19th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival
Based on Amos Oz’s novel Panther in the
Basement and starring Alfred Molina, The
Little Traitor follows the journey of young Proffy
Liebowitz and his friends in their plot against
the occupying British in 1947 Palestine. Proffy’s
perspective changes, however, when he
becomes friends with British soldier Sergeant
Dunlop, played by Molina. This new friendship
complicates his standing with his friends and
the entire Jewish community. This uplifting,
heart-warming story is perfect for all ages.
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Israel’s internationally acclaimed author
Amos Oz is also an eloquent proponent of
peaceful co-existence in the Middle East.
This poignant film paints a captivating
portrait of Oz and his richly complex
background. Israel’s Arad desert and
Greece’s stunning Salonica comprise the
dramatic backdrop for the life story of this
compassionate and courageous writer.
Preceded by: Shield of Solomon
Since the late 1990’s, the Janjaweed
(killing squads) of the North Sudanese
army have massacred more than 300,000
South Sudanese Christians and Muslims.
Now Israel faces a moral dilemma—can
the children of the Holocaust refuse
admission to refugees facing genocide?
Shield of Solomon tells the story of four of
these Darfur refugees who have found
sanctuary in this most unlikely haven.
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Polish-born Jewish artist Arthur Szyk
(1894–1951) was a one-man army against
Nazism. Scholars and art critics consider
him the greatest 20th century miniaturist
illuminator. Renowned for his political
caricatures and product advertisements,
he is also famous for his Passover
Haggadah. But Szyk’s art is not an end in
itself—it was his means to promote
tolerance, dignity and freedom.
Preceded by: Eye Witness—60 Years
Time-Life photographer David Rubinger
journeys back to the places and people
he photographed over 60 years to give
viewers a better understanding of
contemporary Israeli reality. Recipient of
the Israel Prize for Photography, Rubinger
presents his life story, views and
experiences, and most importantly, his
great love for his country and its people.
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A home of one’s own is the American
dream—but what happens when the
dreamers are immigrants, factory workers
and Communists? Filmmaker Michal
Goldman traces the fascinating history of
the United Workers Cooperative Colony –
The Coops – one of four cooperative
apartments built in the 1920’s in the Bronx
by visionary Jewish garment workers. This
epic film captures the courage behind this
radical experiment that crossed the barriers
of race, religion, social convention— and
sometimes even common sense.
Preceded by: Unattached
Why don’t those nice Jewish kids just get
married already? Oy vey! There’s a singles
crisis in the Orthodox community! This
Student Academy Award-winning film
portrays the conflict between 21st century
singles’ expectations and the 19th century
matchmakers’ traditions.
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Beautiful Chicago teacher Sarah Goldman is
in love with a great guy with one fatal flaw:
he’s not Jewish. To stop her mother (Lainie
Kazan) from fixing her up with nice Jewish
boys, Sarah hires a handsome Christian
actor to play the role of her “perfect Jewish
beau.” In this adaptation of his off-Broadway
and San Diego hit, screenwriter/director
James Sherman tells the antics that follow in
this side-splitting tale.
Preceded by: Therapy
A therapy session becomes a comic group
intervention when family members and
girlfriends “listen in” on Charlie Goldberg’s
confidential appointment.
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Director Yishai Orian’s wife, pregnant with
their first child, insists he scrap his beloved
VW Beetle for a safe family car. Yishai’s
comic struggles with his inner Peter Pan
take him to Jordan in a last-ditch effort to
salvage the relic before his son arrives.
Along the way, former owners of his Beetle
tell remarkable life stories involving the car.
A 2008 HotDocs Film Festival Audience
Top Ten choice.
Preceded by: Shorts by Neil Ira Needleman
In these three charming short films,
director Neil Ira Needleman explores topics
from family connections to his own
“Yiddish-induced paranoia.”
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Hannah Senesh was a World War II-era
poet, diarist and staunch Zionist who
became famous as a paratrooper,
resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of
Arc. Her mother, Catherine, documented
her daughter’s life in memoirs and in
correspondence with Hannah. This
dramatized documentary is based on
interviews with family members,
classmates, and kibbutz members—as
well as Shimon Peres and historian Michael
Berenbaum. Hannah’s dramatic life story is
told through Catherine’s eyes, honoring the
legacies of both mother and daughter.
Under consideration for an Academy
Award® for Documentary Feature.
Preceded by: The Morse Collectors
While their father is off fighting in WWII,
two children hear Morse code in dripping
taps and ticking clocks. If the messages
are real, who sent them?
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While Israel repeatedly demonstrates her
true commitment to peace, Israel’s
detractors— many with international
prominence—blame her for the conflict in
the Middle East. Alan Dershowitz, author
of the book by the same name—along
with key political, judicial and academic
leaders—provides us with a first-rate
education and offers a proactive defense
of Israel in the court of public opinion. The
message of this documentary should have
a permanent home wherever truth is
prized— and should be required viewing
in a locked-door session of the UN’s entire
General Assembly.
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Yisrael Campbell is a funny Jew. But he
wasn’t always so. Jewish, that is. He used
to be Christopher Campbell, a Philadelphia
Catholic. Campbell has undergone three
conversions (Reform, Conservative and
Orthodox), and he’s now a stand-up comic
in Jerusalem. Circumcise Me is a riotous
documentary that uses excerpts from his
shows along with an inside look at his
quest to find meaning in religion. During
his spiritual journey, Yisrael befriends
San Diego’s Marla Bennett at the Pardes
Institute in Jerusalem.
Followed by: The Comedy Stylings of Yisrael Campbell in person
Did you hear the one about the
Catholic who walked into a synagogue?
Circumcise Me’s Yisrael Campbell will
join us after the screening.
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Oscar-nominated director Oren Jacoby
turns the camera on author and former
Catholic priest James Carroll as he
embarks on a journey to confront his past
and uncover the dark side of Christianity.
Carroll explores a legacy of religious
violence, from the rise of genocidal
anti-Semitism to modern-day wars
sparked by religious extremism.
Constantine’s Sword forces us to confront
the question: Why do we kill people in
the name of G-d? With the voices of
Liev Shreiber, Natasha Richardson and
Eli Wallach.
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The Dame Edna of South Africa is
Mrs. Evita Bezuidenhout, the alter-ego
of half-Jewish Afrikaner political comedian
Pieter-Dirk Uys. He has fought the system
of apartheid with satire in a political climate
that saw critics of the government go
“mysteriously missing” every day. Today,
Uys uses his inimitable skill as a mimic and
raconteur to address the HIV/AIDS
pandemic with teenagers of all backgrounds
to prevent them from joining the
5.5 million South Africans with the disease.
Preceded by: Shield of Solomon
Since the late 1990’s, the Janjaweed
(killing squads) of the North Sudanese
army have massacred more than 300,000
South Sudanese Christians and Muslims.
Now Israel faces a moral dilemma—can
the children of the Holocaust refuse
admission to refugees facing genocide?
Shield of Solomon tells the story of four of
these Darfur refugees who have found
sanctuary in this most unlikely haven.
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This fascinating documentary explores the
impact that basketball and modern Jewish
history have had upon each other. The
game spread like wildfire through turn-ofthe-
century New York City settlement
houses, proved a perfect fit for urban
Jewish kids and played a large role in the
assimilation of American Jews. Chock-full
of vivid anecdotes and distinctive
characters, both the famous and the
unsung, The First Basket is indeed the
greatest Jewish basketball documentary in
the world. Bring the entire family to enjoy.
Preceded by: Got Next
This fast-moving short portrays a
yarmulke-wearing Jewish kid asking a
group of Harlem teens if he can play in
their street basketball game. It’s what he
does next that matters.
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Director Joseph Vilsmaier (Stalingrad and
Comedian Harmonists) and his wife, Dana
Vavrova, present a harrowing dramatization
of the cattle-car journey of the final 688
Berlin Jews to Auschwitz during World
War II. Based on actual eyewitness
accounts, the film alternates between the
horrifying situation in the overcrowded train
and touching flashbacks to happier family
times. The occupants demonstrate an
incredible will to live, but will it be strong
enough for anyone to survive this hell on
rails? This train stands symbolically for the
fate of all of the Jews of Europe.
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Based loosely on a true story, Lemon Tree
turns a simple snapshot of a minor political
situation into a touching and memorable
analogy for a country divided. A Palestinian
widow finds her beloved lemon grove
threatened when an Israeli government
Minister moves in across the Green Line.
Legal battle stations are manned and the
gears of justice begin to grind. But it is the
personal side of things that prove most
interesting—the entanglements between
the widow, her lawyer, the Minister and his
wife. Personal meets political in this
pertinent and beautifully played drama.
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Few Americans know much about the
resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe
today, but 60 years after the Holocaust,
hatred has reared its ugly head in the
guise of radical Muslim beliefs and actions.
Filmmakers Allen and Cynthia Mondell
(West of Hester Street, Make Me a Match)
personalize this crisis through the
experiences of people from all walks of life
in six European countries— neighborhood
attacks, cemetery desecrations,
synagogue burnings, ostracism at work
and even more subtle evidence that anti-
Semitism is far from dead.
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German Chief Justice Inspector Friedrich
Kellner was a political activist who
campaigned against Hitler and the Nazi
Party. Friedrich wanted to stop the
genocide and risked his life writing a
secret ten-volume diary challenging Nazi
propaganda and documenting Nazi
atrocities. His American grandson Robert
Scott Kellner, who was raised in a Jewish
orphanage and became a US Navy petty
officer, went to Germany in search of his
grandparents. This moving film allows
Robert to use the diaries to warn against
modern-day extremists and totalitarianism.
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This delightfully spirited drama portrays
the remarkable adventures of two unlikely
companions—Mir, a 37-year-old twice widowed
El Al flight attendant and the
six-year-old Chinese-speaking son of her
housekeeper. After agreeing to watch
Noodle (nicknamed for his exceptional
slurping skills) for “just one hour,” Mir’s life
is turned upside down. When Noodle’s
immigrant mother disappears, Mir must
rise above her fears and limitations and
defeat the barriers of language through
empathy and love. Her effort to reunite
mother and son becomes a scheme of
international proportion. Winner of
Best Feature Film at the Boston Jewish
Film Festival.
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Based on true events, this compelling
drama tells the story of Giorgio Perlasca
(portrayed by popular Italian television
actor Luca Zingaretti), an Italian
businessman who saved the lives of
thousands of Hungarian Jews during the
Holocaust. By posing as a Spanish
ambassador, Perlasca fed, hid and
smuggled Jews to safety, ultimately
keeping his heroism a secret. Director
Alberto Negrin’s film explores the power of
ordinary people to fight the most
extraordinary injustice.
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Famed Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai
(Kippur, Kadosh) sets his latest film in
1987 Paris. As French TV broadcasts the
trial of Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyons,
a French businessman becomes obsessed
with discovering the truth of his family’s
history. Sorting through memorabilia, he
finds his father’s “Aryan declaration” and
confronts his mother, Rivka (played by the
legendary Jeanne Moreau), who has
closed the door on her past. His letsleeping-
dogs-lie sister defends their
parents, but his wife and children join him
on a visit to the village where his
grandparents hid during the war. Finally,
Rivka confides her past with the hope that
her family will shape a better future.
Preceded by: Toyland (Spielzeugland)
A young German boy thinks his Jewish
neighbors have gone away to Toyland,
so he sneaks off to join them. Winner,
Audience Favorite Live Action Short,
Palm Springs International ShortFest.
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On the second day of every Hebrew
month, a group meets at the Western Wall
in Jerusalem, wearing prayer shawls and
reading from the Torah. The difference?
This group is made up of women, and
though their acts are allowed under Jewish
law, they are opposed by many Orthodox
authorities. Director Yael Katzir documents
the struggle that the “Women of the Wall”
have faced as they fight both religious and
legal authorities for the right to pray out
loud in their own voices.
Preceded by: Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
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Refusenik is the first retrospective
documentary to chronicle the 30-year
movement to “Let Our People Go.” As a
result of this most successful human rights
campaign of all times—one of the
proudest chapters in Jewish history—one
and a half million Jews finally escaped the
tyranny of the Soviet Union to live in
freedom. With interviews, photos and film
footage smuggled out of the Soviet Union,
Refusenik illustrates how grass-roots
activism and steadfast individuals can
utilize the power inherent in democracy to
literally change the world.
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Naomi and Michelle meet at a women’s
Yeshiva in the Kabbala birthplace of Safed.
Naomi, an impressive scholar who is about
to be married in a loveless match, and
Michelle, a carefree French girl, become
fast friends as they help a mysterious
woman (played by noted French actress
Fanny Ardant) atone for her sins before her
imminent death. Forbidden Kabbalistic
rituals are used to help the woman, while
the two girls form a romantic bond with
each other. Nominated for eight Israeli
Academy Awards.
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Who was Ariel Sharon before he fell into a
coma in 2006? Israeli filmmaker Dror
Moreh thought the former Prime Minister
was the epitome of evil—until he made a
documentary about Sharon’s historic
decision to withdraw unilaterally from the
Gaza Strip and destroy the settlements
he’d advocated building in prior years.
Moreh’s perspective changed after
shooting this emotional and private film
that portrays Sharon’s daily life as if no
cameras were around. Moreh introduces
us to the real person behind the public
statesman—“The only leader strong
enough. . . to bring a better future to
the region.”
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It is the 1960’s and King Mohammed V of
Morocco, the protector of the Jews, has
died, spurring the Jewish population to
flee to Israel, France and elsewhere. This
bittersweet comedy is set in a dusty
hamlet where Jews and Muslims have
lived peacefully as friends and neighbors.
The local bar is under threat by the
mosque to shut down if all the Jews leave,
because, as stricter Muslim laws are
enforced, only Jews are officially allowed
to imbibe. The bar owner and town do all
they can to encourage the last Jew to stay
and keep their beloved watering hole open.
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Zineba Hardaga was the first Muslim
woman to be honored as Righteous
Among the Nations for hiding a Jewish
family and saving them from certain death.
Roles reverse fifty years later, and the
Hardagas family flees from Sarajevo to
Israel, where Zineba’s daughter, Sara, and
her family live. In this film, Sara and her
daughter return to Sarajevo to meet Sara’s
Muslim sister and Christian brother.
Together, they attempt to comprehend
their unique family history.
Preceded by: Amos Oz
Israel’s internationally acclaimed author
Amos Oz is also an eloquent proponent of
peaceful co-existence in the Middle East.
This poignant film paints a captivating
portrait of Oz and his richly complex
background. Israel’s Arad desert and
Greece’s stunning Salonica comprise the
dramatic backdrop for the life story of this
compassionate and courageous writer.
Back to Top
Aviva Kempner shares with us the amazing
life and career of Gertrude Berg, the
creator, writer and star of The Goldbergs,
a radio show that debuted in 1929 and
subsequently became a popular weekly
TV program (1949–1956). Berg pioneered
the family sitcom that was to become TV’s
most enduring format—remarkably with
an outwardly Jewish family that wore its
immigrant heritage on its sleeve. Berg
pushed the boundaries not only of
television’s possibilities, but also of women’s
roles in the entertainment industry.
Preceded by: Speaking of Yiddish
Yiddish is the beautiful, expressive
language of director Neil Ira Needleman’s
forefathers…so why does it make him
feel so paranoid?!
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Broadcast journalism students at
Carlsbad High School hope to change
the way California’s eighth-graders learn
about the Holocaust. Their documentary
focuses on the experiences of sixteen
students discovering the horror of the
Holocaust: touring concentration camps,
interviewing Holocaust survivors and
soldiers who liberated the camps and
meeting with German high school
students. The students hope to
distribute the film to every middle and
high school in California. What makes
their accomplishment even more
amazing is that they donated their time,
received no school credit and did
fundraising—because they “feel it’s a
story that needs to be told.”
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Every short film is a small gem, revealing a story in its most basic elements—
the rawest, purest essence of character, conflict and resolution. There is no time
wasted expounding on a character's childhood, the roots of a convoluted conflict or
a drawn-out resolution. Instead, in a tight sequence the stage is set, the characters
presented and all comes to a twist or surprising climax. If you enjoy drama in its
purest, most powerful form, you'll like these short films.
Mark Title, Past President, Visual Arts Foundation and Short Film Critic
Shorts in Winter - Part One
A man ventures out just before the
Sabbath to buy some milk, leading him
into a series of encounters with residents
of his Jerusalem neighborhood. Winner
of the Cannes Festival First Prize
Cinefondation.
Isaac, a Lubavitch Jewish man, and Isha,
a beautiful Hindu woman, fall in love in this
Bollywood-style musical extravaganza.
On an ordinary day, a suspicious Arab
woman gets on an Israeli bus. How do we
react when confronted by our fears and
prejudices?
Through the wall of their New York City
apartment, a guilt-ridden cellist and a
Holocaust survivor form an unlikely bond.
A Russian Jewish family arrives in Israel,
where they are greeted by air raid sirens
and strange new customs.
The mundane activities of an office clerk
contrast with the stark reality of her job.
In a stunning blend of live-action and
animation, director Yoav Segal takes us
inside his grandfather’s account of the
historic fight against fascism in England.
A street basketball game in Harlem takes
a surprising turn when a young Jewish boy
in a yarmulke shows up to ask if he can
play in their next game.
Using his parents’ 8mm home movies,
filmmaker Daniel Robin creates a
fictional account of their troubled marriage
against the backdrop of the 1972
Munich Olympics. Winner of the Short
Filmmaking Award at the 2008 Sundance
Film Festival.
A concentration camp survivor is forced
to confront his past when he meets his
nursing home’s newest resident—the
former Nazi officer who murdered his
family sixty years ago.
Ismayil, a 13-year-old Arab drug dealer,
teams with an Israeli ex-soldier as they
each attempt to escape their current lives.
Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign
Student Film.
David (played by real-life Hassidic rap
artist Nosson Zand) is forced to choose
between the Orthodox world of his
Los Angeles Yeshiva and the soul-stirring
rap music that has become his means of
self-expression.
A young German boy thinks his Jewish
neighbors have gone away to Toyland,
so he sneaks off to join them. Winner,
Audience Favorite Live Action Short,
Palm Springs International ShortFest.
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With his career in an uncontrollable
downward spiral, a hapless Hollywood
producer (William H. Macy) cons a major
studio executive (Meg Ryan) into financing
a $100 million action espionage film about
“Lev Disraeli.” When his star (LL Cool J) is
kidnapped and the South African production
is closed down, the producer moves his crew
to Prague without advising studio heads.
He begins filming the original script—his
nephew’s PBS-style film on the real 19th
century British Prime Minister Benjamin
Disraeli. Director Steven Schachter takes a
comic look at the twisted side of Hollywood
politics. Based on the book by Peter Lefcourt.
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