in combat units in the occupied territories.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tamar Yarom
TOPICS: Human Rights and Social Justice, Middle East Conflict, Women
Tulip Time—The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano
The popular Trio Lescano—three Dutch Jewish sisters—were the 1930s Italian equivalent of the Andrews Sisters in the 30s, until fascism forced them into silence.
Dutch, Italian, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Tonino Boniotti, Marco De Stefanis
TOPICS: Family Relationships, Holocaust & World War II, Italian Jews, Music, Women
Two Lives Plus One
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In this comedic drama, a Parisian schoolteacher’s newfound independence puts a strain on her conventional family when an attractive publisher takes an interest in her writing.
French, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Idit Cebula
TOPICS: Art, Literature, & Dance, Drama, Family Relationships, French, Romance, Women
Facing the Wind
Facing the Wind is the story of 13-year-old Oran, who lost his eyesight and five members of his family in a terrorist attack. Despite his blindness, Oran is going to make his dream come true and keep on sailing.
Hebrew, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Gilad Reshef
TOPICS: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Middle East Conflict, Youth
Holidaze
This triptych of stories from SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project, produced by Citizen Film, delivers candid, funny observations of do-it-yourself holiday rituals. Teenage co-directors from a range of backgrounds consider the mysterious relevance of ritual in secular, multicultural lives.
English
TOPICS: North American Jewish Community, Spirituality & Jewish Identity, Youth
It Kinda Scares Me
A gritty, funny documentary about a Tel Aviv drama coach (Tomer Heymann) and the talented, “delinquent� students he coaches.
Max Minsky and Me
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A fun, family-oriented comedy about a bookish 12-year-old girl in modern Berlin who neglects her bat mitzvah studies in order to become a basketball player.
German, English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Anne Justice
TOPICS: Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Central European, Comedy, Drama, Family Relationships, Youth
Sixty Six
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A London boy’s bar mitzvah party is threatened by a coinciding soccer match in this charming nostalgic comedy. Helena Bonham Carter and Stephen Rea co-star.




































































































