UPCOMING: SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL 2010
NEW DOCUMENTARY USA
Grace Paley: Collected Shorts
Lilly Rivlin’s intimate documentary is a rich, inspiring portrait of writer, activist and New York icon Grace Paley (1922-2007). Paley’s brilliant, poignant, and funny short stories place her in the pantheon of great American writers. Grace Paley: Collected Shorts casts an important and penetrating light on a brilliant and highly principled woman whose life illuminates the major protest movements of the latter part of the 20th century. More

NEW DOCUMENTARY USA
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
The funny and surprising story of television pioneer Gertrude Berg, creator of America’s hit sitcom, The Goldbergs. As an actor, writer (12,000 scripts for CBS!) and TV celebrity, Berg’s trailblazing blend of comedy and social commentary—with Jewish characters at the center—endeared audiences and made her a cultural icon. By Aviva Kempner (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg). More

UPCOMING: SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL 2010
NEW DOCUMENTARY FRANCE
Einsatzgruppen
Nazi mobile killing squads, led by highly-educated officers and aided by local collaborators, systematically murdered over a million Jews. Who were the men who carried out mass murder at close range? Prazan's definitive masterwork features a powerful array of astounding, never-seen-before film and photographs. “Essential viewing” – Variety More

UPCOMING: SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL 2010
NEW FEATURE FILM ROMANIA
Gruber's Journey
An Italian journalist suffering from debilitating allergies searches for a Jewish allergist named Gruber amid the outrageous, and increasingly sinister, bureaucracy of Nazi-occupied Romania. What begins as an absurdist wild goose chase leads directly to the heart of the final solution, and the disastrous fate of the local Jews. Radu Gabrea’s “Perfect yet subdued” film is Romania’s first drama about the Holocaust. More

NEW DOCUMENTARY FRANCE
A Pause in the Holocaust
In the summer of 1943, thousands of Jewish refugees in Italian-occupied southern France enjoyed a rare respite from persecution, protected by an unusual force: the occupying Italian Army, who temporarily shielded local and foreign Jews despite pressure from the Germans and the French Vichy administration. In one Alpine village, Saint Martin Vesubie, life was, briefly, renewed as Jews attended synagogues, schools and cafes, and Yiddish was heard as often as French. With the invasion of Nazi troops in September the lull was broken and most of the Jews were deported. Veteran French filmmaker Andre Waksman, whose family survived the Holocaust in southern France, reconstructs this little known World War II history. Torino Film Festival (Italy) 2010 (France, 2009, 52 min) Details Soon!

NEW DOCUMENTARY USA
Angel of Ahlem
While liberating the Ahlem concentration camp, GI Vernon Tott felt compelled to photograph the horror. 50 years later, Vernon sets out to find the men he photographed, a quest that transforms all their lives. The evidence—of unbearable cruelty and miraculous survival—cements a sustaining bond between Vernon and the Jewish survivors. More

NEW DOCUMENTARY IRELAND
Till the Tenth Generation
The first major documentary about the Holocaust made in Ireland, Till the Tenth Generation tells the story of Dublin resident Tomi Reichental, who for nearly 60 years remained silent about his boyhood in Bergen-Belsen. One of three remaining Holocaust survivors in Ireland, Tomi travels back to Slovakia with veteran filmmaker Gerry Gregg to recall the life, and death, of Slovakia’s Jews. More

NEW "MOCKUMENTARY" ISRAEL
Shund
In this clever and heartfelt mockumentary, a renowned Yiddish actor disappears under criminal circumstances. Searching for him twenty-five years later we meet the colorful characters that made up Israel’s vibrant Yiddish scene during the country’s first decades. More

NEW DOCUMENTARY ISRAEL
My 100 Children
When Lena Küchlar discovered dozens of orphaned Jewish children in Krakow after WWII, she employed the progressive psychiatric methods of Janusz Korczak and slowly brought these damaged kids back to life. More

NEW FEATURE FILM ARGENTINA
Camera Obscura
A lyrical, inventive new film from award-winning, film festival favorite director María Victoria Menis. At the end of the 19th century, Gertrudis grows into her role as the ugly duckling in a colony of Argentinean Jews until she meets a nomadic photographer whose uncompromising vision allows her to see herself for the first time. More

NEW FEATURE FILM FRANCE/ISRAEL
Father's Footsteps
In the early 1970s, the Maimons, a rambunctious but tight knit Tunisian-Israeli family, settle in Paris seeking adventure and fortune. Israeli-French filmmaker Marco Carmel draws on events from his own childhood in this unusual coming of age story. Starring French celebrity actor/humorist Gad Elmaleh. More

NEWEST FILM RESTORATION USA
Bar Mitzvah (1935)
Starring Yiddish theater superstar Boris Thomashefsky in his only film performance, this musical melodrama is a masterwork of shund, the bread and butter of the Yiddish theater. More

NEW DOCUMENTARY USA
How To: Be Or Not To Be
Dutch, Surinamese, African, Catholics, Muslims, Jews: young people from all over The Netherlands come to ITS DNA, a unique international, multicultural theater school in Amsterdam. Under the leadership of Loes Hegger, they make creative use of their different backgrounds in adapting the Sholem Aleichem’s 1907 novel The Bloody Hoax into a poignant production that explores issues of identity and tolerance. More

SOCIAL CHANGE DOCUMENTARY USA
Bewoket: By the Will of God
In 1990, Dr. Rick Hodes went to Ethiopia to set up medical clinics. He never left. "Dr. Rick" treats thousands of Ethiopians, among them a group of boys who live with him. An Orthodox Jew, he typifies the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam ("repairing the world"). More

SOCIAL CHANGE DOCUMENTARY AUSTRALIA
Forgotten Children
Amid the crisis surrounding the education of Aboriginal children in Australia, there is a ray of hope. The unlikely source: Israeli teachers. Follow a team of Israeli educators as they bring a new method for teaching at-risk kids to the Australian outback. More

FESTIVAL & THEATRICAL HIT FRANCE
Being Jewish in France
Yves Jeuland's sweeping documentary explores the rich and complex history of Jews in France--the first country to grant Jews citizenship--is fast becoming the definitive film on the topic. More

SEPHARDIC MUSIC DOCUMENTARY USA
Fiestaremos!
Judy Frankel was one of the leading collectors and practitioners of Sephardic folk music. Fiestaremos! includes interviews with Frankel, musical excerpts and performances in an intimate look at Frankel and Sephardic music and songs. More

PERFORMING ARTS DOCUMENTARY FRANCE
Rachel de la Comédie-Française
Before the era of Sarah Bernhardt, Rachel Felix (1821-1858) was the great actress of the Comédie-Française-and the first international dramatic star. Small, plain and fierce, Rachel's ability to convey passion in her performances thrilled audiences. More

SOCIOHISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY ISRAEL
Tel Aviv-Jaffa
Produced for the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Jaffa explores the city's history. Israeli TV celebrity Modi Bar-On hosts this fast-paced film which uses archival film and photos intercut with those of contemporary Tel Aviv. More

CULTURAL IDENTITY DOCUMENTARY ISRAEL
Next Year in... Argentina
Argentinean-born Israeli filmmakers Jorge Gurvich and Shlomo Slutzky met in Buenos Aires before both men immigrated to Israel. 30 years later, they take up the question of Jewish-Argentine history, identity and attitudes toward Israel. More

NEW TO DVD AUSTRALIA
Mamadrama: The Jewish Mother in Cinema
A funny, penetrating look at how the loving and affectionate portrayals in early Yiddish and Hollywood silent movies developed into the Jewish Mother of modern Hollywood and, conversely, the more flesh and blood characterizations in contemporary Israeli cinema. More

NEW TO DVD FRANCE
The Last Marranos
Despite being forcibly converted to Christianity in 1497 many of the Jews of Portugal continued to practice Judaism in secret. Today, residents of the village of Belmonte practice an amalgam of Christian and Jewish rituals. More

NEW TO DVD ISRAEL/POLAND
The Secret: Poland's New Jews
Through accidental discovery or deathbed confessions many Catholic Polish citizens have made an unsettling discovery: they were born Jewish. These “new Jews" must decide what this new truth means to them, as Poles and as Jews. More

DOCUMENTARY ISRAEL
The House on August Street
The remarkable, unknown story of Beate Berger, a German Jew who single-handedly rescued over 100 children during the Holocaust, smuggling them from Berlin to Palestine in the 1930s. More

DOCUMENTARY ISRAEL
Settlement
Twelve years after the release of his landmark film Shtetl, Marian Marzynski, a pioneer of European cinéma-vérité, returns to one of his favorite subjects - the mystery of survival during the Holocaust. More

RE-RELEASE: FEATURE FILM CLASSICS AUSTRIA
The Axel Corti Collection
God Does Not Believe in Us Anymore, Santa Fe, and Welcome in Vienna comprise a trilogy of films directed by Axel Corti and written by Georg Stefan Troller. The films are loosely based on Troller’s life as a Viennese Jew who fled Europe as a teenager, emigrated to the United States, and returned to Europe during World War II as an American soldier. More

FEATURE FILM ISRAEL
Dear Mr. Waldman
In Tel Aviv in the 1960s 10-year-old Hilik knows his goal in life–to make his parents happy and compensate for the grief they both suffered in the Holocaust. More

GROUND-BREAKING DOCUMENTARY GERMANY
2 or 3 Things I Know About Him
Malte Ludin's documentary about his father, Hanns Ludin, a prominent Nazi who was tried and executed as a war criminal in 1947. More

PERSONAL DOCUMENTARY USA
Yippee: A Journey to Jewish Joy
Iconic filmmaker Paul Mazursky chronicles his journey to Uman, Ukrane, the site of a unique annual gathering of Jewish men making pilgrimages to the burial place of Rabbi Nachman. More

ART & THE HOLOCAUST USA
Multiply by Six Million
This short film is the culmination of Evvy Eisen's fifteen-year long project photographing Holocaust survivors and collecting their stories. More

35MM RESTORATION NEW SUBTITLES POLAND
The Jester Der Purimspiler (1937)
The Jester's lively circus and vaudeville music and set pieces provide a glimpse of Warsaw's then-thriving Yiddish revues and cabarets, which were destroyed soon after. More

35MM RESTORATION NEW SUBTITLES USA
His Wife's Lover Zayn Vaybs Lubovnik (1931)
Billed as the "first Jewish musical comedy talking picture," His Wife’s Lover stars the popular comedian of the Yiddish theatre Ludwig Satz in his only film performance. This fast-paced comedy revels in its role reversals and love triangles. More

35MM RESTORATION NEW SUBTITLES USA
The Cantor's Son Dem Khazns Zundyl (1937)
This toe-tapping Yiddish musical drama marks the screen debut of Moishe Oysher in the title role critic J. Hoberman calls the “anti-Jazz Singer.” Leaving behind his Shtetle Belz for New York's Lower East Side, Sol eventually lands the American dream, becoming a popular singer and radio star. More

Back to Top