May is Jewish American Heritage Month, a national month of recognition of the more than 360-year history of Jewish contributions to American history and culture. Curl up with some bagels and lox and explore these films by and about Jewish Americans:
Joe’s Violin | In the Academy Award-nominated short Joe’s Violin, a donated musical instrument forges an improbable friendship between 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Joseph Feingold and 12-year-old Bronx schoolgirl Brianna Perez. Directed by Kahane Cooperman – winner of 11 Primetime Emmy Awards as Co-Executive Producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – Joe’s Violin is a testimonial to the power of music to unify people across cultures and generations. Nominated, 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject. Screen the Film
Blacks and Jews | Blacks and Jews explores the long history of conflict and collaboration between the African American and Jewish communities. Filmmakers Deborah Kaufman, Bari Scott and Alan Snitow bring together four riveting stories – from violence on the streets of Crown Heights, to Steven Spielberg’s controversial visit to a predominantly black high school in East Oakland. Blacks and Jews resists simple analysis and treads provocatively on the fault lines of racial conflict and reconciliation.A co-presentation with the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Buy the Film
Hiding and Seeking | In Hiding and Seeking, an Orthodox Jewish father reunites with his adult sons and tries to alert them to the dangers of creating impenetrable barriers between themselves and those outside the Jewish community. He takes them to Poland to track down the family who risked their lives to hide their grandfather for over two years during World War II. In Hiding and Seeking, filmmakers Oren Rudavsky and Menachem Daum examine the Holocaust’s effect on both faith in God and faith in our fellow human beings.A co-presentation with the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Buy the Film | Download the Lesson Plans | Download the Discussion Guide
My Perestroika | My Perestroika is a nuanced account of a tumultuous time — the last years of the Soviet system — as experienced by a generation coming of age just as its country broke apart. With candor and humor, five young people describe the challenges, dreams and disappointments of children raised behind the Iron Curtain. Director Robin Hessman weaves together vintage home movie footage from the seventies and eighties, contemporary interviews, and Soviet propaganda films, to tell the story of a Russia rarely seen on film. Winner of the 2012 George Foster Peabody Award. A co-production of Red Square Productions/Bungalow Town Productions and ITVS International in association with American Documentary | POV. Buy the Film | Download the Lesson Plan | Download the Discussion Guide
Promises | In Promises, filmmakers Justine Shapiro, B. Z. Goldberg, and Carlos Bolado travel to the complex and charged city of Jerusalem to see what seven children — Palestinian and Israeli — think about war, peace and just growing up. Living within 20 minutes of each other, these children are locked in separate worlds. Through candid interviews, Promises explores a legacy of distrust and bitterness, but signs of hope emerge when some of the children dare to cross the checkpoints to meet one another. An Independent Television Service (ITVS) Co-presentation and a Television Race Initiative (TRI) selection. Buy the Film | Download the Lesson Plan
Off and Running | Off and Running tells the story of Brooklyn teenager Avery, a track star with a bright future. She is the adopted African-American child of white Jewish lesbians. When Avery writes to her birth mother, the response throws her into a crisis whose depth takes her, her parents and the filmmakers by surprise — a crisis that threatens to sweep away the teen’s promising future. Filmmaker Nicole Opper follows Avery as she questions the circumstances of her adoption and her estrangement from black culture, and struggles to find her own identity in a complex family. A co-production of ITVS in association with the National Black Programming Consortium and American Documentary/POV and the Diverse Voices Project, with major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Screen the Film | Download the Lesson Plan | Download the Discussion Guide
Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy | Stephanie Wang-Breal’s Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy is the story of Fang Sui Yong, an 8-year-old orphan, and the Sadowskys, the Long Island Jewish family who travel to China to adopt her. Sui Yong is one of 70,000 Chinese children now being raised in the United States. Through her eyes, we witness Sui Yong’s transformation from a timid child into a resilient young person that neither she nor her new family had imagined. A co-production of American Documentary/POV and the Diverse Voices Project, presented in association with the Center for Asian American Media, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Screen the Film | Download the Lesson Plan | Download the Discussion Guide
Visit our local events calendar for a full list of events happening across the country and join our Community Network to host a screening of your own!
