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Browse through the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival's current and archival films and media here. Use the search tools at left to search by director, title, country, year or tag, or to explore films from the festival's archive, 1981 - present.
Showing: 2010 Festival Events, 2010 Festival Films & 2010 Festival Programs, Searching in Title.
- The "Socalled" Movie
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Meet Socalled (aka Josh Dolgin): musician, arranger, rapper, producer, composer, magician, filmmaker and visual artist, to name just a few of his talents! Blasting through boundaries separating different cultures, eras and generations, Socalled creates a wholly unique sound combining klezmer, funk, soul and hip-hop. Not too shabby for a nice Jewish boy from Montreal. This is a dynamic, kaleidoscopic portrait of an iconoclastic artist at the peak of his powers. Followed by live performance.
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Meet Socalled (aka Josh Dolgin): musician, arranger, rapper, producer, composer, magician, filmmaker and visual artist, to name just a few of his talents! Blasting through boundaries separating different cultures, eras and generations, Socalled creates a wholly unique sound combining klezmer, funk, soul and hip-hop. Not too shabby for a nice Jewish boy from Montreal. This is a dynamic, kaleidoscopic portrait of an iconoclastic artist at the peak of his powers. Followed by live performance.
- Spotlight Series 2010 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award
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Sayed Kashua – Israel’s Leading Satirist
Sayed Kashua’s best-selling satirical novels and hit television series Arab Labor lob irreverent arrows at the absurdity of life for Arabs and Jews in his native country of Israel, where he is a unique voice. Writing in Hebrew rather than Arabic, and endearing himself to millions through his primetime series, Kashua’s satire manages, miraculously, both to skewer everyone and somehow bring Arabs and Jews together in wincing, barrier-breaking laughter. Kashua will accept his award following the San Francisco premiere of the second season of Arab Labor on July 28. See also the documentary Sayed Kashua – Forever Scared.
- 9 Years Later
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Raised as a Muslim in Morocco, Danielle is now Jewish and a single mother living in Israel. At the beginning of this moving documentary, Danielle decides to return to Morocco to gain custody of the son she left behind. The filmmakers trace her difficult journey, skillfully unveiling the fascinating details of Danielle’s family history, while exploring themes of class, religious identity and the bonds between women.
- Ahead of Time
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Meet Ruth Gruber, 97, ace journalist and photographer for more than 70 years. Hurtling herself out of Brooklyn and into global politics, she witnessed some of the most critical junctures in contemporary world history—and specifically Jewish history—while drawing the eyes of the world to the Nuremberg trials, the plight of the ship Exodus ’47, United Nations committee meetings in Palestine and the formation of the state of Israel.
- Amos Oz: The Nature of Dreams
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Internationally acclaimed writer Amos Oz is a rare voice of compassion arising out of the fractious, beautiful landscape of Israel. This gorgeous documentary does justice to Oz’s rich imagination and political clarity as it follows him on a book tour after the publication of his memoir, A Tale of Love and Darkness, offering a rare passageway into the world of the author and veteran Peace Now activist.
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Internationally acclaimed writer Amos Oz is a rare voice of compassion arising out of the fractious, beautiful landscape of Israel. This gorgeous documentary does justice to Oz’s rich imagination and political clarity as it follows him on a book tour after the publication of his memoir, A Tale of Love and Darkness, offering a rare passageway into the world of the author and veteran Peace Now activist.
- Anita
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Anita, a young Jewish woman with Down syndrome, lives with her devoted mother above the shop her late father started in a commercial district of Buenos Aires. Into their sweetly sedate domestic life the outside world intrudes with unexpected fury. But as Anita wanders the city lost, she finds compassion in unlikely quarters through the simple force of her ingenuous personality and open heart. Wrenching, lovely, suffused with life, Anita is a profoundly hopeful study of human innocence, compassion and resilience in a fragile, troubled world.
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Anita, a young Jewish woman with Down syndrome, lives with her devoted mother above the shop her late father started in a commercial district of Buenos Aires. Into their sweetly sedate domestic life the outside world intrudes with unexpected fury. But as Anita wanders the city lost, she finds compassion in unlikely quarters through the simple force of her ingenuous personality and open heart. Wrenching, lovely, suffused with life, Anita is a profoundly hopeful study of human innocence, compassion and resilience in a fragile, troubled world.
- Arab Labor: Season 1, Episode 10: “Independence Day”
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In a patriotic publicity stunt, a millionaire promises to give one million shekels to the first Israeli baby born on Independence Day. The race is on for Amjad, the series protagonist, whose very pregnant wife Bushra might just be convinced to push a little harder...
- Arab Labor: Season 2
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They’re baaack! The beloved Alian family returns in season two of this delightfully provocative and wildly popular Israeli sitcom. When father Amjad moves into a Jewish neighborhood, he is mistaken for a terrorist—and an IDF soldier. Watch three new episodes fresh from the editing room and find out why we call series writer and SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award winner Sayed Kashua the Arab Israeli incarnation of Woody Allen and Dave Chapelle.
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They’re baaack! The beloved Alian family returns in season two of this delightfully provocative and wildly popular Israeli sitcom. When father Amjad moves into a Jewish neighborhood, he is mistaken for a terrorist—and an IDF soldier. Watch three new episodes fresh from the editing room and find out why we call series writer and SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award winner Sayed Kashua the Arab Israeli incarnation of Woody Allen and Dave Chapelle.
- Army of Crime
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Robert Guédiguian’s lush historical drama bases itself on a largely overlooked cell of French Resistance fighters: refugees of the anti-fascist fight throughout Europe, mostly Jews and communists, led by French Armenian poet Missak Manouchian. With the Gestapo closing in, we are drawn into the work and personal lives of a circle of fearless, brazen and idealistic young men and women, their varying backgrounds insignificant beside a mutual refusal to back down to injustice.
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Robert Guédiguian’s lush historical drama bases itself on a largely overlooked cell of French Resistance fighters: refugees of the anti-fascist fight throughout Europe, mostly Jews and communists, led by French Armenian poet Missak Manouchian. With the Gestapo closing in, we are drawn into the work and personal lives of a circle of fearless, brazen and idealistic young men and women, their varying backgrounds insignificant beside a mutual refusal to back down to injustice.
- Baabaa the Sheep Sets Out to Bring Love to the World
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A wondrous real-life fairytale that documents the rise and fall of a kind-hearted and humble young artist’s creation: a sponge-toy sheep named Baabaa that suddenly becomes the craze of Israel.
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A wondrous real-life fairytale that documents the rise and fall of a kind-hearted and humble young artist’s creation: a sponge-toy sheep named Baabaa that suddenly becomes the craze of Israel.
- Bena
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This is the gripping story of three fragile souls whose lives intersect at the precarious border between loneliness and desperation. Amos, a widower, hires Bena, an undocumented Thai immigrant, to care for his schizophrenic son Yurik. When both Amos and Yurik begin to fall for her, Bena is caught in a disturbing love triangle between the overbearing father and unstable son. Will she risk imprisonment in Israel to escape their emotional trap?
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This is the gripping story of three fragile souls whose lives intersect at the precarious border between loneliness and desperation. Amos, a widower, hires Bena, an undocumented Thai immigrant, to care for his schizophrenic son Yurik. When both Amos and Yurik begin to fall for her, Bena is caught in a disturbing love triangle between the overbearing father and unstable son. Will she risk imprisonment in Israel to escape their emotional trap?
- Broken Time
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Daniel, a withdrawn 11-year-old boy, lives under his mother's strict supervision. Every afternoon he waits alone for her to return from work at 3 pm. One day, a strong explosion is heard throughout the city. As the hours pass and his mother fails to appear, Daniel's repressed anxiety leads him to an action that will change his life.
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Daniel, a withdrawn 11-year-old boy, lives under his mother's strict supervision. Every afternoon he waits alone for her to return from work at 3 pm. One day, a strong explosion is heard throughout the city. As the hours pass and his mother fails to appear, Daniel's repressed anxiety leads him to an action that will change his life.
- Budrus
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When Palestinian Ayed Morrar learned the Israeli security barrier would veer from the border separating Israel and the Palestinian territories, and would instead cut through his West Bank village, he decided to organize, galvanizing both Palestinians and Israelis in an effective strategy of nonviolent protest. This groundbreaking documentary neither romanticizes nor demonizes the many viewpoints it reveals, instead capturing with raw intensity the power of ordinary people fighting peaceably for change.
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When Palestinian Ayed Morrar learned the Israeli security barrier would veer from the border separating Israel and the Palestinian territories, and would instead cut through his West Bank village, he decided to organize, galvanizing both Palestinians and Israelis in an effective strategy of nonviolent protest. This groundbreaking documentary neither romanticizes nor demonizes the many viewpoints it reveals, instead capturing with raw intensity the power of ordinary people fighting peaceably for change.
- Bugsy
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Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel has a dream—or is it a mirage?—of a casino named the Flamingo rising out of the Nevada desert. What Siegel doesn’t gamble on are construction delays or falling in love, and he falls hard for actress Virginia Hill (played to perfection by Annette Bening). Warren Beatty’s tour de force performance as the sexy, psychotic New York gangster shines among excellent turns by Ben Kingsley and Harvey Keitel.
- Dor
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A young soldier returns home for a weekend with friends and family after having committed an act of violence while on duty that will make him doubt the values and ideas on which he was raised.
- Eight Men Out
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Screenwriter and director John Sayles knocks it out of the park with this drama about the intersection between baseball and the shadowy world of organized crime.
- Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades
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Michael Prazan’s shattering documentary meticulously details the killing squads charged with destroying entire Jewish populations in occupied Eastern Europe during World War II. Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades recreates this terrifying period when “good and evil were reversed” with previously unseen archival footage, much of it in color, shot as home movies by the Germans themselves. Prazan’s mosaic of pure hate has a startling immediacy that moves well beyond simple historical document.
- Escape From Suburbia
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Uncle Andy died backpacking through Asia when he was 23. Thirty years later, his teenaged niece dreams of adventure as she pores over the recordings he left behind.
- Father's Footsteps
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Close-knit, loving and in for a heap of trouble, the Tunisian-Israeli Maimon family arrives in mid-1970s Paris footloose and free with only a VW bus to its name. Much to the dismay of suffering mom Mireille (Yaël Abacassis), hapless father Felix (Gad Elmaleh) soon gets mixed up with local crime boss Serge (Richard Berry), forcing their sons to grow up too soon. This smartly written feature was nominated for five Israeli Academy Awards (Ophir Awards).
- A Film Unfinished
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Filmmaker Yael Hersonski discovers that the Warsaw Ghetto footage that we’ve seen in countless documentaries was actually staged by the Nazis using the actual Jewish inhabitants of the Ghetto as “actors.” A Film Unfinished is a rigorous and profound documentary that simultaneously exposes the perversity of Nazi propaganda, honors its victims and pays tribute to the resiliency of the filmmaker’s own grandmother and the other survivors of the Ghetto.
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Filmmaker Yael Hersonski discovers that the Warsaw Ghetto footage that we’ve seen in countless documentaries was actually staged by the Nazis using the actual Jewish inhabitants of the Ghetto as “actors.” A Film Unfinished is a rigorous and profound documentary that simultaneously exposes the perversity of Nazi propaganda, honors its victims and pays tribute to the resiliency of the filmmaker’s own grandmother and the other survivors of the Ghetto.
- Special Event Free Outdoor Screening: Dirty Dancing
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SFJFF is proud to partner with Film Night in the Park again this year to bring the Catskills to Union Square. Join us for a special pre-Festival screening of the beloved 1980s classic Dirty Dancing, featuring the legendary Patrick Swayze as bad boy dance instructor Johnny, and Jennifer Grey as Baby, a nice Jewish-girl-next-door with a passion for more than just the cha-cha-cha. Set in 1960 at the fictional “Kellerman’s” resort in the New York Catskills, this American classic may dance around the word “Jewish,” but we all know it’s there. Bring a blanket, a friend and, because nobody puts your baby in a corner, bring your good luck charms for a chance to win a deluxe date night package for you and your partner.
- Gambling Mensch
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A startling discovery about a beloved grandfather leads to an inquiry into addiction and redemption.
- Grace Paley: Collected Shorts
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An inspiring documentary portrait of the Jewish writer and political activist who established her reputation in the 1950s with brilliantly funny and frank tales of Jewish American urban women. The film mixes candid recollections and passionate readings by Paley with fond remembrances by literary critics, family and writer-friends Allan Gurganas and Alice Walker into a uniquely insightful account of a brilliant woman who constantly reinvented her life and art.
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An inspiring documentary portrait of the Jewish writer and political activist who established her reputation in the 1950s with brilliantly funny and frank tales of Jewish American urban women. The film mixes candid recollections and passionate readings by Paley with fond remembrances by literary critics, family and writer-friends Allan Gurganas and Alice Walker into a uniquely insightful account of a brilliant woman who constantly reinvented her life and art.
- Gruber's Journey
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It is June 1941 and Curzio Malaparte, an Italian war correspondent, suffering from severe allergies, searches for Josef Gruber, a Jewish doctor in the German-occupied Romanian city of Iaşi. But Gruber is nowhere to be found, and any attempt to locate him is met with Kafka-esque bureaucracy as Malaparte slowly discovers the heartbreaking truth. This is an extraordinary film where the horror takes place in what is not shown on the screen.
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It is June 1941 and Curzio Malaparte, an Italian war correspondent, suffering from severe allergies, searches for Josef Gruber, a Jewish doctor in the German-occupied Romanian city of Iaşi. But Gruber is nowhere to be found, and any attempt to locate him is met with Kafka-esque bureaucracy as Malaparte slowly discovers the heartbreaking truth. This is an extraordinary film where the horror takes place in what is not shown on the screen.
- Guided Tour
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Eitan is a lonely young man who works the night shift painting dividing lines on Jerusalem’s streets and calls chat lines for conversation and connection. He wanders between imagination and reality, clarity and blurriness, on the border between identities, somewhere between the broken lines. Winner, Best Short, 2009 Jerusalem International Film Festival.
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Eitan is a lonely young man who works the night shift painting dividing lines on Jerusalem’s streets and calls chat lines for conversation and connection. He wanders between imagination and reality, clarity and blurriness, on the border between identities, somewhere between the broken lines. Winner, Best Short, 2009 Jerusalem International Film Festival.
- Spotlight Series Half-Remembered Stories
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A Zombie Day of Atonement. A great-grandmother’s infidelities. An escape from czech nationalists on the road to manchuria. On the way to creating a new future, young Jewish storytellers are rediscovering their past.
Video-surprises on the theme Half-Remembered Stories are being presented in all SFJFF theater venues.
For the full, digital experience, visit www.njfp.org
Can a half-remembered story become a whole truth? See for yourself!
This program of the SFJFF is produced by Citizen Film.
- Hungry Hearts
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This don’t-miss event combines a classic Lower East Side silent melodrama with a brand new commissioned score performed live on the Castro stage by the Moab Strangers. Composer Ethan Miller (Howlin Rain, Comets on Fire) and a slew of talented Bay Area psychedelic and folk heroes provide an inspired, cutting-edge soundtrack to the 1922 restored silent Hungry Hearts. The film is adapted from the short stories of Anzia Yezierska, a Jewish writer whose rags-to-riches tales of immigrant hardship led to her nickname, the Sweatshop Cinderella. Produced by Samuel Goldwyn and shot on location in New York, Hungry Hearts is a vividly drawn portrait of a struggling Jewish family, at once tragic and richly comic.
- If Streets Could Talk
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A young filmmaker takes three generations of relatives back to their former neighborhoods in San Francisco. She asks: how does where you lived shape who you are?
- Ilusiones Ópticas
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A blind skier, a voyeuristic security guard, a disgruntled healthcare worker and a flat-chested secretary make up the circle of oddball, yet endearingly ordinary characters in this melancholy and comical look at the subtle differences between perception and reality. Award-winning director Cristián Jiménez pokes fun brilliantly at our obsession with appearances, leaving us to wonder if the world around us is no more than an optical illusion.
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A blind skier, a voyeuristic security guard, a disgruntled healthcare worker and a flat-chested secretary make up the circle of oddball, yet endearingly ordinary characters in this melancholy and comical look at the subtle differences between perception and reality. Award-winning director Cristián Jiménez pokes fun brilliantly at our obsession with appearances, leaving us to wonder if the world around us is no more than an optical illusion.
- Ingelore
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As a deaf Jew in 1930s Germany, Ingelore Herz Honigstein was an outcast twice over. Frank Stiefel’s portrait of his mother is both a loving tribute and a remarkable feat of compressed storytelling, as Ingelore narrates in speech and sign the harrowing events leading up to her immigration to America.
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As a deaf Jew in 1930s Germany, Ingelore Herz Honigstein was an outcast twice over. Frank Stiefel’s portrait of his mother is both a loving tribute and a remarkable feat of compressed storytelling, as Ingelore narrates in speech and sign the harrowing events leading up to her immigration to America.
- Special Event Is Dialogue Possible? How Films Help Us Talk About Israel (…Or Not)
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Join filmmakers—including Ronit Avni (Budrus) and Lisa Gossels (My So Called Enemy)—and experts in civic engagement to discuss the role (and perhaps limits) of film to foster constructive dialogue about potentially difficult topics.
- Jaffa
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This gut-wrenching drama has both mainstream appeal and a keen political and psychological edge. Reuven owns an auto shop where he employs his son and daughter, as well as two Arab mechanics, when an explosive argument at the dinner table sets off a tragic chain of events. Jaffa showcases a raw performance by Dana Ivgy as daughter Mali, a young woman who—against all odds—transcends the culture of fear and hatred consuming her family.
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This gut-wrenching drama has both mainstream appeal and a keen political and psychological edge. Reuven owns an auto shop where he employs his son and daughter, as well as two Arab mechanics, when an explosive argument at the dinner table sets off a tragic chain of events. Jaffa showcases a raw performance by Dana Ivgy as daughter Mali, a young woman who—against all odds—transcends the culture of fear and hatred consuming her family.
- Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story
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Not particularly known in the United States for their athletic prowess, Jews have surprisingly excelled in the most American of sports: baseball. Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, narrated by Dustin Hoffman, celebrates the contributions of Jewish major leaguers and the special meaning baseball has had in the lives of American Jews. More than a film about sports, it is a story of immigration, assimilation, bigotry and the shattering of stereotypes.
- Group Screening Jews in Shorts: Focus on Israeli Narratives
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Sometimes what lies beneath the surface has more impact than what is right in front of our noses. This year’s collection of subtly exquisite shorts (all from Israel) focuses on the nuances of human character in all its complexities, whether arising from a soldier’s remorse, an undefined love affair suddenly defined, a friendship verging on desire or a child’s innocence lingering on the brink of adulthood.
- King of the Roaring 20's – The Story of Arnold Rothstein
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King of the Roaring 20’s—The Story of Arnold Rothstein is a tale of ambition and the corruption of a nice Jewish boy. An Irish cop brings young Arnold home to his old-world father, who turns to mother Esther and says, “This boy has a dybbuk in him.” As Rothstein grows up, he strategically navigates New York’s Democratic politicians, the police, the Saratoga racetrack and the vicissitudes of love and luck.
- The Klezmatics: On Holy Ground
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Defying categorization, the geniuses of world music/klezmer fusion known as the Klezmatics have been breaking ground by continually redefining Jewish music for more than 20 years. Now they get their own movie: part concert film, part backstage drama, part affectionate lesson in remixing Yiddish culture, klezmer, gospel and Woody Guthrie. Their infectious concerts and on-camera candor make for a rousing behind-the-scenes documentary covering four up-and-down years in the life of the band. Join members of the band and the director for a festive Closing Night celebration at the Castro Theatre; Berkeley Opening Night features a post-film reception in the Roda courtyard.
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Defying categorization, the geniuses of world music/klezmer fusion known as the Klezmatics have been breaking ground by continually redefining Jewish music for more than 20 years. Now they get their own movie: part concert film, part backstage drama, part affectionate lesson in remixing Yiddish culture, klezmer, gospel and Woody Guthrie. Their infectious concerts and on-camera candor make for a rousing behind-the-scenes documentary covering four up-and-down years in the life of the band. Join members of the band and the director for a festive Closing Night celebration at the Castro Theatre; Berkeley Opening Night features a post-film reception in the Roda courtyard.
- Lepke
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Tony Curtis is mesmerizing as Louis “Lepke” Buchalter in Menahem Golan’s epic drama about the feared leader of Murder, Incorporated. The film reads like a who’s who of New York Jewish gangsters: Dutch Schultz, Gurrah Shapiro, Mendy Weiss, Kid “Twist” Reles and their nemesis, Thomas Dewey. Lepke provides a unique window into the Jewish immigrant experience in the trajectory of a man driven to achieve one version of the American dream.
- Little Caesar
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Edward G. Robinson (born Emmanuel Goldenberg) is riveting as the ruthless Italian American mobster Caesar Enrico Bandello in this classic gangster film set in Prohibition era Chicago.
- Long Distance
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Amikam Goldman’s affecting documentary follows the fate of four foreign workers in Israel through their phone conversations with loved ones back home. As they try to maintain ties with those they have not seen for years, universal stories of economic hardship, daily frustration and loneliness emerge amid the persistence of love and hope.
- Lost Paradise
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A man and a woman are tenderly making love in a one-star hotel room. A moment later, when they are fully dressed, the idyll that seemed authentic is now gone.
- Maurice at the World's Fair
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A humorous take on a story from author/illustrator, Maurice Sendak’s childhood, produced with love by Spike Jonze, (director, Where the Wild Things Are) with Catherine Keener and friends for Maurice Sendak on his 80th birthday.
- Memory Paths
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Currently, physics does not allow for time travel to the past or future. But you travel back in time every day. Memory Paths is a web module designed to mimic involuntary memory. Memory Paths includes 36 short videos, inspired by thinkers ranging from Maimonides to Albert Einstein.
- Mrs. Moscowitz and the Cats
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Mrs. Moskowitz’s lone life is renewed after an accident places her in a geriatric ward, where she rediscovers compassion (through sharing a room with Alegra, who suffers chronic shortness of breath) and love (through meeting a charming and witty ex–soccer player). A sweet and touching film superbly acted (Best Actress, Rita Zohar, 2009 Jerusalem International Film Festival), Mrs. Moskowitz and the Cats explores the inherent loneliness and vulnerabilities of aging with estimable grace.
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Mrs. Moskowitz’s lone life is renewed after an accident places her in a geriatric ward, where she rediscovers compassion (through sharing a room with Alegra, who suffers chronic shortness of breath) and love (through meeting a charming and witty ex–soccer player). A sweet and touching film superbly acted (Best Actress, Rita Zohar, 2009 Jerusalem International Film Festival), Mrs. Moskowitz and the Cats explores the inherent loneliness and vulnerabilities of aging with estimable grace.
- Murder, Inc
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MURDER, INC. is a stylized drama about the Brooklyn mobsters who terrorized New York City in the 1930s.
- My Perestroika
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This eye-opening documentary follows five ordinary Russians, including a Jewish teacher of history, a successful menswear merchant and a rebellious musician, as they live through extraordinary times: from a sheltered Soviet childhood to the collapse of the USSR and a brave new post-perestroika world. Using a wealth of footage rarely seen outside Russia, the film creates a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionments of individuals living through massive social change.
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This eye-opening documentary follows five ordinary Russians, including a Jewish teacher of history, a successful menswear merchant and a rebellious musician, as they live through extraordinary times: from a sheltered Soviet childhood to the collapse of the USSR and a brave new post-perestroika world. Using a wealth of footage rarely seen outside Russia, the film creates a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionments of individuals living through massive social change.
- My So-Called Enemy
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In July 2002, 22 Israeli and Palestinian teenage girls traveled to the United States to participate in a women’s leadership program called “Building Bridges for Peace.” They were Jewish, Muslim and Christian, and many had lost friends and family in the conflict. My So-Called Enemy follows six of these young women to reveal how the experience complicated their lives and attitudes over the next seven years.
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In July 2002, 22 Israeli and Palestinian teenage girls traveled to the United States to participate in a women’s leadership program called “Building Bridges for Peace.” They were Jewish, Muslim and Christian, and many had lost friends and family in the conflict. My So-Called Enemy follows six of these young women to reveal how the experience complicated their lives and attitudes over the next seven years.
- Special Event Opening Night Bash
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Celebrate the 30th Anniversary SFJFF at our Opening Night Bash, this year taking place AFTER the Opening Night Film so you can party into the night. Enjoy a dazzling array of sweet & savory food and libations by some of the Bay Area’s best. See and be seen, schmooze with filmmakers and special guests and tap your feet to the swinging tunes of local faves Gaucho, named ‘Best Jazz Group’ in the 2009 SF Weekly Music Awards. This year we’re adding THE BACKROOM with drinks, desserts, DJ, dancing, retrospective slideshow, cool photo booth provided by yelp.com, more surprises and did we say desserts? It’s all happening at the historic and spacious Swedish American Hall, upstairs from the Café du Nord.
- The Orange
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A humble citrus fruit is suddenly granted absolute power over the universe.
- Patriot
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A German Jewish veteran and war hero ironically finds himself a prisoner in a concentration camp during World War II, his Iron Cross replaced by a Jewish star, in this haunting animated tale of pride and honor.
- Spotlight Series People of the Book
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Writers take center stage in a sidebar of films exploring Jewish and Israeli literary lives.
Filmmakers take on a formidable challenge when they attempt to bring writers to life on the screen. After all, the writer’s craft is essentially non-visual, a writer’s work habits solitary and his or her art intended for audiences as an interior experience. So it is a special delight to showcase this year’s trove of films that not only do justice to the lives and the artistry of the writers they profile, but also enhance our appreciation of the filmmaker’s craft:
- Ahead of Time
- Amos Oz: The Nature of Dreams
- Grace Paley: Collected Shorts
- A Room and a Half.
- Sayed Kashua – Forever Scared
- Perfect Mother
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Through home movies captured on Super 8 and 16mm, a mother tries to understand what happened to the “perfect” image of her own departed mother.
- Perin's Dual Identity
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Meet Perin and Polin, identical twin teenage girls from Lebanon, now living in Israel, torn between two cultures and two identities. From the series, “Through My Eyes: Stories by Galilee Youths.”
- Potchki Press
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A young filmmaker quizzes ordinary Americans about Yiddish words, and he documents his own stumbling attempts to learn Yiddish phrases.
- Protektor
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Set in German-occupied Prague, this visually stunning, highly original thriller explores how much we might compromise for love. Emil accepts a job promotion to be the on-air voice of the Nazi propaganda in order to protect Hana, his Jewish wife. Meanwhile, Hana’s glamorous life as a movie star comes to an abrupt end. As she rebels against her Emil’s attempts to control her every move, Hana sets out on some dangerous adventures.
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Set in German-occupied Prague, this visually stunning, highly original thriller explores how much we might compromise for love. Emil accepts a job promotion to be the on-air voice of the Nazi propaganda in order to protect Hana, his Jewish wife. Meanwhile, Hana’s glamorous life as a movie star comes to an abrupt end. As she rebels against her Emil’s attempts to control her every move, Hana sets out on some dangerous adventures.
- A Room and a Half
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Veteran animator and documentary filmmaker Andrey Khrzhanovsky’s feature debut is a lyrical masterpiece bursting with images from the life of Russian Jewish poet Joseph Brodsky, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987. Khrzhanovsky skillfully weaves a fictional account of an anonymous visit by an elderly, exiled Brodsky to his native St. Petersburg with the story of his growing up an only child in the rapidly changing post-WWII era.
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Veteran animator and documentary filmmaker Andrey Khrzhanovsky’s feature debut is a lyrical masterpiece bursting with images from the life of Russian Jewish poet Joseph Brodsky, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987. Khrzhanovsky skillfully weaves a fictional account of an anonymous visit by an elderly, exiled Brodsky to his native St. Petersburg with the story of his growing up an only child in the rapidly changing post-WWII era.
- Saviors in the Night
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Based on true events, this bravura drama powerfully records one memorable instance of moral courage under desperate conditions. Menne Spiegel, a German Jew, meets his old army comrade Heinrich Aschoff on the eve of a mass deportation of Jews in 1943. Aschoff, a Catholic farmer with a conscience, agrees to shelter Spiegel’s wife Marga and their daughter in spite of the deadly risk to his own family. Saviors in the Night, based on Marga’s best-selling memoir, relates the extraordinary true story of the families’ perilous years together. Join us for Opening Night in San Francisco with special invited guests Marga Spiegel, director Ludi Boeken and principal actor Lia Hoensbroech. Followed by Opening Night Bash at Swedish American Hall.
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Based on true events, this bravura drama powerfully records one memorable instance of moral courage under desperate conditions. Menne Spiegel, a German Jew, meets his old army comrade Heinrich Aschoff on the eve of a mass deportation of Jews in 1943. Aschoff, a Catholic farmer with a conscience, agrees to shelter Spiegel’s wife Marga and their daughter in spite of the deadly risk to his own family. Saviors in the Night, based on Marga’s best-selling memoir, relates the extraordinary true story of the families’ perilous years together. Join us for Opening Night in San Francisco with special invited guests Marga Spiegel, director Ludi Boeken and principal actor Lia Hoensbroech. Followed by Opening Night Bash at Swedish American Hall.
- Sayed Kashua – Forever Scared
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Sayed Kashua (2010 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award winner) is a successful Israeli writer with a top-rated television comedy series, Arab Labor, but as a Palestinian citizen of Israel he’s a walking, talking existential crisis. Director Dorit Zimbalist’s fast-paced documentary makes us feel what it’s like to be a stranger in your own land.
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Sayed Kashua (2010 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award winner) is a successful Israeli writer with a top-rated television comedy series, Arab Labor, but as a Palestinian citizen of Israel he’s a walking, talking existential crisis. Director Dorit Zimbalist’s fast-paced documentary makes us feel what it’s like to be a stranger in your own land.
- Scarface
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Warning: This is not a Jewish movie! Scarface is an unforgettable gangster classic featuring exceptional Jewish actor Paul Muni (born Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund). Muni plays Tony Camonte (aka Scarface), a bloodthirsty Prohibition-era mobster on the rise. Director Howard Hawks’ early talkie is an excellent example of a gangster picture that would have had a Jewish subtext for Jewish audiences of its day because of Muni’s fame in the Yiddish theatre.
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Warning: This is not a Jewish movie! Scarface is an unforgettable gangster classic featuring exceptional Jewish actor Paul Muni (born Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund). Muni plays Tony Camonte (aka Scarface), a bloodthirsty Prohibition-era mobster on the rise. Director Howard Hawks’ early talkie is an excellent example of a gangster picture that would have had a Jewish subtext for Jewish audiences of its day because of Muni’s fame in the Yiddish theatre.
- Seltzer Works
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The siphon machines at Gomberg Seltzer Works don’t turn like they used to. Nevertheless, the last bottler in Brooklyn fends off the supermarket-seltzer takeover and honors this cherished drink’s place in history.
- Shofar Callin' The Rosh Hashanah Song Presented by G-dcast
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“Shofar Callin’” connects the story Jews read on the New Year – when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac – with the ritual blowing of the Shofar, or ram’s horn. What’s the connection?
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“Shofar Callin’” connects the story Jews read on the New Year – when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac – with the ritual blowing of the Shofar, or ram’s horn. What’s the connection?
- A Small Act
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Can a single act of generosity transform a life? As a poor Kenyan boy, Chris Mburu’s life changed forever when a Jewish schoolteacher in Sweden anonymously sponsored his education. Today a Harvard-educated lawyer, he honors his benefactor (and now friend) by providing scholarships in her name to a new generation of promising but desperately poor Kenyan children. A Small Act rivetingly celebrates this inspiring example of “paying it forward.”
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Can a single act of generosity transform a life? As a poor Kenyan boy, Chris Mburu’s life changed forever when a Jewish schoolteacher in Sweden anonymously sponsored his education. Today a Harvard-educated lawyer, he honors his benefactor (and now friend) by providing scholarships in her name to a new generation of promising but desperately poor Kenyan children. A Small Act rivetingly celebrates this inspiring example of “paying it forward.”
- Stalin Thought of You
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A portrait of 105-year-old Russian political cartoonist Boris Efimov, whose pointed caricatures filled the pages of satirical magazines from Lenin’s time to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union, Kevin McNeer’s fascinating documentary relates the riveting tale of Efimov’s relationship with brutal dictator Josef Stalin and the tragic fall of his beloved brother, Mikhail. A dizzying, deeply moving chronicle of two siblings and one dictator whose crossed paths illuminate the story of a nation.
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A portrait of 105-year-old Russian political cartoonist Boris Efimov, whose pointed caricatures filled the pages of satirical magazines from Lenin’s time to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union, Kevin McNeer’s fascinating documentary relates the riveting tale of Efimov’s relationship with brutal dictator Josef Stalin and the tragic fall of his beloved brother, Mikhail. A dizzying, deeply moving chronicle of two siblings and one dictator whose crossed paths illuminate the story of a nation.
- Straight is the Way
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Straight Is The Way, a remake of the 1928 film Four Walls, features Franchot Tone (Mutiny on the Bounty) as Benny Horowitz, a Lower East Side kid who tries to go straight after serving a prison term.
- Surrogate
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This mesmerizing drama tells the story of Eli, a psychologically damaged 32-year-old incapable of physical touch, and Hagar, the surrogate assigned by Eli’s therapist to help him practice emotional and sexual intimacy. During the duo’s weekly sessions, Eli begins to process his stunted familial relationships and tackle crushing secrets. Amir Wolf (Eli) and Lana Ettinger (Hagar) are pitch-perfect as two strangers who meet under artificial circumstances to create a life-changing connection.
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This mesmerizing drama tells the story of Eli, a psychologically damaged 32-year-old incapable of physical touch, and Hagar, the surrogate assigned by Eli’s therapist to help him practice emotional and sexual intimacy. During the duo’s weekly sessions, Eli begins to process his stunted familial relationships and tackle crushing secrets. Amir Wolf (Eli) and Lana Ettinger (Hagar) are pitch-perfect as two strangers who meet under artificial circumstances to create a life-changing connection.
- Surviving Hitler: A Love Story
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A love story for the ages filled with high drama and intrigue, this is no Hollywood movie but a riveting documentary about two sweethearts in the German resistance involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler.
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A love story for the ages filled with high drama and intrigue, this is no Hollywood movie but a riveting documentary about two sweethearts in the German resistance involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler.
- Te Extraño (I Miss You)
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Fabian Hofman’s semi-autobiographical account of a Jewish family caught up in Argentina’s Dirty War of the 1970s centers on teenager Javier, who watches his middle-class existence come apart as leftist brother Adrian tries to stand up against the military takeover. After Adrian becomes one of the thousands of political dissidents “disappeared” by the regime, his family sends Javier to stay with relatives in Mexico, in a memorable film with a hushed, cumulative force.
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Fabian Hofman’s semi-autobiographical account of a Jewish family caught up in Argentina’s Dirty War of the 1970s centers on teenager Javier, who watches his middle-class existence come apart as leftist brother Adrian tries to stand up against the military takeover. After Adrian becomes one of the thousands of political dissidents “disappeared” by the regime, his family sends Javier to stay with relatives in Mexico, in a memorable film with a hushed, cumulative force.
- Tom
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An impossible love triangle, the relationships between Tom, Daniel and Michal are about to be tested when the three go on a weekend camping trip. Like a tower of cards, the surface is shaky and might collapse with the lightest breeze.
- Spotlight Series Tough Guys: Images of Jewish Gangsters in Film
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Gangster films are an intriguing prism through which to view one of the darker aspects of American Jewish history: Jewish gangsters and Jewish crime. Scratch the bark on your family tree and you may find a Jewish gangster, or at least someone who paid off a Jewish gangster. Tough Guys: Images of Jewish Gangsters in Film includes cinematic images of Jewish gangsters, as well as “ethnic” gangsters played by Jewish actors.
- Utopia in Four Movements
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Utopia in Four Movements is an epic multimedia performance piece by Academy Award nominee Sam Green (The Weather Underground) and aural mix-master Dave Cerf. Originally conceived as a work-in-progress for a still uncompleted film, Utopia has evolved instead into a one-of-a-kind stage show that threads together a century’s worth of dizzying sounds and images into a deeply moving meditation on our world’s seemingly shrinking idealism.
- War Against the Weak
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The pseudoscience of eugenics—selective breeding for “improvement” of the human species—infamously fed Nazi state policy up to the genocide. But eugenics has American roots, and this stimulating and engrossing documentary traces this international history with cinematic verve and chilling insight. Complicating the usual accounting of right and left, reactionary and progressive, War Against the Weak deepens our understanding of the underlying motors of change in Western civilization’s fraught social evolution.
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The pseudoscience of eugenics—selective breeding for “improvement” of the human species—infamously fed Nazi state policy up to the genocide. But eugenics has American roots, and this stimulating and engrossing documentary traces this international history with cinematic verve and chilling insight. Complicating the usual accounting of right and left, reactionary and progressive, War Against the Weak deepens our understanding of the underlying motors of change in Western civilization’s fraught social evolution.
- What About Me?
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Absurdity ensues as a man with a banana-laden donkey attempts to cross a checkpoint in the middle of the Israeli desert, in this bitingly funny new short by Etgar Keret and Shira Gefen (Jellyfish).
- The Wolberg Family
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As the Jewish mayor of a town in French Basque country, Simon Wolberg (François Damiens) has worked to modernize his isolated burg. As a father, he provides his family with an effortless bourgeois life. Now, both town and family have outgrown his nourishing, controlling ways. The elegant directorial debut of French screenwriter Axelle Ropert winningly presents offbeat characters and a thoughtful look at a family’s and a town’s coming-of-age.
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As the Jewish mayor of a town in French Basque country, Simon Wolberg (François Damiens) has worked to modernize his isolated burg. As a father, he provides his family with an effortless bourgeois life. Now, both town and family have outgrown his nourishing, controlling ways. The elegant directorial debut of French screenwriter Axelle Ropert winningly presents offbeat characters and a thoughtful look at a family’s and a town’s coming-of-age.
- The Worst Company in the World
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Love and humor are plentiful—even if business isn’t—in Regev Contes’s absorbing documentary about the small Israeli insurance company his father is running into the ground. Carol, a Czech immigrant, oversees the company with his brother Latzi, a man whose talent for cooking potatoes far outstrips his business acumen. Contes’s award-winning film chronicles their operations over one fiscal year, while affectionately exploring the intricacies of a family-run business.
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Love and humor are plentiful—even if business isn’t—in Regev Contes’s absorbing documentary about the small Israeli insurance company his father is running into the ground. Carol, a Czech immigrant, oversees the company with his brother Latzi, a man whose talent for cooking potatoes far outstrips his business acumen. Contes’s award-winning film chronicles their operations over one fiscal year, while affectionately exploring the intricacies of a family-run business.
- You Can Dance
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A charming portrait of four different professional musicians from the former Soviet Union who now perform their songs on the streets of Tel Aviv.
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A charming portrait of four different professional musicians from the former Soviet Union who now perform their songs on the streets of Tel Aviv.
- You Won't Miss Me
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Loner, rebel, flirt, enemy, lover, that’s Shelly Brown, a 23-year-old alienated urban misfit recently released from a psychiatric hospital. Winner of the 2009 Gotham Award for Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You, director Ry Russo-Young and actress Stella Schnabel present a fractured character study of a contemporary young Jewish woman at odds with the world and herself.
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Loner, rebel, flirt, enemy, lover, that’s Shelly Brown, a 23-year-old alienated urban misfit recently released from a psychiatric hospital. Winner of the 2009 Gotham Award for Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You, director Ry Russo-Young and actress Stella Schnabel present a fractured character study of a contemporary young Jewish woman at odds with the world and herself.
