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Film Type

Animation
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Program Type

Cinegogue Sessions
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City of Joel

50 miles north of New York City lies the town of Monroe, where one of the fastest-growing Hasidic communities in the country thrives deep within the Hudson Valley. As the 25,000+ population within the village of Kiryas Joel looks to expand their city, the neighboring villages of non-Hasids see the encroaching community as a burgeoning power grab, leading to an increasingly tense standoff between locals. Shot over several years with seemingly boundless access, Emmy-winning director Jesse Sweet's documentary observes the simmering tensions that have come to define the community of Monroe, and the myriad ways in which the town's divide echoes the country's as well.

Class Divide

One-hundred-fifteen steps is all that separates a public housing complex from a private school for Manhattan’s elite. Class Divide shines a light on people who live a stone’s throw apart but inhabit completely different worlds. Despite grim statistics about poverty, the film is imbued with optimism as it shares stories from both sides of the street and finds common ground in the hopes and dreams of young people and their families. —Stephanie Rapp

Closed Season

In this quiet but intense psychological drama, director Franziska Schlotterer crafts an erotically charged story set in the remote mountains of the Black Forest during WWII. A young Jew fleeing the Nazis is saved by a German peasant couple, but soon discovers that there is an unexpected price to pay for his salvation. The spare but sumptuous cinematography captures the passion, desire and jealousy waiting to explode.

Comedy Warriors

Five disabled Iraq/Afghanistan vets bring their painful life-altering experiences onstage, transforming tragedy into brutally fierce comedy gold, mentored by mirth masters Bob Saget, Zach Galifinakis and Lewis Black. With only days to prepare, the five are flown to Hollywood for a gig at LA’s famous Punch Line club. The big night finds the comedy warriors comprehending the healing power of humor and discovering that their lives are about to take an unexpected direction. Followed by live standup comedy by subject Joe Kashnow.

Common Goal, A

Almost half the players on the Israeli National Soccer Team are Muslim, including the captain. The team’s diverse group of players causes controversy, especially during an important European tournament, most of it provoked by racist fans and the media. The players have their loyalty questioned by all sides while trying to guide Israel’s national team through the year’s biggest international challenge.

The Conductor - Centerpiece Documentary

A joyful tribute to perseverance, resiliency, and most of all the music, The Conductor is a profile of one groundbreaking woman who believes in the transformational power of art.

The Congress

About This Film

Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology

The kaleidoscope of clips in this wide-ranging documentary is so entertaining one could happily watch it with the sound off. But it would be a shame to miss Tiffany Shlain’s meditations on modern life and technology. The Bay Area–based filmmaker delves into everything from the honeybee crisis to her household’s weekly “technology shabbat” to her father’s struggle with brain cancer, all in an effort to understand our need to connect.

Judith Helfand: Freedom of Expression Award 2019 | COOKED: Survival by Zip Code

In July 1995, a heat wave overtook Chicago: high humidity and a layer of heat-retaining pollution drove the heat index up to more than 126 degrees. City roads buckled, rails warped, electric grids failed, thousands became ill and people began to die - by the hundreds. Cooked tells the story of this heat wave, the most traumatic in U.S. history, in which 739 Chicago citizens died in a single week, most of them poor, elderly, and African American. Balancing serious and somber with her respectful, albeit ironic and and signature quirkly style, Peabody award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand explores this drama that, when peeled away, reveals the less newsworthy but long-term crisis of pernicious poverty, economic, and social isolation and racism. Cooked is a story about life, death, and the politics of crisis in an American city.

Crime After Crime

Yoav Potash’s documentary is a shattering chronicle of Deborah Peagler, an African American woman imprisoned for the 1983 murder of her horribly abusive boyfriend. After a law passes allowing survivors of domestic violence to appeal their sentences, two idealistic lawyers, one an Orthodox Jew, become convinced they can set her free. This is a staggering account of a fight against injustice and a suspect system still imprisoning hundreds of thousands of women across America today.

Crip Camp (Cinegogue Sessions LIVE)

No one at Camp Jened could’ve imagined that those summers in the woods together would be the beginnings of a revolution. Just down the road from Woodstock, Camp Jened was a camp for disabled teens. Directors Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht (a former Jened camper himself) deliver a rousing film about a group of campers turned activists who shaped the future of the disability-rights movement and changed accessibility legislation for everyone.

Critico, El

Víctor Tellez is jaded, emotionally repressed and arrogant. Not surprisingly, he is an influential but harsh film critic for a daily newspaper. Victor especially detests Hollywood romantic comedies until he meets Sofía, a spontaneous and vibrant woman. He finds himself going soft, and his movie reviews reflect this. El Critico is intelligent, funny, delightful and ultimately succumbs to the genre Víctor so derisively abhors. Love conquers all, even this cynical snob.

Crossing Delancey

A contemporary romantic comedy in which single, sophisticated Isabelle confronts family tradition when her grandmother hires a matchmaker to find her a marriage prospect.

Cupcakes

Set in contemporary Tel Aviv, six diverse best friends gather to watch the wildly popular UniverSong competition. Appalled by the Israeli entry, they decide to create their own and record it on a mobile phone.

Dancing Dogs of Dombrova, The

On a cold winter night, estranged siblings Sarah and Aaron Cotler arrive at an empty train station in Dombrova, Poland. With their only available ride being a determinedly silent driver, they embark on a quest to fulfill their dying grandmother's wish-to find, dig up, and bring home the bones of her favorite childhood dog, Peter. While navigating the many obstacles and colorful characters they encounter on their journey, Sarah and Aaron must come to terms with their own demons and differences, while also contending with a soicety seemingly content to let its past lay buried for good.

Dancing in Jaffa

World champion ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine has a dream: to see Jewish and Palestinian Israeli children dance together. A passionate man with humble beginnings in Jaffa, he returns to attempt what seems to be an impossible feat: teaching children ballroom dance in a divided society. With warmth and tenderness, this inspiring documentary captures the children’s amazing transformation, offering hope that for a new generation Dulaine’s dream will become reality.

Danny Says

A dazzling trip through the entertaining life of Danny Fields, the little-known Jewish godfather of punk rock and provocative record "company freak" who discovered legendary underground music pioneers the MC5, Iggy Pop, and the Ramones. Drawn from a breathtaking trove of rare footage and audio recordings, this fascinating chronicle is capped by the wry and wistful reminiscence of Fields himself, the tastemaker who just may have been responsible for breaking up the Beatles.

Deaf Heaven

About This Film

Dealers Among Dealers

About This Film

Death Metal Grandma

97 year old Holocaust survivor Inge Ginsberg's wants to be recognized as a death metal singer.

The Decent One

A recently discovered cache of hundreds of personal letters, diaries and photos belonging to the Nazi Gestapo chief, Heinrich Himmler, seem to reveal a thoughtful, loving husband and devoted father to his daughter.

Defamation

Israeli director Yoav Shamir (Checkpoint, Five Days) explores the ways contemporary Jews learn and think about anti-Semitism, both real and perceived. Spending time with the Anti-Defamation League’s crusading director Abe Foxman, and with Israeli teens at Auschwitz who assume “everybody hates the Jews,” Shamir worries about the future of the Jewish soul in an atmosphere of persecution. But while he is willing to poke a stick at a sacred cow, he’s too nuanced a filmmaker to let ideology trump thought. A daring documentary.

Deli Man

Laugh your way through hilarious stories of American delicatessens while drooling over the wonderful Jewish food being prepared before your eyes.

Demon

DEMON is a clever and suspenseful thriller that reinterprets the Jewish legend of the dybbuk, set at a rural Polish wedding. Director Marcin Wrona has wrought an intricate, entertaining and downright gripping film.

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