Tag: JIFF

Queer Sessions @ JIFF 2024

Jewish International Film Festival 2024
October 27 – December 22, 2023

Full programme here.

Sabbath Queen

Australian Premiere

“Awe-inspiring. Enthralling. Sabbath Queen is a rich and intimate portrait… One of the best films I’ve seen this year.” – The Hollywood Report

“An unforgettable protagonist… transformative… incredibly timely…one to watch for awards season.” – Hammer to Nail

Filmed over 21 years, Sabbath Queen follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis, including the Chief Rabbis of Israel.

He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer father, and the founder of Lab/Shul: an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation.

Sabbath Queen joins Amichai on a lifelong quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual, challenge patriarchy and supremacy, champion interfaith love, and stand up for peace. The film interrogates what Jewish survival means in a difficult and rapidly changing 21st century.

Festivals and Awards
Official Selection – Tribeca Film Festival, 2024
Official Selection – IDFA, 2024

Janis Ian: Breaking Silence

Australian Premiere

At the height of the Civil Rights movement in the mid-1960s, teenage Jewish singer-songwriter Janis Ian pens a hit song about an interracial relationship. The song – Society’s Child – launches her illustrious career, but also ignites controversy.

Plunging into an emotional tailspin, she emerges from the ashes with an even bigger hit (“At Seventeen”) about body shaming. For the next six decades, Janis overcomes homophobia, music industry misogyny, and a life-threatening illness to produce an indelible body of work that continues to resonate around the globe.

Janis Ian: Breaking Silence chronicles the singer’s epic life journey from her childhood on a chicken farm in New Jersey through the release of the disruptive album ‘Breaking Silence’. With access to Ian’s incredible body of music, her vast archive, family, friends, and famed collaborators, this in-depth documentary tells the singer’s intimate life story against a sweeping historical context.

Festivals and Awards
Official Selection – DOC NYC, 2024

Diane Warren: Relentless

Australian Premiere

“A loving ode to a true original” – IndieWire

She’s the most successful songwriter you’ve probably never heard of. Diane Warren has written mega-hits for the world’s biggest pop stars including Cher, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears and Beyoncé. She has 15 Oscar nominations for her indelible film songs, including “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” performed by Aerosmith for Armageddon.

This bold documentary that screened at reveals the prolific artist behind these hits. Born to humble beginnings in Van Nuys to a middle-class Jewish family, Diane was an outsider at home and in school. The third daughter to older parents (her sisters were already 24 and 20), Diane struggled to fit in. Music became her escape. With unrelenting tenacity she pursued pop success, ultimately catapulting herself to the top of the charts.

Known in the industry as a hitmaker, a legend, and a pain in the ass, this unabashed portrait revels in Warren’s signature self-deprecating humour. Featuring interviews with Cher, Gloria Estefan, Quincy Jones, and Toni Braxton, discover the true underdog story of an unseen music titan.

Festivals and Awards
Nominee – Audience Award, SXSW, 2024

Queer Sessions @ JIFF 2023

Jewish International Film Festival 2023
October 23 – December 6, 2023

Full programme here.

Chanshi – Part 1 / Part 2

Chanshi is a dark comedy television series about a Jewish girl from Brooklyn who runs away to Israel to become the free, adventurous woman she was born to be. Unlike her peers, Chanshi carries with her a fantasy that good religious girls like her shouldn’t — a fantasy involving Israeli soldiers. She takes off for Israel under the guise of surprising her best friend, who has upcoming nuptials of her own, but her friend confesses that she thinks she is making a mistake and she’s a lesbian. Together they rebel against their traditional upbringings and find new ways of being young Jewish women.

All I Can Do

All I Can Do is a powerfully moving and incendiary courtroom drama focusing on the legal aspects of sexual violence. Reut, a young prosecutor, reluctantly takes over a sexual assault case, based on the sole testimony of Efrat, a rebellious yet fragile victim who lives with her wild female partner. As the case evolves, Reut’s personal life resonates with the challenges of the case and the courtroom. Both women must learn to work together to learn the true nature of strength, love and sisterhood. 

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Extra Queer @ JIFF 2022

Jewish International Film Festival 2022
October 24 – December 7, 2022

JIFF is back again! Aleph Melbourne showcases the queer sessions.
Full programme here. Tickets on sale at jiff.com.au.

Concerned Citizen

Ben thinks of himself as a liberal and enlightened gay man, living in the perfect apartment with his boyfriend Raz. All that’s missing to complete the picture is a baby, which the couple are trying to make a reality. Meanwhile Ben decides to improve his up-and-coming neighbourhood in gritty south Tel-Aviv by planting a new tree on his street. But his good deed soon triggers a sequence of events that leads to the brutal police arrest of an Eritrean immigrant.

America

Eli is an Israeli swimming coach living in the US. When he receives news of his father’s death, Eli reluctantly travels to Tel Aviv for the first time in 10 years to deal with the estate. On his short trip he decides to visit his childhood friend, Yotam. Yotam is running a small and beautiful flower shop in Jaffa, together with his fiancée Iris, a talented florist. When Eli comes to visit the two, he will set in motion a series of events that will affect everyone’s lives. Winner of Best Actress Prize at the 2022 Jerusalem Film Festival, the film offers a psychologically complex and thought-provoking story about relationships with a strong sensual through-line that keeps viewers guessing.

The Therapy 

A bold documentary which reveals conversion therapy from within for the first time. Director Zvi Landsman is given unprecedented access to conversion therapy sessions, following the journeys of Lev; a 54-year-old divorced Orthodox Jew who hopes to be remarried to a woman, and Ben; a 23-year-old social work student who is seven years into therapy and starts to doubt the practice. 

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Queer Sessions @ JIFF 2022

Jewish International Film Festival 2022
March 2 – April 4, 2022

Full programme here.

TWO

In her moving debut feature, Israeli director Astar Elkayam tackles the physical and emotional challenges two women face when they decide to start a family. Initially optimistic, Bar and Omer embrace the process, eagerly combing through a catalogue of potential donors and facing the insemination process with humour. After Omer repeatedly fails to become pregnant, a sense of failure gnaws at them, threatening to undermine their relationship.

Mor Polanuer and Agam Schuster (Your Honour) deliver outstanding performances, realistically capturing the toll that the IVF process takes on the young couple.

SUBLET

From acclaimed Israeli director Eytan Fox (Walk on Water, The Bubble), Sublet is a poignant depiction of the transformative power of love through a cross-generational encounter.

Michael, a travel columnist for The New York Times, takes on a rental apartment for a week’s assignment to discover the real Tel Aviv. He sublets an apartment from Tomer, a twenty-something gay film student who offers to act as his guide. Tomer’s carefree life of partying and casual sex are an affront to Michael whose life experiences have led him to more conservative views on love and relationships. Over five days together, the two find they have more in common than they thought, and form a bond that emotionally liberates them both.

TAHARA

This poignant and comic story traces the coming-of-age of two Jewish teenage girls—one white and straight, and the other Black and queer. Set in Rochester, NY, the film begins at the funeral service of their former Hebrew school classmate who suddenly commits suicide. A complicated romance unexpectedly arises as best friends Carrie and Hannah (played by Shiva Baby’s Rachel Sennott) navigate their feelings about this tragedy and themselves, and try to make sense of their teacher’s well-meaning but misguided advice about grieving.

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Queer Sessions @ JIFF 2021

Jewish International Film Festival 2021
February 17 – March 24, 2021

Minyan

USA, 118 mins, dir. Eric Steel (English & Hebrew w/ English subtitles)

A young Russian Jewish immigrant in Brighton Beach, caught up in the tight constraints of his community, develops a close friendship with his grandfather’s new neighbours, two elderly closeted gay men who open his imagination to the possibilities of love and the realities of loss — and explores the East Village where he finds a world teeming with the energy of youth, desire and risk. Set in the late 1980s, as AIDS hammered New York City, Minyan is a powerful story of rebellion and self-discovery, sexual and spiritual awakening — and survival.

Shiva Baby

USA, 77 mins, dir. Emma Seligman (English)

The last person Danielle expects to run into at a family shiva is her sugar daddy Max, whose apartment she was coming from. Avoiding him – and his beautiful wife and baby – is impossible, as is keeping her nagging parents, prying family friends and angry ex-girlfriend Maya away. This sharp-witted dark comedy from first-time feature writer/director Emma Seligman is a quirky yet sensitive exploration of the pressure young people face today.

The Queer Sessions at JIFF 2019

As the 2019 Jewish International Film Festival rapidly approaches, be sure to check out the festival’s rich programme. Amongst the festival’s offerings are three queer-themed films, screening at various locations in Melbourne and Sydney, as detailed below.

Family in Transition

“Defies expectations.” – The Hollywood Reporter

Amit, a father of four living in a small town in Israel, tells his wife, Galit, that he is a woman and wants to transition. Galit pledges her support, ready to overcome surgery, social stigma and bureaucracy to maintain her marriage. But as Amit transforms, tensions arise while everyone in the family readjusts to understand themselves and each other anew. In the process, Galit must redefine her own identity and what it means to be a parent, a spouse and a lover.

Winner Best Israeli Documentary at the 2018 Docaviv Film Festival.

Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life

“A quantum leap in the work of one of Israel’s leading documentary filmmakers.” – Haaretz

Jonathan Agassi is one of the world’s most successful gay porn stars. The director Tomer Heymann (Mr Gaga) followed him for eight years, both in his temporary hometown of Berlin and back in Tel Aviv with his mother. Alongside his acting, he performs in live shows and works as an escort.

Offering a rare and intimate look inside what is often a taboo world, Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life also gives us access to the unique relationship between a mother and son who courageously redefine familiar family concepts. 

Contains sex scenes and nudity.

Where’s My Roy Cohn?

“A diabolical public figure mesmerizes from the grave.” – The Hollywood Reporter

Roy Cohn was one of the most controversial and influential American men of the 20th century. An only son born to a Jewish family in the Bronx, Cohn is best known for being Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel, prosecuting Esther and Julius Rosenberg, and for influencing the career of the young Queens real estate developer Donald Trump. He was a closeted man who refused to publicly identify as gay even as he was dying of Aids.

Explosive and scathingly delicious, Where’s My Roy Cohn? is a thriller-like exposé that reveals the workings of a deeply troubled master manipulator.

Queer @ JIFF 2018

Enjoy the following queer offerings at JIFF 2018.  Full programme here.

JIFF 2018

THE PRINCE AND THE DYBBUK (KSIĄŻĘ I DYBUK) POLAND, GERMANY / 2017

“Outstanding… one of the most amazing biographies of the 20th century.” — The Spiegel

The director of the Yiddish classic The Dybbuk is remembered as a Polish aristocrat, Hollywood producer, a rogue and liar, and an open homosexual. But who, really, was Michal Waszyński (born Moshe Waks), the son of a poor Ukrainian Jewish blacksmith, who died as Prince Michal Waszyński in Italy? Waszyński made 40 films with Sophia Loren, Anna Magnani, Orson Welles and other stars, but his most spectacular creation was his own life.

Presenting a modern take on the narrative of the Wandering Jew, The Prince and the Dybbuk asks whether it is ever possible to cut oneself off from one’s roots, and at what cost.

Winner Best Documentary on Cinema at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.

82 MINS / ENGLISH, ITALIAN, HEBREW, YIDDISH (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)

DIRECTOR — Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosolowski
CATEGORY — Documentary

DEAR FREDY (FREDY HAYAKAR) ISRAEL / 2017

“People loved him. Their eyes sparkled when they talked about him, and they accept him as he was.” — Director Rubi Gat

The extraordinary story of Fredy Hirsch, a charismatic gymnast and youth leader who provided care and dignity to over 600 Jewish children.

Born in Germany, Hirsch was 19 years old when the Nuremberg Laws were published, forcing him to flee to the Czech Republic. Soon deported to Auschwitz, Hirsch used his experience to entertain and comfort the children of the camp, and collaborated with members of the underground to plan a revolt that never came to pass. Combining survivor testimony, exquisite animation and archive, Dear Fredy explores the life and legacy of an unsung queer Jewish hero.

74 MINS / HEBEW, ENGLISH, CZECH (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)

DIRECTOR — Rubi Gat
CATEGORY — Documentary

STUDIO 54: THE DOCUMENTARY USA / 2018

“[A] thrilling and definitive documentary [that] captures the delirium — and the dark side — of the legendary New York disco, and imprints us with an indelible portrait of the nightclub that became the apotheosis of the disco era: the freedom, the excess, the aristocracy, the pulsating pop glory.” — Variety

Studio 54 was the epicentre of 70s hedonism – a place that not only redefined the nightclub, but also came to symbolise an entire era. Its co-owners, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, two Jewish friends from Brooklyn, seemed to come out of nowhere to suddenly preside over a new kind of New York society. Now, 39 years after the velvet rope was first slung across the club’s hallowed threshold, this feature documentary tells the real story behind the greatest club of all time.

98 MINS / ENGLISH

DIRECTOR — Matt Tyrnauer
CAST — Steve Rubell, Ian Schrager
CATEGORY — Documentary

SAVING NETA (LEHATZIL ET NE) ISRAEL / 2016

“Touching and rewarding.” — The Jerusalem Post

Four women with nothing in common find their lives profoundly altered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger. A collection of stories spanning the seasons, each episode introduces a woman ‘on the verge’: a career police officer unable to cope with the stress of work and her teenage daughter; a lesbian cellist ambivalent about raising a child with her partner; a mother who plans to tell her children she’s getting a divorce; and a businesswoman who goes home for her mother’s funeral and must institutionalise her mentally challenged sister. Impacting each of these fractured lives is Neta, a drifter struggling with his own personal crisis.

This sensitive and thought-provoking contemplation of femininity and parenthood won the Audience Award at the 2017 Jerusalem Film Festival.

90 MINS / HEBREW (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)

DIRECTOR — Nir Bergman
CAST — Benny Avni, Rotem Abuhab, Naama Arlaky, Irit Kaplan
CATEGORY — Feature

RED COW (PARA ADUMA) ISRAEL / 2018

“An intriguing tale of forbidden first love.” — The Hollywood Reporter

Benny, an only child who lost her mother at birth, lives with her fundamentalist father in a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. As her father becomes more and more obsessed with a red heifer that he believes will bring the redemption, Benny drifts further away and into the arms of Yael, a young new woman in her life. She embarks on a personal journey that will shape her religious, political and sexual consciousness.

This sensitive and assured coming-of-age film won Best Israeli Film, Best Debut Film and Best Actress at the 2018 Jerusalem Film Festival.

91 MINS / HEBREW (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)

DIRECTOR — Tsivia Barkai
CAST — Gal Toren, Moran Rosenblatt, Avigail Kovari, Dana Sorin
CATEGORY — Feature

 

JIFF 2016 – The Queer Sessions

This year’s Jewish International Film Festival includes a selection of films to tempt those looking for queer themes.  Click on the film title for the offical JIFF page and session details in Melbourne and Sydney.*

Barash

“…fresh, frank look at coming out and coming of age in contemporary Israel” — Variety

“A female-focused Israeli rebel romance” — The Hollywood Reporter

Described as the Israeli Blue Is the Warmest Color, Barash vividly captures the heady energy and infatuation of youth, set against the backdrop of the Arab-Israeli conflict. With conservative, detached parents and an older sister who has mysteriously vanished from the IDF, 17 year old Na’ama is bored of her sleepy suburbia. But when a new girl appears at school, she sends shockwaves through Na’ama’s rigid domestic sphere, propelling her headlong into a dizzying world of sex and drugs.

A vibrant coming-of-age tale, Barash premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival, and won Best Script, Best Actress and Best Actor at Haifa International Film Festival.
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85 MINS / HEBREW (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
DIRECTOR — MICHAL VINIK

 

Family Commitments (Familie Verpflichtet)

David and Khaled are happily in love, poised to marry. Their attempts for matrimonial harmony are thwarted by family foibles: a homophobic father, a pseudo-orthodox Jewish mother, and an unexpected pregnancy. The two men have a few things to straighten out before they can say their vows and live happily ever after. An endearing and wacky family comedy.
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85 MINS / GERMAN (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
DIRECTOR — HANNO OLDERDISSEN

 

The People vs. Fritz Bauer (Der Staat Gegen Fritz Bauer)[contains some LGBT themes; * screening nationally]

“…riveting and revelatory” – Forward

Germany, 1957. Attorney General Fritz Bauer receives crucial evidence on the whereabouts of the so-called ‘Architect of the Holocaust’, Adolf Eichmann. Bauer, himself Jewish, has been trying to take crimes from the Third Reich to court ever since his return from exile, but has been stymied by an unforgiving German government. Bauer covertly elicits the help of the Israeli secret service to bring Eichmann to justice, and, in doing so, commits treason against Germany.

With fast-paced direction from Lars Kraume (Tatort), The People vs. Fritz Bauer is a historical thriller that exposes the elusiveness of evil while celebrating the tenacious heroism of Bauer. Audience Award winner at the Locarno International Film Festival, and winner of six 2016 Lolas (German Oscars), including Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay.

IN HONOUR OF Peter Sharon Ivany for their support of Jewish Film in Australia
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105 MINS / GERMAN (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
DIRECTOR — LARS KRAUME

 

Tikkun

“A heady, sometimes headlong blend of fable and nightmare, with overtones of David Lynch and Franz Kafka…” — NY Times

Compelling, memorable and visually spectacular, Avishai Sivan’s sophomore film tells the story of a young Hasidic student who undergoes an immense spiritual crisis. Haim-Aron is the son of an overbearing butcher, and a devout and methodical follower of the scriptures: adhering to rituals and traditions of his faith with a bored detachment. A freak accident and a (near) death experience change everything, as Haim-Aron finds himself at odds with his sexuality and religious beliefs.

Magnetising audiences with its bold depictions of sexuality and faith, Tikkun is a stylish and unsettling film that offers a visceral and tumultous experience of a man struggling against repressive forces. Winner of Best Feature Film, Best Cinematography, Best Script and Best Actor at Jerusalem Film Festival, and the Silver Leopard Prize at 2015 Locarno Film Festival.
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121 MINS / HEBREW, YIDDISH (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
DIRECTOR — AVISHAI SIVAN

 

Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me (Lama Azavtani)

“Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me doesn’t just have all the elements of a cinematic feat; it is one.” — Nisimazine

Muhammed is a young Israeli Palestinian man, meandering along the fringes of society. He is sexually and culturally confused and is drifting aimlessly through life. He is drawn in by the enigmatic Gurevitch, a motorbike-riding mechanic and the two begin an illicit and dangerous relationship. With a cast composed of non-actors, Israeli director, Hadar Morag, has created a visceral and immersive landscape, and a filmworld permeated by a sense of unease. Premiered at Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti Competition.
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94 MINS / HEBREW, ARABIC (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
DIRECTOR — HADAR MORAG

The Good Son | JIFF

The Good Son

Israel, 2013

Please select your session time to purchase tickets:

Melbourne —

Tue 11 Nov 9:00pm (Elsternwick)
Fri 14 Nov 2:45pm (Elsternwick)

“The Good Son tells the poignant story of a young Israeli man … who takes the radical step of changing his gender: without telling his family first.” – International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, 2013.

This is the incredible story of Or, a 22-year-old Israeli man who plans to secretly have sex reassignment surgery. Or’s own home videos make up the first part of the film – the emotionally gruelling lead-up to the procedure, lying to his family about his acceptance to university abroad and stealing from them to pay for the operation in Thailand. Then he teams up with filmmaker Shirly Berkovitz, who not only documents the remainder of Or’s lonely and guilt-ridden journey through recovery and personal reinvention, but also acts as friend and confidant. Berkovitz captures Or’s first steps in her new life as a woman, talking with fellow transgender people and finally, confronting her family and the price of seeking her true identity. This is an extraordinary tale about overcoming self-doubt, conflicted loyalty and being true to one’s self.

SCREENING WITH SHORT FILM Salomea’s Nose

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52 MINS/ ENGLISH, HEBREW (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
DIRECTOR — SHIRLY BERKOVITZ
CATEGORY — OTHER ISRAEL

https://vimeo.com/104471924

JIFF Archives
The Good Son

Queer @ Jewish International Film Festival 2012

The 2102 Jewish International Film Festival (JIFF) has a couple of Queer offerings.

‘Dead Europe‘

‘Yossi‘