FREE FILM SPOTLIGHT #12

Comedy USA (2014) 100 min. | English

When we meet David Frank he is a mess. His spirit shattered by the death of his wife, this formerly successful corporate attorney spends days in his bathrobe with his only real companion, his beloved bulldog, Brutus. While David's away a tornado hits and despite his heroic efforts, he watches helplessly as the dark funnel of destruction sucks up the house, and Brutus, like some Wizard of Oz nightmare - the punishing finger of God. Then, adding insult to injury, the Insurance Company tells him they won't pay because the damage falls under the 'Act of God' clause in his policy. David is livid. But then he gets the bright idea to sue God and His representatives as co-defendants. After a farcical yet poignant series of depositions, the trial commences. Fueled by a megalomaniac and opportunistic judge, a beautiful but damaged defense attorney, and David Frank's own sharply-honed legal gymnastics, the "God Trial" stirs up a frenzy of passions.

Director: Stewart Schill

Documentary Israel (2014) 58 min | English

This film explores the little-known history of Palestine during the latter part of the Ottoman Empire, a time of relative harmony between Arabs and Jews. Living side by side in the multi-lingual, cosmopolitan city of Jerusalem, Jews, Christians and Muslims intermingled with a cultural fluidity enjoyed by all. How did this land of milk and honey, so diverse and rich in culture, become the site of today’s bitter and seemingly intractable struggle? Was there a turning point, a moment in time when things could have been different? Weaving the raveled threads of Arab and Jewish narratives back together, 1913: SEEDS of CONFLICT provides new and fascinating insights into the dramatic events that took place in Palestine which set the stage for the coming century of unrest. The film examines the divergent social forces growing in Palestine before the outbreak of World War I that caused the simultaneous rise in Jewish and Arab nationalism. Combining the perspectives of a wide range of Arab, Israeli and American scholars, the film includes information from documents previously unavailable from the Turkish Ottoman archives and largely untouched by historians. [Note- viewers should note that some of the views are controversial and only the opinion of the filmmaker, and not necessarily factual.]

Directed by Ben Loeterman

Niggun

Animated Israel (2016) 13 min Hebrew w/sub

After a long journey through the stars a space archaeologist and an outcast rabbi are about to find the lost and mythical Earth… or at least what's left of it. A space archaeologist and an outcast rabbi are on a quest to find the lost city of Jerusalem. They both have the same obsession, but each his own reason to want and find the legendary city, which its very existence is in doubt.

Director: Yoni Salmon

What About Me?

Drama Israel (2008) 5 min. Hebrew w/English sub

Absurdity ensues as a man with a banana-laden donkey attempts to cross a checkpoint in the middle of the Israeli desert.

Directors: Etgar Keret and Shira Gefen

Sci-Fi Israel (2012) 18 minutes | Hebrew w/Eng sub

In a world without rain, a couple discovers that they have the power to create water. This ability increases the man's status in the world and creates distance between him and his wife

Director: Bracha Yaniger

Documentary Israel (2010) 21 min | Hebrew w/ English sub

Kokou, from Togo, works as a cleaner but dreams of managing soccer players in Israel. Philo volunteers in a church and dreams of becoming a business woman like she was in Congo. Together with four other African refugees, they came to learn Hebrew but received a major lesson in “Israeliness” from the local

Director: Roni Geffe

Drama | Israel (2014) 20 min | Hebrew w/ English sub

Seventeen-year-old Elay is working with his brother at the fish ponds of the kibbutz. After he gets saved from thieves by an Arab kid from the village, he tells a lie that will come back to haunt him.

Director: Amitai Ashkenazi

C omedy | USA (2020) 13 min | English

Drunk with power after getting her braces off, 13-year-old Esther tries to seduce her oblivious Hebrew tutor.

Director: Rebecca Halfon

Animated Israel (2015) 9 min | Hebrew w/ English sub

Naama has big glass eyes, which she uses to hide a magnificent world full of colorful creatures. When Alon, Naama’s new partner, senses her secret and confronts her, she refuses to reveal this world to him, and he decides to leave. Now, she has to face her biggest fear in order to maintain their love.

Director: Elad Ayzen

Documentary USA (2010) 9 min | English

This is a documentary romp through the history, mystery, and meaning of the great Jewish standard. Funny, deep and unexpected, the film will celebrate 100 years of Jewish history and culture and reveal the power of music to bridge cultural divides and bring us together as human beings.

Documentary France (1996) 22 min English

In a brief 22 minutes "Zahor" makes an essential visual point about the victims of the Holocaust -that the way they are traditionnaly presented in the media, as skeletons in striped uniforms, says nothing about them but everything about their Nazi tormentors. Through vintage photographs and films we meet real people -not yet victims- young people with so much potential, crushed with so much hate, hate tolerated by so much indifference worldwide. You won't easily forget "Zahor ".

Director: Fabienne Rousso-Lenoir

Drama USA (2011) 13 min. English

Shlomo Pussycat tells the story of Shlomo, a Rabbi bored with his routine. He doesn't want to give up his religious life. He just wants something a little different, even if it just a brief fantasy

Director: Michael K. Feinstein

Drama UK (2009) 10 min English

Today is Ruthie Segal's big batmitzvah. The fish balls are defrosted, the dress is ironed, and the guests are waiting... but Ruthie has a slightly different idea about what it means to become a woman.

Director: Minkie Spiro

Comedy Israel (2013) 7 min Hebrew w/English sub

In yeshiva when you're hungry eat. When your tired sleep. If you're not hungry or tired, sit and learn. If you're not learning, What are you doing here? What happens when you are stuck between success and failure, between faith and doubt? What happens along the edges of the Study Hall.

Director: David Tauber

Drama UK (2018) 22 min English

"Myer - a survivor of humanity's greatest crime - spends one final night alongside his beloved, Leah. After over six decades since Leah became his wife, death has separated them. The story takes place across one night during the ritual of Shemira, the Jewish tradition of guarding a body from death to burial. We are the invisible witness to their intimate, private farewell from one another - an outpouring of Myer's memories, from the seemingly insignificant and incidental, to the life-changing and unexpected."

Starring John Rhys-Davies (Raiders of the Lost Ark / Lord of the Rings)

Director: Adam Wells

Comedy USA (2002) 21 min English

A frustrated businessman, Jeffrey Goldman tries to end his hopeless marriage to wife, Ellen by asking his local Rabbi to place a curse on her. The rabbi refuses, but gives Goldman peculiar advice on how to do away with her, setting into motion a series of unexpected events.

Director: Leib Cohen

Documentary Israel (2011) 53 min Hebrew w/English sub

She died 41 years ago, but even today, Lea Goldberg is still an enigmatic figure - she is Israel's most beloved poet, a powerful woman, who lived with her mother and never married, a woman who invented herself from the ashes of WWW1 though her magical poetry. The film is a cinematic fantasy in five acts, using animation, after affects, archives, still photos, original music and interviews that celebrate together the fascinating story of L. Goldberg.

Director: Yair Qedar

Comedy Israel (1999) 54 min Hebrew w/English sub

Mivtza Savta ("Operation Grandma") is a satirical Israeli comedy about three very different brothers trying to get around many obstacles to bury their grandmother on her kibbutz. The story takes place in Israel, in the fictional kibbutz "Asisim".

OPHIR Best Made of TV Drama

Director: Dror Shaul