2025 Filmmakers in Residence

Brian Becker: Malls of America

"Malls of America" traces the rise, fall, and potential reinvention of the most quintessentially American habitat: the enclosed shopping mall.

Hilla Medalia: Missing Silver

On the morning of October 7th, renowned peace activist Vivian Silver was assumed to be abducted by Hamas from her kibbutz near Gaza. As Israel launches a devastating attack on the Gaza Strip, Vivian’s sons, and beloved Jewish and Palestinian friends, struggle to hold onto Silver's vision and hope for peace.

Karin Kainer: Hot Spot

An intimate five-year coming-of-age journey follows Gen Z international students, some from enemy nations, whose paths first cross at a controversial boarding school for peace in conflict-ridden Israel during a global pandemic. As they transition into adulthood, navigating love, war, loss, and national conflict, their fragile friendships face the ultimate test: an uncertain and divided future.

Leah Galant: Landscapes of Memory

Interweaving the stories of a Holocaust-survivor descendant, a Nazi-descendant historian, Palestinian artists in exile, and the filmmaker's own reckoning with her father’s ALS, "Landscapes of Memory" explores the complexities of Holocaust remembrance and the uses and abuses of memory culture.

Shaina Feinberg: None of this Matters

When a struggling filmmaker befriends an unassuming, elderly director, she discovers a Hollywood legend whose unique model for teaching has influenced some of the most iconic artists over the past 50 years.

Toby Freilich: I Make Maintenance Art

What happens when high art meet trash? Watch this first feature documentary about Mierle Laderman Ukeles, globally-renowned artist-in-residence at NYC’s Sanitation Department. Religiously observant, Ukeles’ humanistic approach to Jewish tradition inspires her largely secular work.