Although diminished in length, narrative short films are never in short supply for expression or creativity. Filmmakers, especially youthful ones, have the freedom to explore the limits of the craft unencumbered by large budgets and bulky crews imposing their limitations. This year we herald new voices, outsider perspectives, and feature a range of styles and storytelling that extends our world beyond the living room and into the lives of people around the globe, like us, searching for love, connection, meaning, and something beyond themselves.
A biracial girl caught between two worlds prepares for her Bat Mitzvah and adulthood.
Adam spends a cottage weekend with Robin, his non-Jewish girlfriend, and is forced to confront the divide between their romance and his family’s expectations.
A middle aged Hasidic bookbinder, in his search for binding materials, stumbles across a craigslist ad offering "binding lessons for submissive women."
Against the advice of her therapist, an eccentric high school senior sets out to seduce her older, self-obsessed family friend while touring his college
Jacob goes out, for the first time in his life, to a gay party, but discovers that his skin color prevents him from being accepted into the community. The film is part of the "Equals" project, by the Gesher Multicultural Film Fund.
Eliya takes his sick mother Naomi to visit a psychic medium who lives near the Dead Sea, doing everything in his power to strengthen her. But the visit does not go as planned, causing the son and his mother to confront their future.
The two craftspeople Uli and Didi are working on a swastika in their workshop somewhere between rural idyll and village dreariness, wondering about the strange newcomers in the village.