Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Through The Indie Lens

The judges responsible for selecting the films for this year’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival had their work cut out for them. The festival broke its record with some 450 entries — a testament to the fact that independent Jewish cinema is alive and thriving. Now in its 26th year, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is the oldest and largest of its kind. The event features a diverse two-and-a-half week program, with full-length features, documentaries and shorts from around the globe.

This year, the festival places special emphasis on the personal stories of Ethiopian Jews and Jews of color from around the world, with three films focused on the subject: Radu Mihaileanu’s drama “Live and Become” (2005) tells the tale of a young boy whose mother sneaks him into an airlift to Israel in 1984, during the rescue mission Operation Moses; David Gavro’s “Sisai” (2005) is a documentary that follows an adopted Ethiopian Israeli who returns to Ethiopia in search of his birth father, and Haya Zelka’s short, “Motherless Haya” (2004), focuses on an Ethiopian teenager’s experiences growing up an orphaned immigrant in the Israeli town of Ramla. Panel discussions examining ideas of ethnic and cultural identity will follow the screenings of “Sisai.”

Other festival highlights include the United States premiere of Swedish filmmaker Henry Meyer’s new film,“Four Weeks in June,” which received a Crystal Bear Award at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival for its story of the intergenerational relationship between an 80-year-old Jewish woman named Lilly (Ghita Norby) and her disturbed neighbor, 20-something Sandra (Tuva Novotny). Also on the program is French filmmaker Karin Albou’s “La Petite Jérusalem” (2005), a controversial coming-of-age drama that offers a portrait of antisemitism in France and focuses on a Jewish woman from a religious family who struggles with the feelings she has for a Muslim man.

Recently made documentaries are on the program include Freida Lee Mock’s “Wrestling With Angels,” which examines the work and private life of renowned American playwright Tony Kushner, and the United States premiere of Dan Katzir’s “Yiddish Theater: A Love Story,” which offers a portrait ofthe world of Yiddish theater. The latter film focuses on the life of Folksbiene founder Zypora Spaisman, who died in 2002.

The festival will present screenings and events at venues in San Francisco, Berkeley, Mountain View and San Rafael.

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival; July 20-Aug. 7; for schedules, locations and further information, call the listed number or visit the Web site. (925-275-9490 or www.sfjff.org)

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.