Washington Jewish Film Fesitval
November 29 - December 90, 2007
November 29 - December 90, 2007
Download the program for the 18th Washington Jewish Film Festival now by right clicking on the word 'Download' and selecting 'Save as'.
When 14 women—secular Israelis, Palestinians, Bedouin Arabs, and religious settlers in the West Bank—are brought together with the shared goal of losing weight, they find out they have far more in common than they ever would have imagined. A Slim Peace takes a revealing look at an Full Description…
Winner of the Grand Chameleon, the Chameleon Awards for Best Film and Best Feature Film at the Brooklyn International Film Festival, and the Berkshire International Film Festival Audience Award, Arranged centers on the friendship of an orthodox Jewish woman and a Muslim woman who are both starting Full Description…
Writer/Director Shemi Zarhin (Passover Fever) provides a fresh story about the universal struggles of self-discovery and happiness with his newest film, winner of two Wolgin Awards (Actress, Screenplay) and six Israeli Film Academy Awards, whose backdrop is unmistakably Israeli. Aviva, a Full Description…
Ismaël (Roschdy Zem) and Clara (Cecile De France, winner of the Étoile d'Or for Best Actress, and nominated for a César for Best Actress for her highly acclaimed role in Avenue Montaigne) are two French thirty-somethings happily enjoying their four-year romance. They think Full Description…
A music video from Israeli roots/reggae band B’sorot Tovot takes us to a pastoral landscape that exists outside of time in a place where the living is easy. Screens prior to Souvenirs. Full Description…
Part of the current vanguard of award-winning Israeli filmmakers, Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort dramatically depicts the complex moral and tactical dilemmas facing the young commander of a crusader-era fortress in Southern Lebanon during the Israeli Army’s unilateral 2000 withdrawal. Full Description…
Hannah’s dreams of romance collide with reality on a hilariously awkward first date. Showing as part of the "Shorter Films, Bigger Lives" program.
A father who survived a near-fatal shot to the heart behind a Romanian police station, and a cousin who was forced to appear in a 1960 heist film produced by the communist regime that then executed him behind a Bucharest prison, are the ghosts that haunt and propel award-winning Filmmaker Full Description…
If you’ve ever strolled through the aisles of Whole Foods,Trader Joe's, or any health food store, chances are you’ve walked past the all-natural, peppermint-infused, multi-purpose organic soap that carries Bronner’s name. From afar the label may appear to be covered with warnings, Full Description…
If you’re going to drive the lane, make sure your yarmulke is securely fastened. Showing as part of the "Shorter Films, Bigger Lives" program.
Director Ian Rosenberg filmed the corner of Grand and Pitt Streets from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to document the hustle and bustle of his Lower East Side neighborhood. This mesmerizing short film becomes a fast-paced amalgam of people from older Jewish labor unionists, young Orthodox families, Full Description…
On November 3, 1979, five members of the Communist Workers Party were shot in broad daylight by the Klu Klux Klan during a "Death to the Klan" rally in Greensboro, North Carolina. What began as a peaceful protest quickly turned into a deadly confrontation. Klansmen and Nazis showed up at Full Description…
As part of the on-going celebration of Israel at 60 we present this free screening of one of the landmark films in Israeli Cinema. Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer was the first Israeli film created for international distribution and was an official selection at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. Its story Full Description…
From the very first frame in Jellyfish, there is more than meets the eye. In modern-day Tel Aviv three women’s lives intersect for a moment at a wedding. Keren, the bride, breaks her ankle, ruining her plans for a Caribbean honeymoon. Batya, a waitress at the reception, later finds a lost girl Full Description…
Winner, Outstanding Documentary Feature Award, Outfest 2007In the summer of 2006, Jerusalem was to host, for the first time in history, the World Pride events, which were to culminate in a traditional gay pride parade. The planned events stirred turmoil in the politically complex city, with Jewish, Full Description…
With a World Premiere live score performed byOne Ring Zero One of the first Soviet Yiddish films to be distributed in the U.S., Jewish Luck tells a classic Sholom Aleichem story of perpetual loser, Menakhem Mendel, who never tires of his doomed get-rich schemes. Some of the finest Soviet talent of Full Description…
This new documentary charts the rise of Louis Brandeis from his beginnings as the son of immigrant grain merchants in Louisville, Kentucky to Harvard Law School, where he graduated first in his class, to his career as a Progressive Era lawyer advocating for worker’s rights, most famously in Full Description…
Filmmaker Jamie Kastner sets out to make a documentary about what it means to be perceived as a Jew today. Plagued by strangers’ constant inquiries into his religious affiliation -- just as Gregory Peck attempts to unveil the anti-semitism in Gentleman’s Agreement -- Kastner strives to Full Description…
Chen is a young boy constantly in the middle of the cultural conflict between his Russian born mother and Israeli father. While strolling the halls of a community center, Chen stumbles upon a ballroom dance class for children and is instantly taken with a beautiful young Russian girl in the class. Full Description…
A love story between a young girl and her doomed boyfriend. Showing as part of the "Shorter Films, Bigger Lives" program.
After his abrupt death at a mariachi banquet, Moishe Tartakovsky has two angels hovering over his Mexico City shiva where his friends and family have gathered to remember their patriarch. The angels are attempting to divine from the mourners the content of Moishe’s character, and whether the Full Description…
A single Jewish woman, her mother and her nose. A dangerous love triangle. Showing as part of the "Shorter Films, Bigger Lives" program.
Filmmaker Ido Haar's parents live in the central Israeli town where he remembers seeing "a line of desperate males dashing across the highway...and I wanted to find out why are they running." This powerful vérité film, more personal than political, explores the relationships Full Description…
Butch and Sundance. Oscar and Felix. Thelma and Louise. Multi-award winning Argentinean film On Probation adds a worthy pair to this classic list: Díaz and Silverstein. Rule-bending policeman Díaz lives alone in a hotel room, in despair, in the aftermath of leaving his cheating wife. Full Description…
It has been at least 60 years since Jews had any hand in boxing, but Dmitriy Salita is making history as a top professional boxer and a rigorously observant Jew. Orthodox Stance follows the 24-year-old Russian immigrant for three years, chronicling the trials and celebrations of this up-and-coming Full Description…
The act of praying with Lior is indeed a special one. This tender documentary focuses on the profoundly special relationship Lior Liebling, a boy with Down syndrome, has with prayer and God. While some consider Lior, also known as “the little rebbe,” to be a “spiritual Full Description…
A young boy tries to reconnect with his excitable father in the wake of a divorce. Showing as part of the "Shorter Films, Bigger Lives" program.
Shorter Films, Bigger Lives: My Nose, Brandon, Unattached, Therapy, Got Next, My Love My Love and Rock Beach. My Nose USA, 2007, video 13 minutes English Director: Gayle Kirschenbaum A single Jewish woman, her mother and her nose. A dangerous love triangle. Brandon USA, 2007, video 13 Full Description…
A sidewalk is universal. Every morning children make their way to school, leaving their home behind and entering a world of their peers, for better or worse. The act of traveling, whether it be walking, riding, or skipping, is the start of a new day. Duki Dror’s film, winner for best Full Description…
A Slim Peace
When 14 women—secular Israelis, Palestinians, Bedouin Arabs, and religious settlers in the West Bank—are brought together with the shared goal of losing weight, they find out they have far more in common than they ever would have imagined. A Slim Peace takes a revealing look at an Full Description…
A Slim Peace is playing at the following times:
6:30pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Thu December 6
1:00pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Fri December 7
Arranged
Winner of the Grand Chameleon, the Chameleon Awards for Best Film and Best Feature Film at the Brooklyn International Film Festival, and the Berkshire International Film Festival Audience Award, Arranged centers on the friendship of an orthodox Jewish woman and a Muslim woman who are both starting Full Description…
Arranged is playing at the following times:
8:30pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Tue December 4
8:30pm at the Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema on Thu December 6
Aviva My Love
Writer/Director Shemi Zarhin (Passover Fever) provides a fresh story about the universal struggles of self-discovery and happiness with his newest film, winner of two Wolgin Awards (Actress, Screenplay) and six Israeli Film Academy Awards, whose backdrop is unmistakably Israeli. Aviva, a Full Description…
Aviva My Love is playing at the following times:
8:15pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sat December 8
2:30pm at the The Avalon on Sun December 9
Bad Faith
Ismaël (Roschdy Zem) and Clara (Cecile De France, winner of the Étoile d'Or for Best Actress, and nominated for a César for Best Actress for her highly acclaimed role in Avenue Montaigne) are two French thirty-somethings happily enjoying their four-year romance. They think Full Description…
Bad Faith is playing at the following times:
8:15pm at the Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema on Wed December 5
Baladi (My Village)
A music video from Israeli roots/reggae band B’sorot Tovot takes us to a pastoral landscape that exists outside of time in a place where the living is easy. Screens prior to Souvenirs. Full Description…
Baladi (My Village) is playing at the following times:
8:15pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Wed December 5
Beaufort
Part of the current vanguard of award-winning Israeli filmmakers, Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort dramatically depicts the complex moral and tactical dilemmas facing the young commander of a crusader-era fortress in Southern Lebanon during the Israeli Army’s unilateral 2000 withdrawal. Full Description…
Beaufort is playing at the following times:
9:30pm at the AFI Silver Theater on Sat December 1
4:00pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sun December 2
8:15pm at the Old Town Theater on Mon December 3
Brandon
Hannah’s dreams of romance collide with reality on a hilariously awkward first date. Showing as part of the "Shorter Films, Bigger Lives" program.
Brandon is playing at the following times:
10:15pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sat December 1
Charging the Rhino
A father who survived a near-fatal shot to the heart behind a Romanian police station, and a cousin who was forced to appear in a 1960 heist film produced by the communist regime that then executed him behind a Bucharest prison, are the ghosts that haunt and propel award-winning Filmmaker Full Description…
Charging the Rhino is playing at the following times:
8:15pm at the Goethe-Institut Washington on Sat December 8
Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox
If you’ve ever strolled through the aisles of Whole Foods,Trader Joe's, or any health food store, chances are you’ve walked past the all-natural, peppermint-infused, multi-purpose organic soap that carries Bronner’s name. From afar the label may appear to be covered with warnings, Full Description…
Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox is playing at the following times:
6:30pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Mon December 3
Got Next
If you’re going to drive the lane, make sure your yarmulke is securely fastened. Showing as part of the "Shorter Films, Bigger Lives" program.
Got Next is playing at the following times:
10:15pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sat December 1
Grand Street
Director Ian Rosenberg filmed the corner of Grand and Pitt Streets from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to document the hustle and bustle of his Lower East Side neighborhood. This mesmerizing short film becomes a fast-paced amalgam of people from older Jewish labor unionists, young Orthodox families, Full Description…
Grand Street is playing at the following times:
Greensboro: Closer to the Truth
On November 3, 1979, five members of the Communist Workers Party were shot in broad daylight by the Klu Klux Klan during a "Death to the Klan" rally in Greensboro, North Carolina. What began as a peaceful protest quickly turned into a deadly confrontation. Klansmen and Nazis showed up at Full Description…
Greensboro: Closer to the Truth is playing at the following times:
12:00pm at the The Avalon on Sun December 9
Hill 24 Doesn't Answer
As part of the on-going celebration of Israel at 60 we present this free screening of one of the landmark films in Israeli Cinema. Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer was the first Israeli film created for international distribution and was an official selection at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. Its story Full Description…
Hill 24 Doesn't Answer is playing at the following times:
1:00pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Fri November 30
Jellyfish
From the very first frame in Jellyfish, there is more than meets the eye. In modern-day Tel Aviv three women’s lives intersect for a moment at a wedding. Keren, the bride, breaks her ankle, ruining her plans for a Caribbean honeymoon. Batya, a waitress at the reception, later finds a lost girl Full Description…
Jellyfish is playing at the following times:
7:30pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sun December 9
Jerusalem is Proud to Present
Winner, Outstanding Documentary Feature Award, Outfest 2007In the summer of 2006, Jerusalem was to host, for the first time in history, the World Pride events, which were to culminate in a traditional gay pride parade. The planned events stirred turmoil in the politically complex city, with Jewish, Full Description…
Jerusalem is Proud to Present is playing at the following times:
12:30pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sun December 9
Jewish Luck
With a World Premiere live score performed byOne Ring Zero One of the first Soviet Yiddish films to be distributed in the U.S., Jewish Luck tells a classic Sholom Aleichem story of perpetual loser, Menakhem Mendel, who never tires of his doomed get-rich schemes. Some of the finest Soviet talent of Full Description…
Jewish Luck is playing at the following times:
7:00pm at the AFI Silver Theater on Wed December 5
Justice Louis D. Brandeis: The People’s Attorney
This new documentary charts the rise of Louis Brandeis from his beginnings as the son of immigrant grain merchants in Louisville, Kentucky to Harvard Law School, where he graduated first in his class, to his career as a Progressive Era lawyer advocating for worker’s rights, most famously in Full Description…
Justice Louis D. Brandeis: The People’s Attorney is playing at the following times:
5:00pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sun December 9
Kike Like Me
Filmmaker Jamie Kastner sets out to make a documentary about what it means to be perceived as a Jew today. Plagued by strangers’ constant inquiries into his religious affiliation -- just as Gregory Peck attempts to unveil the anti-semitism in Gentleman’s Agreement -- Kastner strives to Full Description…
Kike Like Me is playing at the following times:
6:30pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Tue December 4
Love and Dance
Chen is a young boy constantly in the middle of the cultural conflict between his Russian born mother and Israeli father. While strolling the halls of a community center, Chen stumbles upon a ballroom dance class for children and is instantly taken with a beautiful young Russian girl in the class. Full Description…
Love and Dance is playing at the following times:
8:30pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sat December 1
2:30pm at the Old Town Theater on Sun December 2
My Love, My Love
A love story between a young girl and her doomed boyfriend. Showing as part of the "Shorter Films, Bigger Lives" program.
My Love, My Love is playing at the following times:
10:15pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sat December 1
My Mexican Shiva
After his abrupt death at a mariachi banquet, Moishe Tartakovsky has two angels hovering over his Mexico City shiva where his friends and family have gathered to remember their patriarch. The angels are attempting to divine from the mourners the content of Moishe’s character, and whether the Full Description…
My Mexican Shiva is playing at the following times:
7:15pm at the AFI Silver Theater on Sat December 1
12:30pm at the Old Town Theater on Sun December 2
My Nose
A single Jewish woman, her mother and her nose. A dangerous love triangle. Showing as part of the "Shorter Films, Bigger Lives" program.
My Nose is playing at the following times:
10:15pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sat December 1
Nine Star Hotel
Filmmaker Ido Haar's parents live in the central Israeli town where he remembers seeing "a line of desperate males dashing across the highway...and I wanted to find out why are they running." This powerful vérité film, more personal than political, explores the relationships Full Description…
Nine Star Hotel is playing at the following times:
8:30pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Thu December 6
On Probation
Butch and Sundance. Oscar and Felix. Thelma and Louise. Multi-award winning Argentinean film On Probation adds a worthy pair to this classic list: Díaz and Silverstein. Rule-bending policeman Díaz lives alone in a hotel room, in despair, in the aftermath of leaving his cheating wife. Full Description…
On Probation is playing at the following times:
8:30pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Mon December 3
8:30pm at the Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema on Tue December 4
Orthodox Stance
It has been at least 60 years since Jews had any hand in boxing, but Dmitriy Salita is making history as a top professional boxer and a rigorously observant Jew. Orthodox Stance follows the 24-year-old Russian immigrant for three years, chronicling the trials and celebrations of this up-and-coming Full Description…
Orthodox Stance is playing at the following times:
6:15pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Wed December 5
Praying with Lior
The act of praying with Lior is indeed a special one. This tender documentary focuses on the profoundly special relationship Lior Liebling, a boy with Down syndrome, has with prayer and God. While some consider Lior, also known as “the little rebbe,” to be a “spiritual Full Description…
Praying with Lior is playing at the following times:
6:00pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sat December 1
1:00pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Tue December 4
Rock Beach
A young boy tries to reconnect with his excitable father in the wake of a divorce. Showing as part of the "Shorter Films, Bigger Lives" program.
Rock Beach is playing at the following times:
10:15pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sat December 1
Shorter Films, Bigger Lives
Shorter Films, Bigger Lives: My Nose, Brandon, Unattached, Therapy, Got Next, My Love My Love and Rock Beach. My Nose USA, 2007, video 13 minutes English Director: Gayle Kirschenbaum A single Jewish woman, her mother and her nose. A dangerous love triangle. Brandon USA, 2007, video 13 Full Description…
Shorter Films, Bigger Lives is playing at the following times:
10:15pm at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sat December 1
Sidewalk
A sidewalk is universal. Every morning children make their way to school, leaving their home behind and entering a world of their peers, for better or worse. The act of traveling, whether it be walking, riding, or skipping, is the start of a new day. Duki Dror’s film, winner for best Full Description…