New Media Initiative
About SFJFF's New Media Resources
SFJFF recently expanded the festival’s successful historic model of curation, exhibition, informal education and community-building beyond the theater and into the realm of online media. You can now peruse a searchable archive of Jewish film with downloadable videos of Festival panels and Q&As, watch online festival shorts, download educator curricula, rate and review films and more.
Watch Festival Videos
Enjoy short films, Festival panels and Q&As, and hundreds of trailers on our Youtube Channel. You can also find videos by clicking on the Films + Media tab on our website and clicking on the tab, watch online.
Explore our Archive
Of the over 1300 titles that have screened at SFJFF since 1981, only a handful are easy to find at your local video store. By browsing through our online archive, you can find your way to hundreds of well-crafted Jewish film stories. Want to know which films are available for purchase? Click on the Buy Online tag on the left side of your browser.You can also search archive films by subject tags, director, title, year in festival, release date, and country.
Connect with Fans of Jewish Film
Every film title page within our archive is equipped with a review function. Just create a user login, and you can contribute your own film review. As a registered user, you can also add your comments to the SFJFF.ORG blog. To read our user regulations, click here.We also host vibrant and lively discussions about Jewish film on our Twitter, our Facebook, and our Youtube channel.
Press Releases
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival to Launch Innovative Online Jewish Film Website
Frequently Asked Questions
How will the new media initiative change my experience at the Festival?
SFJFF is experimenting with various interactive tools at the Festival, to enhance the in-theatre experience. Some features we are experimenting with this year include text-on-demand information about the over 70 films screening in the Festival; and text-to screen mobile sessions. What do you want to see us use in the theatre? Please let us know.
How do I search the archive?
To search the archive, visit our Films & Events page. Upcoming films will be displayed. To include archive films in your search, go to the left-hand side of the page under 'In Category' and check 'Archive Films.' Your results will include both current films and films from 1981-present. If you only want to see archive films, remove checks from the categories '2010 Festival Films' and '2010 Festival Events.' You can then search our archive by director, country, title, year or tag.
Can I watch SFJFF curated media online now?
During the Festival, we present select Festival videos and shorts online. During the 29th SFJFF, we showcased two fantastic short films, Escapism and With a Little Patience. Beginning August 1, 2009, we extended opportunities to experience quality Jewish film throughout the year with one new short film every month at www.sfjff.org, so keeping checking back for more!
Also available to watch at www.sfjff.org, are select films created by teens as part of SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project (NJFP). Closely guided by a team of professional filmmakers, talented young storytellers present their own resonant visions of American Jewish life. NJFP, a year-round program of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, is produced by Citizen Film.
Can I purchase, download and watch SFJFF archival films online?
The purpose of SFJFF’s expanded online archive is to enable hundreds of rare, independent, international and archival Jewish-themed films to find new audiences online. While we do not currently possess the rights to distribute the films in our archive (and thus cannot stream them online) we do want to offer as much information about the films and contextual materials as possible. We now have links to purchase up for over 50 archive titles, and over time we will add links to where other titles are available for purchase. When you browse the archive now, you will find a growing selection of related film content, including videos of filmmaker Q&As and festival panels, as well as external links to curricula, review, and purchase. We will be working over the coming weeks and months to fill the archives out with as much content and contextual materials as possible. Do you have a link that you feel is missing from one of our film pages? Let us know.
Who else was involved in this project?
SFJFF’s New Media launch was made possible by significant initial funding and enthusiastic support from the Righteous Persons Foundation, established by Steven Spielberg, and the Charles H. Revson Foundation. Additional support was provided by Koret Foundation. Partners include the Jewish Heritage Video Collection and SFJFF’s own New Jewish Filmmaking Project.
I’m a teacher. What sort of educational resources can I find on www.sfjff.org?
Sfjff.org now offers curricular materials for educators, created in partnership with the Jewish Heritage Video Collection. While curricular guides are available to download straight from www.sfjff.org, we also provide pathways to the educational platform Moodle, a free, open-source learning management system that allows teachers to participate in developing and improving educational materials, to pull elements from the curricula to place in their own courses, and to collaborate across institutions and geography. A full list of available curriculum and instructions for accessing Moodle resources are available on the Educator Resources page of the website.
