FREE SHORT FILM SPOTLIGHT #2

Comedy USA (2017) 8 minutes | English

A comedy about Adam, a Jewish man, five minutes before he marries a non-Jewish woman, Vicky Cheung. Just before the ceremony, he is confronted by photographs of his ancestors, who come to life to prevent this "unholy" matrimony.

Director: Barak Barkan

Animation Israel (2016) 5 minutes | English

Little Thing is a multi award winning Short film, about music, loneliness and the search for connection. a story about a tiny creature searching through an empty city.

Director: Or Kan tor

HOLD the SCHMALTZ

Documentary USA (2016) 4 minutes | English

It's the final few hours of South Florida's most famous delicatessen, 'Rascal House', that sat on the intersection of 172 street and Collins avenue, in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, since 1954, the machine is starting to slow down, all time stands still and the corner of matzo-ball soup, cheesecake and bagels are coming to a crashing halt.

Directed by Adam Steinfel

Drama UK (2016) 14 minutes | English

Daniel, an ultra orthodox Jew, hasn’t seen his identical twin brother Mordechai in years; Mordechai’s ‘life choices’ were a bit too much for the family to handle. But today is the day of their father’s funeral and Daniel is forced to pick Mordechai up from the airport. When their reunion is cut short Daniel is offered the opportunity he’s always been looking for...

Director: Benjamin Bee

Drama USA (2017) 10 minutes | English

Now or Later is a tale of a Shabbos Goy. Elise, a young Hasidic woman and Mike, a young black man start an unlikely relationship, after one day Elise’s mom Ruth, drags him into her home to help with forbidden tasks on Shabbat.

Director: Marra Kassin

Documentary USA (2016) 5 minutes | English

Nestled between shops in a residential neighborhood in French Montreal lies a quiet brownstone building—an old converted house with a wood fired oven in the back. Irwin Shlafman, third-generation owner of famous bagel shop Fairmount Bagel, shows us how it all started.

Director: Daniel Beresh, Jonathan Keijser

Aron Aronof & the Bukharian Museum

Documentary USA (2012) 6 min English

On the top floor of a yeshiva in Queens, Aron Aronov has gathered unique items from the culture and heritage of the Bukharian Jews, a minority group from Central Asia. But maintaining a museum single-handedly has its challenges.

Director: George Itzhak

Short | USA (2018) 6 minutes | English

In Retrospect…A Heroine is a profile of Rachela Melezin — a centerpiece character in the feature film, The Lonely Child, which Smolowitz is directing during his residency and co-producing with the writer Alix Wall, Rachela’s granddaughter. The project examines the lasting impact of The Lonely Child, a lullaby written by poet Shmerke Kaczerginski in the Vilna Ghetto, about Rachela and her daughter Sarah, who is in hiding with her nanny, and all children in hiding during the Holocaust.

Director: Marc Smolowitz

Drama Austria (2014) 14 minutes | German w/ English Sub

A family faces a dramatic decision on a night that will be remembered.

Director: Erich Steiner

Documentary USA (2016) 24 minutes | English

Joe's Violin is a 2017 Oscar nominated American short documentary film directed by Kahane Cooperman and produced by Kahane Cooperman and Raphaela Neihausen that follows a moment in the life of a Polish survivor of the Holocaust from the time he decides to drop off his 70-year old violin during a local instrument drive through the violin's acquisition by a new owner, a 12-year-old girl from the Bronx, and recounts how the experience changes both their lives.

We were sorry to learn that Joseph Feingold, a Holocaust survivor, whose gift of music brought a unique friendship to a South Bronx community died April 15 of pneumonia and COVID-19. He was 97.

Director: Kahane Cooperman

Documentary USA (2016) 10 minutes | English

At 94 years old, Anny Junek has a streak going: she’s the three-time winner of the Purim costume contest at her retirement home in Rehovot in Israel. As the Jewish holiday approaches again, she’s angling for a fourth win. How will she capture the prize? Don’t ask, it’s a surprise! As a young woman, Junek survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but lost her parents to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. After the trials and tragedies of her early years, Junek’s perseverance and humour have carried her through a life that included raising a family in Mexico before retiring to Israel. Now her indomitable spirit and sense of what makes for a good show have her hatching a new plan for Purim in this charming film by the US-born, Israel-based director.

Director Tamir Elterman

Documentary USA (2017) 25 minutes | English

Margaret, at 102 years old and just prior to her death in July 2017, tells her story with clarity and heart alongside various members of the international sports community who are an integral part of keeping her story alive. Born Margarethe Bergmann in Laupheim, Germany, Margaret “Gretel” Lambert (12 April 1914 – 25 July 2017) was a Jewish track and field athlete poised to represent her Germany in the 1936 Olympic Games. Days before the competition, Lambert, one of the best female high jumpers in the world at the time, was given a letter stating she was “disqualified” and replaced with a mysterious jumper whose participation raised more questions than answers.

Director: Nina Meredith

Drama USA (2014) 11 min | Yiddish w/English subtitles

"Tzniut", from the Hebrew meaning "modesty or privacy; the laws pertaining to a modest life" provides a dash of darkly tragic irony as the title to the film, in which a Hasidic woman in Brooklyn discovers she has an STD. Although limited by her social standing in a deeply orthodox community, she seeks the origin of her illness.

Director Tal Kantor

Drama USA (2013) 11 minutes | English

This film is an adaptation of Etgar Keret's famed short story 'What Of This Goldfish Would You Wish?' in which a young man named Yoni (Jason Ritter) sets out to make a documentary about the secret longings of everyday Americans. By knocking on strangers doors and asking them this question: 'If you had a magic goldfish that granted you three wishes, what of this goldfish would you wish?' Yoni thinks he will discover the hopes, dreams and greatest wishes his fellow citizens. But Yoni is not prepared when he meets an elderly immigrant named Sergei who we learn has been wrestling with the exact same question for years and is desperate not to lose his old friend-- a beautiful talking goldfish

Director: Mathieu Young

Comedy UK (2013) 15 minutes | English

Arnold Cowan is not a religious man, which is a bit of a problem because his son wants a proper bar mitzvah. Arnold’s mother pulls him in one direction, and his wife pulls him in the other but, when a family tragedy brings everyone together, it has consequences no one expects.

Director: Nick Green