2023 EventS grid

A group of Arab and Jewish women attend a video workshop at a small town community center run by Rona (Dana Ivgy, Zero Motivation), a young filmmaker from Tel Aviv, who teaches them to document their lives. As each student shares footage from her home life with the others, their beliefs and preconceptions are challenged and barriers are broken down. The group comes together as mothers, daughters, wives, and women living in a world designed to keep them apart, forming an empowering and lasting bond as they learn more about each other... and themselves. Inspired by writer-director Orit Fouks Rotem’s own experiences as a teacher, Cinema Sabaya presents a deft and heartfelt portrait of art’s capacity to unite disparate communities, moving effortlessly between the gravity of their conversations and the genuine joy of this unlikely group of friends. Israel’s Official Submission to the 95th Academy Awards and winner of five Ophir Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress (Joanna Said). Includes Q&A with director Orit Fouks Rotem.

Two men sit at a popular café in Tel Aviv. Moments later, they open fire on the shocked diners around them. One customer fights back. Others run to safety. No one escapes unharmed. Closed Circuit documents the infamous terrorist attack at Sarona Market with raw footage from security cameras and riveting interviews with survivors: a father breaking the Ramadan fast with his family, a cop who unknowingly saves one of the fleeing terrorists, a girl who escapes but loses her dad, and restaurant workers, both Arab and Jewish, whose lives are forever changed by their sudden encounter with death. Includes Q&A with director Tal Inbar.

Follow several non-Jews from around the world as they go through the conversion process. Diana from Costa Rica found out about her Spanish-Portuguese Jewish roots from a high school genealogy project. Adam from Toronto was raised as a Pentecostal Christian but started questioning his beliefs as a teenager. Bianka from Warsaw wanted community and an intellectual approach to spirituality. All of our characters are on a journey of self-discovery and negotiating their relationships with family, friends and significant others. All are searching for identity and connection. Through following their conversion process, we are vicariously exposed to a range of Jewish ideas and practices. Along the way we get a chance to meet their teachers and guides and the community that they seek to join.

Friend of AJFF and Harry Ransom Center docent Laraine Lasdon will lead a FREE, IN PERSON private AJFF tour of the "Drawing the Motion Picture" exhibition. Explore the beauty and complexity of moviemaking through sketches, storyboards, and designs that illuminate the production of motion pictures from the silent era to the present day in this new exhibition from the Harry Ransom Center. Rare concept paintings, set designs, storyboards, scripts, film stills, correspondence, and more tell a visual story of the production of your favorite films, bringing a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the creative process of filmmaking. Behind-the-scenes stories of some of the biggest films in more than 100 years of cinema history are revealed through the artworks and designs that shaped their final form. See production art associated with iconic movies like Rebel Without a Cause, Raging Bull, Top Gun, Apollo 13, and Lawrence of Arabia, many connected with innovative directors like Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Mike Nichols, Michael Powell, Nicholas Ray, Martin Scorsese, Stephen Spielberg, King Vidor, and more.

Jimmy and Elik meet while serving in the army. He's an overweight corporal and she's a beautiful officer but something works between them. They meet again over the years. He wants her but she rejects him. Only in their 30's, after a few of life's lessons, they start being friends... Until love gets in... Includes Q&A with director Gudis Schneider.

A hybrid docudrama film that follows Israeli diplomat, Asher Naim, on a seemingly insurmountable mission to bring 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel. As Asher learns more about these African Jews, he finds himself between worlds and facing a crisis of faith in himself and his country. The docudrama follows the behind-the-scenes politics leading up to Operation Solomon - the two day airlift in May 1991 pulled off in climactic chaos of the Ethiopian Civil War. (Plays with the 11 minute short BrownWhite.) Includes Q&A with director Micah Smith.

Filmmaker Snow R. Shai interviews the crème de la crème of Israel’s winemakers, and the Israeli wine industry is revealed in all its glory with something to be learned by even the most ardent oenophile. From the ancient wine presses carved in stone to the vineyard-studded landscapes that grace much of Israel, the images in this film are a feast for the eyes. If you don’t think of Israel as a serious wine region, you will after watching this. The second part of the film covers the dilemmas of kosher wine production in Israel: Is it good for the Jews? Does it help the wineries in exporting wine abroad or harm their ability to break into non-kosher markets? Does the production of kosher wine harm the quality of the wine? Like Israel as a whole, this film reveals that even wine can be a complex topic. Includes Q&A with director Snow Shai.

Three very different shipping containers are mistakenly mixed up resulting in a scramble to find the correct trailer. Johnny Saloniki, the innocent son of a mafiosa, is pulled into the family business to find the missing trailers before time runs out. HUMMUS FULL TRAILER is a colorful and hilarious look at how a couple of Arabs, Gay florists and orthodox Jews discover each other’s secrets all while trying to keep a wedding on track, hitmen away, and flowers alive.

Avihu, a controversial TV host, is back from suspension in the height of the prime minster election campaign. The leading candidate is his former beloved pupil and the son of the former prime minster, who is keeping silent. He isn't the only one who is silent, Avihu's mother miraculously stopped talking. Caught in the whirlwind of their silence Avihu is on a path to his own reckoning. Includes AJFF interview with Esti Zakheim.