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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: Upcoming Films & Archive Films, Searching in Title. Search tag "Documentary Short"
- 'Specially Wonderful Affair, A
- 500 Dunam on the Moon
- 575 Castro St.
-
Jenni Olson’s quietly electrifying tribute to Harvey Milk focuses on his camera store at 575 Castro Street.
- 72 Virgins
- 888-Go-Kosher
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A day in the life of New York’s only rapid-response koshering service. A humorous and enlightening documentary look at the Jewish Orthodox world.
- Across Time and Space
- Addes
- Adio
- Amy
- And Thou Shalt Love
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A closeted Orthodox Israeli soldier has feelings for his study partner.
- Art of Shimon Attie, The
- Asesino
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ASESINO is about Jews who “disappeared” under Argentina’s former military Junta; of the 30,000 people who disappeared, 3,000 were Jews. The film alleges that Israel, ignoring Argentina’s human rights violations, sold weapons to the Junta. THUNDER IN GUYANA tells the inspiring story of Janet Rosenberg Jagan, a Jewish woman from Chicago who became the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
- Autumn in Poland
- Bad Jews in My Kitchen
- Baghdad Twist
- Between the Lines
- Blessings: Roommates in Jerusalem
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BLESSINGS: ROOMMATES IN JERUSALEM is an intimate and heartfelt picture of a decades-long relationship between two remarkable, developmentally challenged women: Shulamit Cohen, 74, and Ilana Blumenfeld, 66. In MY FOUR CHILDREN, Nelly Portuges, a mother who has suffered the loss of two of her own four children, raises four foster children with Down’s syndrome with love and compassion.
- Bridge of Books, A
- Brooklyn: Among the Ruins
- Century Village Shiddach
- Close, Closed, Closure
-
CLOSE, CLOSED, CLOSURE, shot before and after the outbreak of the Al Aqsa intifada, presents border crossings, border closings and the violence and tension that infuse daily life there. IT IS NO DREAM documents the will for peace and justice within modern Israel. Packed with the testimonies of Israeli activists and commentators, the film presents a vibrant, diverse dialogue. Preceded by SECURITY GROOVE
- Collector of Bedford Street, The
- Dancing With My Father
- Delta Jews
- Divine Food
- Echo Soup
- Ein Stehaufmannchen
- Embrace Me
-
EMBRACE ME presents Israeli singer Jo Amar, a liturgical poet, singer and composer whose voice embodies the longing and beautiful rhythmic dissonance of Mizrahi music. The film follows Amar on a trip back to Morocco, delving into the roots of Mizrahi music. In TAQASIM, Israeli musician Felix Mizrahi returns to his native Cairo, including the old Jewish quarter, instrument workshops and music archives.
- Emma Goldman: The Anarchist Guest
- Expulsion and Memory: Descendants of the Hidden Jews
- Fantasy - Another Country
-
Two drag queens in quirly center of Tel Aviv. The Arab is never questioned by the police as he has a light teint. The Jew keeps being arrested because he's dark. Both, however, are full of queer joy.
- Farewell
- Film Fanatic
-
Film Fanatic is a captivating portrait of Yehuda Grovais, an energetic Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jew who has made over 50 feature films geared toward members of his community (who are prohibited from watching mainstream movies, but watch his films on disc). Preceded by Yoel, Israel and the Pashkevils, an unusual documentary because of its access to a hidden community, about a printer of protest posters (pashkevils) and his zealous nemesis.
- First Lesson in Peace
-
In First Lesson in Peace, a filmmaker and his wife are determined to send their children to a bilingual school for Jewish and Palestinian kids.
- Football Pitch, The
-
Israeli and Palestinian boys fight over a soccer field and reach a surprising conclusion.
- Four Questions For a Rabbi
- Four Short Films about Love
-
These documentary vignettes provide a rare window on coming of age. As we prepare to make our own way in the world, what draws us closer to the people we love? What pulls us apart?
- From Shtetl to Swing
-
From Shtetl to Swing is a trip through some of the most extraordinary archival footage of American Jewish musical and theatrical talent in the early 20th century, with the unmistakable Harvey Fierstein as the rousing narrator for the journey.
- Gambling Mensch
-
A startling discovery about a beloved grandfather leads to an inquiry into addiction and redemption.
- Gimme A Kiss
- Good Uplift, A
- Goulash
- Great Yiddish Love, The
- Spotlight Series Half-Remembered Stories
-
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.
- Hand On the Pulse
-
HAND ON THE PULSE is the inspiring story of Joan Nestle, Co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York; political and sexual renegade; teacher and activist. The film follows Nestle’s development from 1950s Bronx girl to Greenwich Village critical thinker. preceded by MAIDELES WITH ATTITUDE, a program of shorts. Check out THE GREAT YIDDISH LOVE, a fabricated love story with voice over by Molly Picon.
- Healthy Baby Girl, A
- Holidaze
-
This triptych of stories from SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project, produced by Citizen Film, delivers candid, funny observations of do-it-yourself holiday rituals. Teenage co-directors consider the mysterious relevance of ritual in secular, multicultural lives.
- Holocaust Tourist, The: Whatever Happened to Never Again?
- Home on the Range, A
- House (Gitai)
-
House is Amos Gitai’s landmark 1980 documentary about a stone house in West Jerusalem that changed hands with changes in government. It was deemed too controversial by Israeli television, who produced the film but would not broadcast it. See also News from Home/News from House.
- House I Live In, The
- I Like It a Lot
-
Principal cast: the director’s two-year-old, Ella; a chocolate ice cream cone; and a clean white shirt.
- I'm Charlie Chaplin
- If Streets Could Talk
-
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?
- In the Beginning: Once Upon A Time...There Were Arab Jews
- Intersex Exposition: Full Monty
- Isaak Babel
- Isaiah's Rap
- Island of Roses: The Jews of Rhodes in Los Angeles
- It Is No Dream
- Jai
-
When a young Mexican Jewish girl innocently asks her grandmother about the numbers tattooed on her arm, the answer is a surprise.
- Jaime Gerson (from Latino Jews: Journey to the Americas, part 1)
- Jerusalem: An Occupation Set in Stone?
- Jewish Item
- Jews and Buddhism: Belief Amended, Faith Revealed
- Jews in Shorts [program]
-
We’ve combed the globe to find and present the best new Jewish short films, including I’m Charlie Chaplin by 2005 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award winner Jay Rosenblatt. From tales of family to issues of Jewish identity and politics, this collection of short docs and dramas is funny and poignant and features the work of both veteran and up-and-coming directors. Total running time: 97 minutes.
- Jews of Iran
-
After the 1979 Islamic revolution, more than 80 percent of Iran’s Jews abandoned their ancestral land. This film is a loving portrait of the remaining Jewish communities.
- Jonathan
- King of the Jews
-
The figure of Jesus terrified Jewish filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt as a boy. King of the Jews is a brilliant and sometimes campy reflection on the powerful image of the Savior.
- King's Daughter, The
-
The King’s Daughter, centered on the wedding of a Rabbi’s granddaughter in Jerusalem, is a rare exploration of the world of Hasidic women.
- Kinky Friedman: Proud To Be An Asshole From El Paso
-
Kinky Friedman is a Jewish country musician, raconteur, mystery writer, bon vivant and high profile agitator against the politically correct. Too smart for country and too country for the intelligentsia, Kinky Friedman and his band, The Texas Jewboys paved the way for a lot of unconventional country acts. preceded by 72 VIRGINS, WORST JEWISH FOOTBALL TEAM IN THE WORLD, and A GOOD UPLIFT
- Klaira's Story
- Ladino - 500 Years Young
-
Yasmin Levy is following in the footsteps of her father, Yitzhak Levy, a revered singer who recorded and documented the musical culture of Ladino, the ancient language of the Jews of Spain. Now Yasmin is trying to preserve the songs of an endangered culture. Ladino follows this electrifying Israeli singer on a singing tour in Spain that includes her tour-de-force performance at a world music festival in Madrid.
- Lalo's Jerusalem
- Last Jewish Town, The
- Lifetime Guarantee: Phranc's Adventures in Plastic
- Loss
-
In Loss, as a muted modern Berlin rolls by, noted Germans ruminate about the extinguishing of German Jewish life and culture and the intellectual, moral and spiritual void that loss has created.
- Mah-Jongg: The Tiles That Bind
- Maidan, Nave of the World
-
Maidan, Nave of the World is a painterly portrait of the careworn streets and alleys of Tbilisi, Georgia, city of multiple faiths.
- Mama, L'Chaim! (To Life!)
-
Chaim Lubelski has dedicated three years of his life to being his 95-year-old mother’s caretaker as the two share the confines of a one-bedroom apartment. The mother, a Holocaust survivor, brings out the joyfulness in her son with her gregarious and refreshing optimism for life, as the Jewish toast (and Chaim’s name) reaffirm.
- Martin
-
The first visit of three young tourists at the Dachau concentration camp memorial leads to an unexpected chain of events. Just before returning to Munich, they notice an old man in the distance arguing with one of the employees. The three tourists meet the old man and are brought through the camp by him. Annoyed with the manner in which the site has been memorialized, the old man tried to convey to the tourists something about what really happened in the place years ago. After his personal tour, the old man gets on a bus and disappears. At the heart of the film lies an inconsistent documentary portrait of the survivor; more than objectively documenting him, the three tourists are swept along by him. Over the course of four day, they find their view of the man constantly changing. The accidental manner in which the story unfolds provokes questions concerning the relation between historical truth and memory.
- Max Baer's Last Right Hook
- Meet Michael Oppenheim
- Memorial Day
- Memory Paths
-
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.
- Motherless Haya
- My Eyes Were Fresh
- My Fantasia
-
The Darwish brothers are Iraqi Jews who run an Israeli menorah factory. Beyond that, nothing is simple in My Fantasia as the filmmaker probes the family secrets of his silent father and quirky uncles.
- My Four Children
- My Olympic Summer
- Naming Prairie
- Nana, George and Me
- Not Another Jewish Movie
-
A quirky chorus of teenagers grapple with ambivalent feelings about being Jewish and a sense of uneasiness about participating in mainstream American life.
- Note of Triumph, A: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin
- Nothing to Be Written Here
- Obsessed with Jews
- Odessa Steps
- Olive Press
-
Olive Press is a riveting and sundrenched documentary that follows three characters, Israeli and Palestinian, whose lives are inextricably intertwined with the roots of the olive trees they harvest.
- Once
- Out for Love, Be Back Shortly
- Past Perfect
- Pavel and Lyalya
- Personals: Improvisations on Romance in the Golden Years, The
- Phantom Limb
-
Silence shrouded the death of filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt’s little brother four decades ago; Phantom Limb is his haunting and healing meditation on postponed grief.
- Please Kill Me
- Pleasures of Urban Decay
- Potchki Press
-
A young filmmaker quizzes ordinary Americans about Yiddish words, and he documents his own stumbling attempts to learn Yiddish phrases.
- Poumy
-
Poumy: What turns a young French-Jewish mother into a fierce Resistance fighter? "Poumy" Scheuer Moreuil would say she simply "knew how to do the right thing." Understated eloquence from a 91-year-old marvel.
- Purim [1998]
- Pushcarts and Plantations: Jewish Life in Louisiana
- Ramleh
- Raw Images from the Optic Cross
- Return of Sarah's Daughters, The
- Rosenzweig--Born to Dance
-
Dancing saved Avigdor's life during the Holocaust, and he hasn't stopped since.
-
Dancing saved Avigdor's life during the Holocaust, and he hasn't stopped since.
- Roth Explosion: Confessions of a Writer, The
- Round Eyes in the Middle Kingdom
- Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House
-
Ruthie and Connie, a working-class Jewish lesbian couple in their 60's, share stories of their emergence as a lesbian couple, their previous marriages, and the everyday ups and downs of their relationship- all as a vehicle for exploring Jewish identity.
- Secret, The
- Security Groove
- Settlers, The
- Shadya
-
A 17-year old Muslim girl from a small Arab village in Israel, Shadya is smart, sexy and a kick-ass karate champion. This coming-of-age documentary explores what it’s like to have dual identities--Palestinian/Israeli citizen and Muslim woman/karate champ.
- Shalom Ireland
-
This fascinating film tells the story of the Irish Jews, highlighting the problem of maintaining Jewish community in Diaspora. The little-known history of Irish Jewry begins in the Middle Ages, but the modern Jewish community has its roots in the flight from pogroms in Eastern Europe around the turn of the century. preceded by THE LAST JEWISH TOWN
- Shtetl That's No Longer There, A
-
In A Shtetl That’s No Longer There, the documentarian Heddy Honigmann introduces us to her mother and her family’s recipe for vrennekes.
- Silent Song
- Sisai
-
In this emotional, eye-opening documentary, Ethiopian-Israeli director David Gavro introduces us to his adopted younger brother Sisai and invites us on an extraordinary journey to find the father that Sisai has never known. In San Francisco and Berkeley, followed by panel discussions as part of Spotlight On: Ethiopian Jews and Jews of Color.
- Sister Rose's Passion
- Song of a Jewish Cowboy
- Strange Fruit
-
This film explores the history and legacy of the song of the same name- written in the 1930's by a Jewish Bronx schoolteacher and recorded by Billie Holiday- as a vehicle for a deeper look at black-Jewish relations.
- Survival in Sarajevo: How a Jewish Community Came to the Aid of Its City
- Taqasim
- Testimonies
- Thunder In Guyana
- Tikkun
- Time for Peace (Zaman El Salaam)
- Tiny Bubbles
- Tribe, The
- Trip to Malin, A
- Unforgettable Face
- Unknown Secrets: Art and the Rosenberg Era
- Urban Doodles
- Voices from Gaza: By God's Will
- Welcome to the Waks Family
-
Meet Zephaniah and Hava Waks and their 17 children, one of the largest families in Australia. Everyday life in the orthodox Waks household is a logistical operation of monumental proportions. There are two minibuses, a kosher kitchen with five ovens and a bar mitzvah to cater every year. This engaging and boisterous documentary follows the family over a five year period. preceded by THE COLLECTOR OF BEDFORD STREET
- When I Was 14: A Survivor Remembers
- Worst Jewish Football Team in the World, The
- Writing on the Wall Project, The
- Ydessa,The Bears and Etc.
-
Pioneering French New Wave director Agnиs Varda’s portrait of an eccentric art collector turns darkly mysterious when her collection of teddy bears photos is displayed in an infamous Munich gallery.
- Yelena's Story
-
Seventeen-year-old Yelena Shuster negotiates two worlds: her own and her grandparents'.
- Yiddish Karaoke
- Yiddish Soul
-
It takes a global village to preserve the musical traditions of Jewish shtetl life. This two-part concert film and documentary showcases the fans, scholars and stars of Europe’s new Yiddish and klezmer music revival, a diverse and intergenerational assortment of music lovers. Hailing from points throughout the continent, these gifted musicians share a passion for the world of Yiddish storytelling and song rescued from the brink of extinction
- Yiddish, Yiddish
- Yidishe Gauchos
- Yidl in the Middle: Growing Up Jewish in Iowa
- Yoel, Israel and the Pashkevils
- You, Me, Jerusalem
