Eric Stoltz gives one of his most powerful performances as Frank Stirn, who moves with his family to become a barber for the American Army and POW camp at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, in the summer of 1944. Embittered that he cannot fight, Frank must take a stand when a Nazi SS Officer threatens his wi...

In the award-winning HANNAH ARENDT, the sublime Barbara Sukowa reteams with director Margarethe von Trotta for a brilliant biopic of the influential German-Jewish philosopher and political theorist. Arendt’s reporting on the 1961 trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann in The New Yorker—controversial bot...

Winner of 6 Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture, BETHLEHEM tells the story of the complex relationship between an Israeli Secret Service officer (Tsahi Halevi, "Fauda") and his teenage Palestinian informant. Shuttling back and forth between conflicting points of view, the film is a raw ...

After many years away, Ariel (Alan Sabbagh) is summoned to his childhood home in the bustling Jewish quarter of Buenos Aires, known as El Once. Over seven days of colorful Purim festivities, Ariel attempts to reconnect with his father, a big macher in the Jewish community who had little time for ...

Academy Award Winner - Best Foreign Language Film! | A love story spanning two continents, NOWHERE IN AFRICA is the extraordinary true tale of a Jewish family who flees the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their once-comfortable existence in Germany, Walter Redlich, his ...

Academy Award Nominee - Best Documentary Feature (2013)! | An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, 5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost ...

What do the most ravishingly beautiful actress of the 1930s and 40s and the inventor whose concepts were the basis of cell phone and bluetooth technology have in common? They are both Hedy Lamarr, the glamour icon whose ravishing visage was the inspiration for Snow White and Cat Woman and a techn...

'The Starfish' is the true story of a German-Jew, who at the age of 10, was taken in by a non-Jewish family in Sweden to escape Nazi persecution, and the events of his life that led him to return to Sweden 60 years later to try and reunite with that family.

Directed by Tyler Gildin
United States...

In honour of the Centennial year of Montreal's Federation CJA, Jamie and Eli of YidLife Crisis present a retrospective of '100 Years of Jewish Business in Montreal'.

By Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman
Canada, 2017
Yiddish (with English subtitles)
Documentary, Short Film, Canadian History, Jewish H...

In remote Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana, volunteer worker Gabrielle Zilkha made a stunning connection with a group of people who had practiced special rites, including circumcision and Kosher dietary laws, for centuries. Only recently had they discovered they were part of a worldwide religion with millions...

In this short film by pioneering neon animator Jack Feldstein, the Nobel Prize winning Yiddish writer Isaac B. Singer recounts his memories... which seem to have a mind of their own.

Directed by Jack Feldstein
United States, 2021
Animation, Documentary, Jewish History, Yiddish Culture
Yiddish (w...

Photographer Olive returns from work to find her new flatmate, Nina rummaging through her room. Unbeknownst to Olive, Nina is about to miss the deadline to join a beauty pageant dedicated to Adolf Hitler and is in desperate need for photos for the application. She begs Olive to help her take them...

OYLEM is a poetic journey into the heart of Ashkenazi history and soul. From the vast plains of Ukraine to the streets of Vilnius and Lodz, the Yiddish narrative of Mendele and Yitskhok takes us on the traces of this sunken world.

In the limbo of Yiddishland, two men share fragments of their liv...

At a post-concert reception, a young jazz musician tries to survive aggressive grannies and other terrifying beasts.

Directed by Aaron Weinstein
United States, 2017
Comedy, Shorts, Animation, Fantasy, Jewish Culture
English
5 minutes

Shadowed by a strict, military father who inflicts severe methods of punishment as a form of discipline, seventeen-year-old Ariella (Shira Haas, Unorthodox, Shtisel, Asia) commits a grave error that her father (Yiftach Klein, 7 Days in Entebbe, Fill the Void) isn't willing to punish her for. Seek...

Contemporary ballet and environmental activism do not often go hand in hand. The Vertigo Eco-Arts Village, however, is a place where dance and ecology come together. The Eco-Arts village is an extension of the Vertigo Dance Company, the celebrated Jerusalem dance group founded by Noa Wertheim and...

BERLIN CALLING follows the daughter of a Holocaust survivor (Kastle Waserman) on a journey of discovery, as she opens the paperwork the Nazis kept on her family, and hears her father's firsthand account of being a child under Hitler's oppression. In her research, Kastle also makes a surprising di...

Merry Crisismukkah! It's the latest holiday release from your favorite nudniks. So, while you’re at work shredding those potatoes, yingling bells, or chugging gogl-mogl or eggnog, this platter of oy-ful melodies will make your season even brighter.

Created by Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman
Canada,...

n 1963, Jews clandestinely fled Morocco for Israel and other countries where they would be welcome. In the face of this exodus, Mustapha, the manager and future owner of the only bar of the small town of Bejjad, panics. And for a good reason: the local Islamic authorities, who regard bars as plac...

AND NOW, LOVE is the story of 96 year-year-old Dr. Bernard W. Bail, a highly decorated Jewish World War II hero who was shot down over Nazi Germany. Imprisoned in a German Hospital, he began a clandestine affair with his nurse, Irmgard, who introduced him to a spiritual love unlike he had ever ex...

In a documentary exploring the life and career of Julius Shulman - widely regarded by experts as the greatest architectural photographer - director Eric Bricker reveals the man who was influential in bringing to light the architectural modernist movement. Shulman's work plays a significant role i...

An intimate portrait of Holocaust survivor Helena Weinrauch, who movingly tells her story of resiliency and courage in the face of Nazi brutality. Despite the many horrors she endured, she never loses her joie de vivre or her desire to forgive those who brutalized her in the past. ​

Best Documen...

Jamie Elman & Eli Batalion, the hilarious stars of the smash hit Yiddish comedy series YidLife Crisis, sit down with the learned and patient Rabbi Lisa Grushcow to answer all the questions you’ve ever asked about Hanukkah (and some you never have) in this insightful and entertaining short! #Khani...

Maurice Sendak, the award-winning author of “Where The Wild Things Are” reflects on his creative life, success, and frustrations, including interviews with his celebrity friends.

Directed by Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze
United States, 2009
Documentary, Literature, Kids,, LGBT Stories, Jewish Cult...

A poignant, thought-provoking account of friendship and the toll of inherited guilt, WHAT OUR FATHERS DID explores the relationship between two men, each of whom are the children of very high-ranking Nazi officials and possess starkly contrasting attitudes toward their fathers. Eminent human righ...

As a director and Hollywood producer, Michał Waszyński made over 40 films and worked with major movie stars including Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale and Orson Welles. His true obsession, though, was 'The Dybbuk' or 'Between Two Worlds', directed by Waszyński in 1937 and based on an old Jewish le...

JAY MYSELF documents the monumental move of renowned photographer and artist, Jay Maisel, who, in February 2015 after forty-eight years, begrudgingly sold his home—the 36,000 square-foot, 100-year-old landmark building in Manhattan known simply as “The Bank.” Through the intimate lens of filmmake...

How do you get even with a womanizer? You make him a woman! The wheel of karma takes a hilarious spin when a magical curse transforms Sam, a misogynistic playboy, into a beautiful woman who must learn how to value females by being one herself. But when she starts feeling more romance than bromanc...

After a decade of stardom in Israel, American dancer Bobbi Jene decides to leave behind her prominent position at the world-famous Batsheva Dance Company, as well as the love of her life, to return to the U.S. to create her own boundary breaking art. Tracking the personal and professional challen...

Israeli director Yael Hersonski examines a recently found film reel from an unfinished Nazi movie entitled "Das Ghetto" in this award-winning documentary. For decades, historians have relied on "Das Ghetto" as a portrayal of life in occupied Warsaw and this new footage provides rare insights into...

Smitten with a Jewish woman (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a gentile (Ivan Sergei) asks his Jewish pal (Joel David Moore) to advise him on how to act like a member of the community.

"Entertaining? Yes. Funny? Oh my God, yes! One of the funniest films of the year!" - Debbie Lynn Elias, Behind the Lens

...

Holocaust survivors and Berlin residents, Regina (Oma) Karolinski and Bella Katz, have been inseparable friends for two generations. Creating food for the soul in their kitchen using traditional recipes, their love of these home-cooked dishes is the only remaining visceral link to a childhood cru...

While walking through the forest during the Nazi occupation, a group of young people find a wounded Jewish man. With the Nazis on the hunt, they now have to decide what to do with him.

"Jews are the truly silent victims in a story that instead takes the viewpoint of morally dubious gentiles, tor...

Berlin, 1934. The ambitious and beautiful young Czech actress Lida Baarová is about to launch her career in the German Reich at Berlin's Babelsberg Film Studios - a dream come true. But how long will this dream last when she decides to become Joseph Goebbels' mistress?

Directed by Filip Renc
Dra...

Two sisters living in Paris during the late 1930s possess the supernatural ability to connect with ghosts. After a world tour performing séances for socialites, they meet a visionary French producer who hires them to shoot an ambitious experimental film. What they perceive as a perfect opportunit...

In this tender and intimate romance, a married Hasidic woman falls for a secular stranger, opening her eyes to a whole new world and forcing her to choose between her faith and her heart.

Hadas Yaron (of the internationally acclaimed film Fill the Void) returns to the big screen in Maxime Giroux...

James Franco stars as the young Allen Ginsberg – poet, counter-culture adventurer and chronicler of the Beat Generation. In his famously confessional style, Ginsberg recounts the road trips, love affairs and search for personal liberation that led to the most timeless and electrifying work of his...

A grieving father steals medicinal marijuana from a hospice, skips work and hangs out with his estranged neighbor's son, while his wife tries to get back to her daily routine as she fights off school teachers, stray kittens and dental clinic workers.

"Uproariously funny and heart-wrenchingly mov...

When Trinidadian-born filmmaker Su Goldfish discovers her father is a German Jew who fled the terrors of Kristallnacht to the only place that would let him in without a visa, she wonders what happened to the rest of the Goldfish family. Is she really the last one? Told through a personal archive ...

'The German Neighbor' follows the steps of Adolf Eichmann’s awkward and unusual life in Argentina and his remarkable defense at the trial in Jerusalem. Integrating impressive archive material, the film combines the exploration of Eichmann’s daily life during his exile in Argentina with images of ...

Award-winning film director Philippe Mora and music legend Eric Clapton have joined forces to co-produce a very personal film - Three Days in Auschwitz - which details life and death in the Auschwitz concentration camp. As a Jew, born in 1949, Philippe Mora is a second-generation holocaust surviv...

In this program, titled Six Moments of the Jewish Liturgy, the mezzo-soprano and synagogue singer Sofia Falkovitch displays all her knowledge in the liturgical singing of the Jewish religion, interpreting six short pieces. A Concordia University alumnus, Sofia Falkovitch enjoys her powerful inter...

Aviva is a young Parisian who develops and online romance with Eden, a New Yorker. After a long courtship they meet in person and fall in love, settling into an intimate relationship that leads to marriage. But their lives are not without struggle - for inside both young lovers exist warring fact...

IN SEARCH OF MEMORY is a compelling blend of autobiography and history that recounts the life of one of the most important neuroscientists of the 20th century and illuminates scientific developments in our understanding of the brain's role in recording and preserving memory. In addition to archiv...

Cameras chronicle the experiences of three young men from Kosovo who arrived in the U.S. in May 1999. The men attempt to assimilate into American society; and later return to the former Yugoslavia to learn the fates of their family.

Directed by Curt Fissel
United States, 2003
English, Albanian (...

209 Saint-Maur Street is a classic Haussmann building in the 10th arrondissement of Paris: Stone, built around a courtyard, shops on the bottom floor. In the first decades of the 20th century, it was home to some 300 working class people, about a third of them Jewish. And then came the Nazi occup...

An expressive hybrid with roots in German, Hebrew, and Slavic languages, Yiddish has been shamed, banned, and nearly wiped out, but in fact it’s a vernacular with rich political, historical, religious, socio-economic and literary import. In Nurith Aviv’s unexpected, original documentary, seven yo...

IMAGINARY FEASTS explores how in Nazi concentration cmaps, Soviet Gulags and Japanese prison camps, starving prisoners shared and recorded favorite meals and recipes. By examing how these objects of survival, the film shows quiet acts of incredible resistance. The film is a testament to the stren...

While it is widely known that the Germans built seven death camps and many concentration camps and ghettos within Poland as part of their plan to annihilate the Jewish people during World War II, few are aware that the country is also lined with mass burial grounds of tens of thousands of Jewish ...

A visitor to Jerusalem is immediately struck by the incredible variety of people--of different ethnicities, nationalities and religions--who throng the narrow passageways of the old city. It soon becomes clear that specific groups within this crowd, almost all of whom sport headgear of varying sh...

When a pair of estranged Israeli sisters—one who stayed at the childhood home to care for their debilitated father, the other who left for a new life in Tel Aviv—are reunited, they must come to terms with the circumstances that tore them apart.

Directed by Dorit Hakim
Israel, 2016
Drama, Coming-...

THE TOLLBOOTH is a feature comedy that explores a Jewish family from Brooklyn through the eyes of Sarabeth Cohen... a struggling painter in her first year out of art school. Sarabeth and her older sisters Becky and Raquel come of age and question the values of their traditional parents.​

The f...

WHEN MEMORY COMES: A FILM ABOUT SAUL FRIEDLANDER is a visually arresting documentary that interweaves leading Holocaust historian Saul Friedlander's personal story of survival with an introduction to his work and thought. This wide-ranging film looks at Friedlander's views on subjects ranging fro...

More than 40 years ago, the phone rang in Anny Stern's New York City home. It was a man she didn't know, calling to giver her a notebook. Covered in brown paper, its pages hand-sewn together, this was no ordinary notebook. It was one in which her mother, Mina, had hand-written recipes while inter...

The story of the White Stork Synagogue in modern-day Wroclaw, Poland (Breslau, Germany before World War II) provides a window into the life of a Jewish community from the establishment of the synagogue in 1829 until today.

Directed by Curt Fissel and Ellen Friedland
United States, 2001
Documenta...

Though Nev is happily situated with his family in Los Angeles, he has yet to reveal his secret to his old school Jewish parents who are coming over to visit their new grandson for the first time.

A Film by Yaniv Rokah
United States, 2020
Drama, Comedy, Jewish Culture
English
15 minutes

Vasermil tells the story of three teenagers who live in a tough neighbourhood, growing up in an unforgiving environment, pinning their hopes on football as a way out. Shlomi, a pizza delivery boy, lives with his widowed mother, little sister, and step-father. Adiel, of Ethiopian descent, has to l...

Seeking safety and asylum, some 60,000 Africans have fled to Israel over the past decade. The country, founded as a haven for persecuted Jews in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has no policy, infrastructure or political will to handle this wave of migrants. 'African Exodus,' a documentary film by...

Idealistic pharmacist Alice (Alice Taglioni) is totally obsessed with the movies of Woody Allen. She continually quotes lines from his films, engages in imaginary conversations, and even prescribes her customers his classic works to help alleviate their ailments; it's a little wonder she's still ...

Living in the wake of the Idi Amin reign of terror and institutional discrimination, one Ugandan coffee farmer organized a group of Christian, Muslim and Jewish neighbors to challenge historical (as well as economic and environmental) hurdles. He formed the 'Delicious Peace Coffee Cooperative' to...