16 year old Jewish Mina is trying to navigate between a surreal routine dictated by the civil war in Ethiopia and her last days of youth with her Christian boyfriend Eli. When she discovers that her family is planning to immigrate to Israel and escape the war, she weaves an alternate plan in order to save Eli. But in times of war, plans tend to go wrong. Davidian’s coming of age film debut film is based on her childhood memories of a civil-war-torn Ethiopia.
This summer, the Barshop JCC presents its first ever San Antonio Jewish Film Festival “Summer Series”. Starting May 24 and running through September 12, the Summer Series takes the place of previous iterations of the mini-fests that occurred throughout the year. Unlike the Barshop JCC’s prior film events that normally take place over a week or weekend, this experience will be different as each film will have a dedicated viewing window for at least two weeks
In this gentle, beautifully rendered historical family drama, a German- Jewish girl takes her first steps into adulthood, as world events intrude on her happy, carefree existence. Nine-year-old Anna is too busy with schoolwork and friends to notice Hitler’s face glaring from posters plastered all over 1933 Berlin. But when her father suddenly vanishes, and the family is secretly hurried out of Germany, Anna begins to understand life will never be the same. What follows is a courageous adventure full of fear and uncertainty, as Anna and her family navigate unfamiliar lands and cope with the challenges of being refugees. Oscar-winning filmmaker Caroline Link directs this adaptation of Judith Kerr’s semi-autobiographical bestselling children’s novel. FAMILY FRIENDLY
Length: 119 minutes
Director: Caroline Link
AJFF played this movie in our 2020 festival and we are honored to present it now as part of its theatrical release.
Set in an alternate present where the state is brutally divided between the secular capital of Tel Aviv and a Jerusalem governed by an ultra-Orthodox “Haredi Autonomy,” this dystopian thriller tells the story of a wheeler-dealer who smuggles contraband between the two regions and a little girl at the center of a secular-Orthodox custody battle. Israel is experiencing a golden age of episodic television, turning out some of the finest narrative storytelling in any medium, and we’ll screen all five episodes for a proper binge. Autonomies shows why Israel is fertile ground for powerful fiction: the series is a boiling cauldron of the issues of identity, religion, politics, and personal freedom that define life in the country today.
Cast: Assi Cohen, Shuli Rand, Taly Sharon, Dana Ivgy, Yaakov Zada Daniel, and Rotem Sela.
Director: Yehonatan Indursky (co-creator of Shtisel.)
Writers: Yehonatan Indursky & Ori Elon
Format: Five episodes, 1 x 51 minutes, 4 x 45 minutes
Note: This event is only accessible in Texas (excluding Houston.)
Presentation partner:
This event is a co-presentation of the Austin Jewish Film Festival and Barshop JCC of San Antonio.
AJFF365 is AJFF’s year-round program, providing the quality films AJFF is known for all year long—no need to wait a whole year for the next festival!
AJFF365 is a partnership program with Shalom Austin and most AJFF365 physical events take place on the Dell Jewish Community Campus in Austin. Since the start of the pandemic, all AJFF365 events have been taking place online instead.
Audiences attend AJFF365 programs by purchasing tickets to specific events or by purchasing an AJFF365 Subscription which gives access to all AJFF365 events for 12 months from the date of purchase. Note that the AJFF365 Subscription does not include access to the annual festival.
To purchase a subscription, click on the logo above.
This summer, the Barshop JCC presents its first ever San Antonio Jewish Film Festival “Summer Series.”
Starting May 24 and running through September 12, the Summer Series takes the place of previous iterations of the mini-fests that occurred throughout the year.
Unlike the Barshop JCC’s prior film events that normally take place over a week or weekend, this experience will be different as each film will have a dedicated viewing window for at least two weeks.
For more information click on the adjacent Summer Series logo.
It is 1945. The war is over. Switzerland, the neutral small country at the heart of Europe, was all but spared: Klara, her fiancé Johann and his brother Egon are looking bright-eyed into the future. While Klara tries to mend the wounds of the war by caring for young, displaced Holocaust survivors, Johann, who works for her industrialist father, hopes to save and modernize his father-in-law’s well-established, yet troubled textile company. Just home from military service, Egon takes his first steps in the Attorney General’s office. His mission: to hunt down escaped Nazis. All three of them soon realize that the façade of peace is bought with the blood of the victims of war.
Cast: Annina Walt, Max Hubacher, Dimitri Stapfer, Stephan Bissmeier, Stefan Kurt, Therese Affolter
Director: Mike Schaerer
Format: Six episodes, 51 minutes each
Note: This event is only accessible in Texas (excluding Houston.)
This event is a co-presentation of the Austin Jewish Film Festival and Barshop JCC of San Antonio.
AJFF365 is AJFF’s year-round program, providing the quality films AJFF is known for all year long—no need to wait a whole year for the next festival!
AJFF365 is a partnership program with Shalom Austin and most AJFF365 physical events take place on the Dell Jewish Community Campus in Austin. Since the start of the pandemic, all AJFF365 events have been taking place online instead.
Audiences attend AJFF365 programs by purchasing tickets to specific events or by purchasing an AJFF365 Subscription which gives access to all AJFF365 events for 12 months from the date of purchase. Note that the AJFF365 Subscription does not include access to the annual festival.
To purchase a subscription, click on the logo above.
This summer, the Barshop JCC presents its first ever San Antonio Jewish Film Festival “Summer Series.”
Starting May 24 and running through September 12, the Summer Series takes the place of previous iterations of the mini-fests that occurred throughout the year.
Unlike the Barshop JCC’s prior film events that normally take place over a week or weekend, this experience will be different as each film will have a dedicated viewing window for at least two weeks.
For more information click on the adjacent Summer Series logo.
Watch our cast Q&A from July 25th
Q and A with writer/producer Petra Volpe, director Michael Shaerer, and lead actress Annina Walt, moderated by David Finkel, Director of AJFF, with an introduction from Betsy Cowan, Vice President/Chief Program Officer of the San Antonio Barshop Jewish Community Center.
Note: At some points in the Q&A there is discussion of plot points.
Now that the 2020 Olympics have ended, watch this excellent documentary!
September 5th 1972, the tenth day of the Munich Olympics—the Palestinian terrorist group Black September stormed the Israeli athletes’ quarters. The world watched live on television as eleven hostages were taken and later killed. For the first time, this story will be told through the eyes of four women who were directly impacted by that day: an athlete, a widow, and two undercover agents. Their fates were changed forever as their wellbeing and life views were impacted by the trauma. A film about love and death; conflict and reconciliation; war and peace. MATURE THEMES, SOME GRAPHIC IMAGES
Length: 76 minutes
Director: Francine Zuckerman
Pre-Recorded Q&A with Director/Writer/Producer Francine Zuckerman
Note: Before watching this Q&A (available below), we recommend that you watch the film.
Francine Zuckerman always wanted to be a filmmaker. She made her first film on Super 8 at 15. She had no choice but to carry on and fulfill her dream and now years later she has made nine independent documentaries and short films that won awards, screened on television and recognized at international festivals around the world. She graduated from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec and joined the National Film Board of Canada to make her first documentary, the award-winning Half the Kingdom which toured film festivals around the world. Her focus is on women, performing arts and social docs.
She continued her education studying directing at Columbia University’s summer program in New York; Writer’s workshop at the Script Factory, London and Director’s workshop, Director’s Guild of Canada. Films include: Exposure: environmental links to breast cancer, a documentary hosted by singer/actor Olivia Newton-John; a Canada/ New Zealand co-production Punch Me in the Stomach; the Gemini nominated dramatic series; The Atwood Stories; a short film, Passengers which launched at the Toronto International Film Festival; a feature documentary We Are Here and her most recent project is a short drama, Mr. Bernstein launched at the Palm Springs Film Festival and winner of won Best Drama at the Toronto International Short Film Festival.
In addition to be a proud member of Film Fatales Canada, Zuckerman is also member of the Independent Film Project, New York; Directors Guild of Canada; has served as a jury member for the Ontario Arts Council, Media Arts Program; a jury chair for a Gemini Awards at The Academy of Film and Television and an early member of Femmes du Cinema de la Télévision et la Vidéo a Montréal.
Asia’s motherhood has always been an ongoing struggle rather than an obvious instinct. Becoming a mother at a very early age has shaped Asia’s relationship with her teenage daughter Vika. Despite living together, Asia and Vika barely interact with one another. Asia concentrates on her job as a nurse while Vika hangs out at the skate-park with her friends. Their routine is shaken when Vika’s health deteriorates rapidly. Asia must step in and become the mother Vika so desperately needs. Vika’s illness turns out to be an opportunity to reveal the great love within this small family unit.
With her huge eyes and delicate physique, Shira Haas made an indelible impression (she was nominated for an Emmy and won an Independent Spirit Award) as the lead in the recent TV series Unorthodox. Here she stars as a Russian émigré to Israel, navigating her teenage years with her single mother (Alena Yiv), burdened by an illness that makes all of her decisions infinitely more poignant.
First-time writer-director Ruthy Pribar does an exquisite job of defining the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship that eschews clichés and sentimentality. Instead, both actresses give riveting, yet understated performances that explore the inevitable chasm that divides the generations and creates barriers between the healthy and the sick—while limning a universal and timeless story of maternal love and loss.
Length: 85 minutes
Cast: Shira Haas, Alena Yiv, Tamir Mula, Gera Sandler
An artistic excommunication set in 2008, A Kaddish For Bernie Madoff is a mystical meta-musical about the greatest financial fraud in history. A hybrid of musical memoir and narrative fantasy, the film tells the story of Madoff and the system that allowed him to function for decades through the eyes of musician/poet Alicia Jo Rabins, who watches the financial crash from her 9th floor studio in an abandoned office building on Wall Street. Fueled by her growing obsession, real-life interviews transform into music videos, ancient spiritual texts become fevered fantasies of synchronized swimming, and a vivid, vulnerable work of art is born from the unique perspective of an artist watching the global financial collapse up close.
Length: 75 minutes
Director: Alicia J. Rose
Cast: Alicia Jo Rabins
Producer: Lara Cuddy
Q&A with director Alicia J. Rose, star/creator Alicia Jo Rabins, and producer Lara Cuddy on October 10 included in event ticket.
AJFF365 subscribers ONLY. Reserve a free ticket to the Q&A using the adjacent button. For those purchasing an event ticket, the Q&A ticket is automatically included.
Alicia J. Rose Director/Editor/Co-Executive Producer/Co-Writer Screen Adaptation
Alicia J. Rose has directed over 3 dozen music videos for artists like First Aid Kit, Cake, and Bob Mould as well as visually branding popular bands like The Decemberists and many others with her imaginative portraiture.
Rose spent 20 years in the indie music business before turning her eye to filmmaking in 2008. Her approach to directing utilizes her unique sense of visual style, grounded humor and intimate storytelling to deliver authentic narratives that resonate deeply with viewers. Her scripted comedic web series The Benefits of Gusbandry received wide acclaim over its 2 seasons from press outlets like The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, A/V Club, Out and others.
She is currently supporting her feature directorial debut – hybrid narrative/musical A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADOFF during its 2021 festival run. Rose lives in Portland Oregon. www.aliciajrose.com
With over 20 years of experience in concept development, marketing strategy, and project management, Lara Cuddy works as a producer and designer in a broad range of media including film & video, print, digital, and interactive.
Her skill-set includes producing, creative strategy, and project development on independent features and short film projects, commercials, branded content, digital series, and music videos. By expanding into post-production supervision, festival strategy, and marketing coordination, Lara has integrated technical and creative skill sets into her work as a producer, bringing added value to every collaboration.
Notable producing credits include award-winning feature films such as Lorelei, The Mortuary Collection, Badland, Deep Dark, and Birds of Neptune as well the critically acclaimed Portland comedy series The Benefits of Gusbandry.
Alicia Jo Rabins is an award-winning writer, musician, performer and Torah teacher.
The New York Times calls her voice “gorgeous”; the San Francisco Chronicle calls her writing “a poetry page-turner, both sexy and humble.”
She is the author of two books, Divinity School and Fruit Geode, and is the recipient of grants from Bread Loaf Writers Conference and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
As a musician, Rabins has represented the US State Department as a cultural ambassador, playing fiddle music across Central America and Kuwait, and has released three albums withGirls in Trouble, her indie-folk song cycle about women in Torah.
She is the creator and star ofA Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, which debuted at Joe’s Pub as as a one-woman chamber-rock opera, and is now an independent feature film currently on the festival circuit.
Rabins lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two kids. www.aliciajo.com.
The discovery of a puzzling photograph sparks a student to probe the history of Rome’s Jewish ghetto and the fate of a little girl, in this Italian teen drama interlacing past and present. When Sofia finds an old snapshot in a neglected suitcase, she’s mesmerized by the child’s picture. As details emerge—the child’s name, separation from her parents during a Gestapo raid, and rescue by a nun—Sofia commits to honoring the girl’s memory by staging an original play with classmates and friends from a nearby Jewish high school. But first she must overcome objections of concerned parents. A talented ensemble injects youthful energy into this inspiring interfaith story about the importance of memory, coexistence and reconciling generational frictions.
Length: 100 Minutes
Cast: Giulio Base
Director: Giulio Base
Q&A with director Guilio Base (watch below)
Giulio Base was born in Turin (Italy) in 1964. He achieved two Doctorates: the first in Literature and Philosophy and the second in Theology.
He began his show-business’ career as an actor, studying in Florence at the ‘Dramatic Art Studio’ established by the Italian master Vittorio Gassman. After many years playing with Italian directors such as Nanni Moretti or internationals (as the recent role in “All the money in the world” by Sir Ridley Scott), he made his film directorial debut with the worldwide prize winning “Crack” (1991), inspired by a successful theatrical piece that he first directed for the stage.
From then on he helmed 29 titles starring many movie stars, such as: Oscar winners Shelley Winters and F. Murray Abraham, Oscar nominees Max von Sydow and Omar Sharif, Dolph Lundgren, Monica Cruz, Paul Sorvino, etc.
His works have been selected in all the major film festivals around the world (Venice, Cannes, Los Angeles, Berlin, Toronto, Shanghai, Sydney, Buenos Aires, etc) where they won several movie awards.
Three children from the West Bank are smuggled into Israel, arriving at the doorstep of George and Rita’s house in Jaffa. Their mother is dead, and their father has been sentenced to life imprisonment. As Israeli Palestinians, George is afraid that hiding illegal aliens will endanger Rita and himself, while Rita believes the arrival of these children could give meaning to her life. Nearby, a foreign film is being shot. Jerry, an English director, is making a movie about his parents’ love affair in 1947, when they served in the British army in Palestine. George is invited to play a part in the film. When the two stories intertwine, tensions erupt. MATURE LANGUAGE, DRUG USE
Film: 96 minutes
Director: Ram Loevy
Production country: Israel
Year: 2019
Watch our Q&A with Ram Loevy, director of THE DEAD OF JAFFA.
