The Waltz
A beautiful animated short film that brings to life a Yiddish poem by A. Lutzky
2022 Festival
The Record
An antique music instrument dealer receives a magical vinyl record from a traveller. “It reads your mind and plays your lost memories”. Obsessed by this endless record, the antique dealer listens to it again and again, and the memories re-emerge.
Sproutland
When health food guru “Sproutman” dies suddenly, his widow must confront not only her loss but an entire way of life. Surrounded by groomed lawns, organic shops and youthful bodies, she navigates yoga mudras, jade eggs, and online dating while her teenage son grows increasingly alienated. If bean sprouts can”t bring them together, what will? Filmed on location in the scenic Berkshires, this quirky, funny, and heartwarming short is the fiction debut of Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Cynthia Wade. Winner of 14 film festival awards.
Reckonings
They met in secret to negotiate the unthinkable – compensation for the survivors of the largest mass genocide in history. Survivors were in urgent need of help, but how could reparations be determined for the unprecedented destruction and suffering of a people? Reckonings explores this untold true story set in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roberta Grossman, Reckonings recounts the tense negotiations between Jewish and German leaders. Under the constant threat of violence, they forged ahead, knowing it would never be enough but hoping it could at least be an acknowledgement and a step towards healing.
Perfect Strangers
Seven childhood friends with a lot of shared history and experiences, and a mutual death from their past, meet for dinner to watch a rare lunar eclipse. Their standard bourgeois encounter takes an unexpected turn when they start playing a game that will change the course of their lives forever: each text message, call or notification they receive on their phones is revealed for all to see. Betrayals, lies, secrets and unresolved issues dating back 20 years simmer to the surface and put their long standing friendships to the test.
One Last Wish
Based on ”What, Of this Goldfish, Would You Wish?” by Etgar Keret. In this bitter-sweet animation, the Fisherman and the Fish folk tale comes to life. A lonely fisherman has a magical goldfish, who grants him three wishes. He already used two wishes to help others in need. Now he is facing a grave decision; after accidentally killing a stranger, he must choose whether to keep his last wish and become a murderer. Or to use it to save a stranger”s life, but in doing so he will lose the only thing that truly matters, his friend.
My Father’s War
My Father’s War, an animated documentary produced by Humanity in Action, brings to life the experiences of Peter Hein and his son David. As a Jewish toddler in the Netherlands in the 1940s, Peter was separated from his parents and whisked from hiding place to hiding place to escape deportation and death. Decades later, his own son David attempts to forge his own path after his father’s mental health buckles under the weight of his memories. The film reveals the hereditary trauma of the Holocaust: the deep emotional wounds of forefathers passed on to children and grandchildren. Narrated by both Peter and David, the film depicts an intergenerational conversation, reverberating across the decades.
Masel Tov Cocktail
A Russian-Jewish teen in Germany offers a fierce comic take on modern Jewish life and the hypocritically tolerant way in which his world works.
Masel Tov Cocktail Read More »
March ’68
Two young students, Hania and Janek, meet and fall in love in the midst of social turmoil and Jewish discrimination in 1960’s Warsaw. While the young lovers are uninterested in politics, they find themselves unable to avoid it when Hania’s father and mother lose their jobs due to the anti-Semitic purge and are forced to emigrate. Hania does not want to leave Janek, and the couple soon participate in a protest rally at the university where they discover freedom comes at a high price.
Karaoke
Meir and Tova (60) live in a middle-class suburb and have been in a dull and sleepy relationship for years. When a new neighbor moves into the upper penthouse of their building, their whole world is turned upside down. Attractive, showy, modern, Itsik is everything they”re not. As they lose themselves into a noxious fascination, their lust for life is slowly reignited.