Set in Jerusalem, this gripping documentary exposes the harmful practices of so-called conversion therapy from within. Director Zvi Landsman compassionately follows the lives of two gay men—Lev (54) and Ben (23)—who underwent conversion therapy and end up testifying before the Knesset about whether or not conversion therapy practices should be made illegal. Lev, a divorced ultra-Orthodox Jew, clings to conversion therapy because it provides the only space where he can be openly gay within a community. In contrast, Ben, seven years into conversion therapy, comes to understand that conversion therapy is extremely harmful, and despite discrimination and alienation from his family, he sets out on a journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance. Featuring footage from one-on-one and group sessions, this documentary is an unprecedented exposé of this abusive, tragic and terrifying practice in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in contemporary Israel. Winner of Special Jury Award at Doc Aviv Film Festival.

Tuesday, February 7, 7:00pm – 8:00pm

Dr. Clint Nowicke, he/him/his, a Psychologist specializing in gender-affirming care and trauma work with LGBTQ+ individuals will join us for this special programming. Dr. Nowicke will discuss the traumatic impact of conversion therapy, and the overall psychological considerations of the LGTBQ+ community. Our moderator is Bonnie McCullagh, she/her/hers.

In this riveting and joyous film, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison’s brilliant vision to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Eastern Europe while telling a universal story about the importance of family and the fragility of tradition in his iconic musical Fiddler on the Roof. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, this film draws on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Norman Jewison and his key collaborators, including lyricist Sheldon Harnick, lead actor Topol, production designer Robert Boyle, and many others. They illuminate the untold story behind the making of Fiddler on the Roof, Jewison’s favorite movie.

 Winner of best documentary at Atlanta Jewish Film Festival; Winner of Best Film at Houston Jewish Film Festival; Best Documentary at RiverRun International Film Festival.

Sponsored by Susan and Jeffrey Callen    

In this sophisticated animated feature, a dark family secret is revealed unexpectedly and opens an abyss between two close friends. Jennifer, a German black woman, discovers that she is the granddaughter of a notorious Nazi commander, a shocking discovery which has the potential to destroy her 22-year friendship with Noa, an Israeli Jew.

Winner of Best Short Film at Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival; Winner of Best Short Documentary at Centre Film Festival.

Ultraorthodox Feigi and Naftali are a young childless couple living with Naftali’s parents. Naftali travels to Ukraine to pray at Rabbi Nachman’s grave for a child. During Naftali’s absence Rabbi Eliyahu, the barren healer, is invited to stay for the holiday with the family. Abusing Feigi’s trust and desire for a child he forces himself on her claiming it is divinely sanctioned as part of her treatment for barrenness.. When Naftali returns, the couple face a difficult crisis, which raises fundamental questions about faith and trust.
Best Full-Length Feature Film Nominee at Jerusalem Film Festival.

Meir and Tova are an upper-middle-class Sephardic couple, seemingly resigned to live out the rest of their semi-retirement in the banal comforts of an upscale apartment complex in a Tel Aviv suburb. When Itsik, a sexy bachelor from Miami, moves into the building’s penthouse, their lives are gleefully upended. Energized by their newfound friendship with Itsik, Meir and Tova undergo personal transformations, but will their relationship as a couple be a casualty of expressing their individual desires? Taking inspiration from his own family, director Moshe Rosenthal focuses on the Sephardic middle class, largely underrepresented in Israeli cinema, as he explores issues of identity: masculinity, the institution of marriage, social status, narcissism and conformity. Karaoke is an optimistic portrait of midlife self-discovery, laced with poignant wisdom and barbed humor.
Opening Film at San Francisco Film Festival; Winner of Best First Film at Jerusalem Film Festival; Winner of Best Screenplay at Raindance Film Festival.

Hebrew, English, Arabic
58 minutes

Referred to as “the Israeli Faulkner” by the New York Times, A.B. Yehoshua was one of the greatest contemporary Israeli writers. In this incisive biography, director Yair Qedar follows the 84-year old writer as he reflects on the final stage of his life. Widowed and suffering from ill health, Yehoshua keeps writing despite his insistence that he no longer wants to. Still possessing a clear-eyed perspective, Yehoshua discusses his complicated heritage (Sephardic father and Moroccan mother) and his belief that both Jews and Arabs are paralyzed by the past. Despite his declining health, Yehoshua remains wholeheartedly engaged with the world and continues to be a source of inspiration.

Special virtual event on Sunday 2/12 at 1 p.m.

Sponsored by The Naanmani Memorial Fund for Jewish Culture

In this riveting and joyous film, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison’s brilliant vision to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Eastern Europe while telling a universal story about the importance of family and the fragility of tradition in his iconic musical Fiddler on the Roof. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, this film draws on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Norman Jewison and his key collaborators, including lyricist Sheldon Harnick, lead actor Topol, production designer Robert Boyle, and many others. They illuminate the untold story behind the making of Fiddler on the Roof, Jewison’s favorite movie.
Winner of best documentary at Atlanta Jewish Film Festival; Winner of Best Film at Houston Jewish Film Festival; Best Documentary at RiverRun International Film Festival

Live special event before the film: 7:30 p.m. at the Trager Family JCC
A brief live performance prior to the film featuring CenterStage Academy showcasing Fiddler favorites such as “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” and “Matchmaker.”

Sponsored by Susan and Jeffrey Callen

When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he left behind a mountain of personal debt, which forced his heirs to sell his beloved Monticello and all of its possessions. The Levys of Monticello is a documentary film that tells the little-known story of the Levy family, who owned and carefully preserved Monticello for nearly a century – far longer than Jefferson or his descendants. The remarkable story of the Levy family also intersects with the antisemitism that runs through American history. Winner of Building Bridges Jury Award at Atlanta Jewish Film Festival

Sponsored by The Filson Historical Society

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, German and Jewish leaders met in secret to negotiate compensation for the survivors of the largest mass genocide in history. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roberta Grossman, Reckonings is the first documentary feature to chronicle the harrowing process of negotiating German reparations for the Jewish people, which resulted in the groundbreaking Luxembourg Agreements of 1952. Filmed in six countries and featuring new interviews with Holocaust survivors, world-renowned scholars and dignitaries and the last surviving member of the negotiating delegations, the film powerfully models how political will and a moral imperative can join forces to bridge an impossible divide. 

My Tree documents Jason Sherman’s journey as an adult to find the tree that was planted in his name in Israel in honor of his Bar Mitzvah. When he discovers that it stands on the remains of a Palestinian village that was destroyed in 1967, he embarks on another journey — to determine his responsibility in helping to cover up the destruction. Official Selection of Hot Docs Film Festival

Romantic comedy, Israeli style! An ambitious young journalist, Yarden, is put to the test when her boss (who is also her lover) assigns her to do a story about blind dating in hopes of chasing ratings. Even cynical young millennials believe in true love, right? Yarden’s boss promises to publish her first novel if she poses as a prospective date in order to the write the piece. One More Story is the directorial debut of Israel’s beloved comedian and TV personality, Guri Alfi, and it was based on Omer Barak’s bestseller, “Wedding Rush,” which received the highest price ever paid for movie rights in Israel.

Virtual Special Event:
Dr. Ranen Omer-Sherman, JHFE Endowed Chair in Judiac Studies at the University of Louisville, will moderate a discussion with Director Yair Qedar about the life and influence of A.B. Yehoshua.  Yehoshua who died last year at the age of 85, was long one of Israel’s most acclaimed writers and public intellectuals. Deeply aware of the way Israeli writers are seen as prophets by their own people, he was one of the main doves in the Israeli literary scene. Dr. Ranen Omer-Sherman worked closely with Yehoshua during his book tour to the U.S. and interviews in Israel.  Yair Qedar is an Israeli documentary filmmaker, social activist and former journalist. Chronicling the lives of Jewish and Israeli figures of the modern Hebrew literary canon, Qedar’s 19 feature length documentaries have all premiered at film festivals and have won the director over 20 prizes.   

 - Sponsored by: The Naamani Memorial Fund for Jewish Culture 

Monday, February 13, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
American history textbooks can only teach so much, so where can we turn to learn more about our nation’s many diverse stories? Join Dr. Abby Glogower, curator of Jewish collections at the Filson Historical Society, and Garret McCorkle, education associate at the Muhammad Ali Center, for an interactive conversation about the roles of museums and archives—past, present, and future—in expanding and deepening our understanding of the American story. Bring your curiosity, questions, and passion for complex and inclusive American history!

Sponsored by The Filson Historical Society

France

98 minutes

Free

Our featured film commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Louisville Jewish Film Festival, originally presented in 1999.  Mathieu Kassovitz took the film world by storm with La Haine, a gritty, unsettling, and visually explosive look at the racial and cultural volatility in modern-day France, specifically the low-income districts on Paris’s outskirts. Aimlessly passing their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Koundé), and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui)—a Jew, an African, and an Arab—give human faces to France’s immigrant populations, their bristling resentment at their marginalization slowly simmering until it reaches a climactic boiling point. A work of tough beauty, La Haine is a landmark of contemporary French cinema and a gripping reflection of its country’s ongoing identity crisis. Winner of Best Film at Lumiere Awards, 1995; Winner of Best Foreign Film at Film Critics Circle of Australia, 1997; Winner of Young European Film of the Year at European Film Awards, 1995

La Haine Live Film and Special Event

Thursday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m.

Live Special Event: Film professional and scholar Nathan Viner will join us to introduce the film La Haine. Reflecting on the film’s impact and storytelling twenty-five years after its creation, Nathan’s remarks will inspire thought-provoking insights into this powerful film, one of the four that screened in our first film festival in 1999.

Thursday February 16 at 7:00 p.m. at Baxter Theatre.

 Sponsored by Rosa Gladstein Fund