“SEE + BE SEEN” AT SJFF: SEE YOURSELF + EACH OTHER ON SCREEN. GET ON THE SCENE!
The 27th Seattle Jewish Film Festival presented 18 films programs from nine countries over two weeks. Featuring boundary breakers, comedy capers, binge-worthy TV shows, burgeoning love, famous faces, award nominees, explorations of cinema classics, and so much more. Take a look at the trailer and films for the 2022 Seattle Jewish Film Festival:
 | 1618 Sephardic Spotlight Based on a true story, as the Inquisition continues the persecution of Portuguese Jews, with his family and community in danger, António Álvares, outlines an escape plan. Details >> |
 | 8000 PAPERCLIPS An Israeli artist and TED fellow travels to Uganda to make art with Hebrew-speaking South Sudanese children raised in Israel and deported to Africa. When resources are limited—what is the real value of art? Details >> |
 | THE ANCIENT LAW Centerpiece Screening as STG + SJFF Present: “Silent Movie Mondays" The son of an Orthodox rabbi from a poor shtetl breaks with tradition to become an actor in this digitally restored silent film (1923) with an original score performed live by world-renowned klezmer violinist/composer Alicia Svigals, silent film pianist/composer Donald Sosin, and Laura DeLuca of the Seattle Symphony and Music of Remembrance. Details >> |
 | APPLES AND ORANGES In the 1960s, volunteering on a kibbutz became all the rage, as young counterculture idealists flocked to Israel to work on its storied agricultural collectives and participate in its great experiment of communal living. This absorbing documentary explores their vast impact and its dark underside. Details >> |
 | THE AUTOMAT Sunday Brunch + Film Mel Brooks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Colin Powell, and Howard Schultz are among the diners singing the praises of Horn & Hardart’s Automats, art deco cafeterias whose rich 100-year history is gloriously celebrated. Details >> |
 | THE CONDUCTOR Despite rejections from the classical music establishment, Marin Alsop—inspired by her lifelong hero Leonard Bernstein—smashed the glass ceiling and became the world’s first female conductor. Details >> |
 | FIDDLER’S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN Virtual Opening Night Film The unusual and untold story of Norman Jewison’s quest to bring FIDDLER ON THE ROOF to the big screen. Jeff Goldblum narrates this behind-the-scenes examination of “the most powerful movie musical ever made.” Details >> |
 | FORGIVENESS A robbery gone wrong sends two men down drastically different paths in this poignant, zany mix of comedy, caper, and compassion. Details >> |
 | GREENER PASTURES Dov, a cranky widower, realizes that weed could be his salvation—selling it, not smoking it. Nominated for 12 Israeli Academy Awards, this “high” spirited, charming cannabis comedy is perfect for “green” Seattle. Details >> |
 | IMAGE OF VICTORY Israeli Cinema Spotlight Set against the backdrop of the 1948 War of Independence, an Egyptian documentary filmmaker dreams of capturing the perfect image of victory over an Israeli kibbutz, where idealistic youth on both sides are caught in the crosshairs in this epic, Israeli Academy Award-nominee for Best Picture. Details >> |
 | LABYRINTH OF PEACE Jewish-TV Binge Series A binge-worthy epic saga of a textile industrialist’s family dynasty, this blockbuster period drama is filled with slow-boil intrigue and uncomfortable truths that challenge the myth of Switzerland’s neutrality during WWII. Details >> |
 | NEIGHBOURS When tragedy strikes, the last Jewish family living in a Kurdish village on the Syrian/Turkish border in the early 1980s, must turn to their neighbors, six-year-old Sero’s Kurdish family for help. Details >> |
 | THE NEW JEW Israeli-TV Binge With Comedian Guri Alfi Ever wonder how Israelis perceive American Jews? This four-part series, hosted by Israeli funnyman Guri Alfi, explores the entertaining differences and divides between the two epicenters of world Jewry, raising the ultimate question: are we still one people? Details >> |
 | PERSIAN LESSONS In-Person Opening Night Film A Belgian Jewish prisoner narrowly escapes execution at a WWII Nazi internment camp by pretending to be Persian, but his lie begins to unravel when an SS officer demands to be taught the Persian language. From the director of the Academy Award-nominated HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG. Details >> |
 | ROSE Closing Night Film After 50 years of marriage, Rose (legendary French actress Françoise Fabian) must reject societal pressures to “act her age” and reignite her joie-de-vivre in this warm-hearted Jewish family drama. Details >> |
 | A STARRY SKY ABOVE THE ROMAN GHETTO The discovery of a puzzling wartime photograph sparks students to probe the history of Rome’s Jewish ghetto through the fate of a little girl during a Gestapo raid. Interlacing past and present, they must take a stand. Details >> |
 | THE SWIMMER Gay Gezunt! LGBTQIA+ Spotlight Erez, a rising swimming star aiming for a ticket to the Olympics, arrives at a godforsaken training camp where the beautiful and talented Nevo awakens his subconscious desires. Details >> |
 | WHEN WE SEE OURSELVES See + Be Seen Shorts Program These six international short films—including an Oscar-nominated short from Israel—explore the power of perception. Featuring: MASEL TOV COCKTAIL, THE INSPECTION, THE IMMERSION, GOLDEN GYM, MANUBI, and WHITE EYE. Details >> |
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