These non-fiction films train their lenses on vital stories in the Jewish community and beyond.
A widow fights powerful corporations to reclaim her late husband’s famous Sea-Monkeys toy empire while protecting its secret formula and confronting the complex history behind its creation.
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The Catskill Game Farm was America's first ever private zoo, fostering beloved childhood memories for a generation before falling into disrepair and closing in 2006. But found home movies would expose a shocking new chapter of the zoo's history.
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Artist David Greenberger, whose quirky publication The Duplex Planet shared the insights of nursing home seniors, is now a senior himself and has much to say about art and conversation.
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After Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach is posthumously accused of abuse, his daughter and survivors grapple with a beloved legacy and the silence that protected it.
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From the dust storms of Oklahoma to the lox and bagels of Coney Island, discover a whole new side of Woody Guthrie that will forever change your view of one of America’s most celebrated songwriters and cultural icons.
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As his parents prepare to divorce, filmmaker Andrew Garbus turns the camera on his family and himself, unearthing long buried trauma, unresolved guilt, and the elusive hope of healing over one agonizing, revelatory week.
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As if speaking to a childhood Palestinian friend killed by Israeli police in 2000, an Arab-Jewish Israeli filmmaker meditates on lifelong personal grief, collective trauma, and Israel-Palestine today.
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Thirteen people tell their stories through their first names. Their answers blend personal histories with broader historical events. Although each story (and name) is unique, they resonate with one another, creating unexpected connections.
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Since the 1970s, depictions of abortion in film and television have both impacted and reflected shifting attitudes towards the procedure and those who choose it. This incisive documentary examines the undeniable impact that the American entertainment industry has had on that fight.
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This experimental film explores the visual representation of the Holocaust through a montage of thousands of excerpts from film and television from 1938 to the present to critically examine how Holocaust imagery has been codified and reproduced in cinema across decades.
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Guided by her grandmother’s unmarked photographs, an American college student journeys through Romania, searching for the village her family once called home.
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While living and working in Germany, filmmaker Leah Galant reckons with family trauma and the the historical memory of the Holocaust. Stories of a Holocaust-survivor descendant, a Nazi-descendant historian, exiled Palestinian artists, and her father living with ALS reveal the uses and abuses of memory culture.
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“The Lonely Child” is a haunting Yiddish lullaby written during the Holocaust, capturing the heartbreak of a mother and daughter torn apart by war. Eighty years later, the daughter of the child in the song embarks on a powerful journey to trace the song’s unexpected impact across generations.
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Memory, loss, and the quest for truth are central to this hidden story of Mizrahi babies who vanished from Israeli hospitals in the 1950s, explored through rare testimonies and revelations.
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This film uncovers the little-known story of how Herman J. Mankiewicz’s film project—warning of the dangers of Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s—was thwarted by censorship and Nazi influence within the Hollywood system.
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Beneath Jerusalem’s main cemetery where ancient Jewish rituals unfold, Palestinian workers carve a hidden city of tunnels for the dead, revealing the stark divide between the sacred realm above and the invisible labor below.
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Fearless alternative pop singer Noga Erez is on the brink of superstardom, with a unique, captivating sound and a major studio album on the way. But when war erupts and cracks appear in her relationship, Noga must redefine her role as an artist on the global stage.
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A decade-long global journey chronicles the ever-changing record holders of the title of oldest person alive. What begins as a portrait of longevity becomes a meditation on the passage of time, the randomness of fate, and the joy and profound human experience of being alive.
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Shadowed by the grand hotels of Eilat lies a hidden trailer park known as Sun Bay. Against the uncertainty surrounding the site, its residents attempt to reconcile the tension between their present loneliness and the lives they left behind.
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The assassination of a beloved Palestinian American activist in Southern California ignites a 40-year quest for justice, revealing the roots of a dangerous political movement that thrives today.
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When three American doctors—Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian—enter Gaza to save lives, they find themselves caught between medicine and politics, risking everything to expose the truth.
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Four close friends—proudly child-free women—take on every question the world throws at them with honesty, humor, and zero apologies.
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Through three gripping true stories—a military reenactment that displaces an entire village, a staged police raid on a Palestinian family, and a tormented military props supplier—Netalie Braun probes the dangerous intersection of storytelling, propaganda, and state power in Israeli society.
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Amid rising tensions and the outbreak of war, a group of Israelis and Palestinians travel to Northern Ireland to hear and to try to tell an impossible story: how bitter enemies finally make peace.
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Join us at the Piedmont Theater on the final day of SFJFF46 (Sunday, August 2) for a day of reprise screenings of Festival Award winners, including the winner of the Audience Award: Documentary Feature. Tickets are $10 until Friday, July 31 when the winners are announced.
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Join us at the Piedmont Theater on the final day of SFJFF46 (Sunday, August 2) for a day of reprise screenings of Festival Award Winners, including the winner of the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Award. Tickets are $10 until Friday, July 31 when the winners are announced.
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An immersive journey through the vibrant history of the Grossinger's Resort Hotel, a landmark of the Catskills—known as the Borscht Belt—that played a pivotal role in shaping Jewish American identity and culture.
Read MoreNOTE: All Festival Passes will exclusively be available as a benefit to JFI members at the Patron level and above.
The best way to explore SFJFF46 in style, the All Festival Pass gives you priority admission to every moment at every venue, including Big Nights and any additional ticketed events. Not only do members at the Patron+ levels receive All Festival Passes, but they also receive invitations to awards-season screenings, special events, and more throughout the year.
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