Join us at our 13th Annual Boulder Jewish Film Festival from Sunday, October 26 - Sunday, November 2
In the meantime, check out the 2024 film list
Call Me Dancer
Sunday, November 10 | 12 PM | Boedecker Theater
Thursday, November 14 | 6:30 PM | Boedecker Theater
Directed by: Leslie Shampaine, Language: Hindi, English
(Documentary, 2023, Israel, 84m)
This touching and uplifting documentary is a story of hope, heartache, and hard work. Manish is a young and talented street dancer in Mumbai whose traditional parents are counting on their only son to support them. When he secretly attends an inner-city dance school and accidentally walks into a ballet class he meets Yehuda, a curmudgeonly 70-year-old Israeli teacher, and a hunger develops within him. Ambitious and passionate, Manish is determined to make it as a professional dancer, but the odds are stacked against him. Together, Manish and Yehuda transform each other’s lives, searching to uncover who and what they are. Yehuda seeks a purpose and a place to call home. Manish dreams of dancing on the world-stage but struggles to break free from the confines of his own economic and social circumstances. Filmed in India, U.K., Israel, and the USA.
VIEW TRAILER
A Real Pain - Festival Opener
Sunday, November 10 | 3 & 6:30 PM | Boedecker Theater
Directed by: Jesse Eisenberg, Language: English
(Feature Film, 2024, USA, 84m)
This cheeky dark comedy from writer, director, producer and star Jesse Eisenberg was a surprise hit at the Sundance Film Festival. Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin co-star as odd-couple cousins with unresolved issues who decide to honor their beloved grandmother by taking a Holocaust tour of Poland. What could possibly go wrong? Filmed in Poland, this sassy, smart and probing film grapples with Jewish family trauma in all its complicated psychological and social manifestations. “Understated, funny, and gradually heart-swelling, writer-director Jesse Eisenberg’s Chopin-kissed sophomore feature is as graceful as movies come, with the still-newbie filmmaker growing into his undeniable artistic voice behind the camera.” (Harpers Bazaar)
VIEW TRAILER
Telling Nonie - Veterans Day Program
Monday, November 11 | 3 PM | Grace Gamm Theater
Directed by: Paz Schwartz, Language: Hebrew, English
(Documentary, 2024, Israel, 50m)
Tormented by his role in a 1950s Gaza assassination, Geizi Tsafrir, an elderly Israeli agent, seeks redemption. Reflecting on his time with Shin Bet (Israeli Secret Service) and his role in the killing of an Egyptian lieutenant colonel, he decides to confront his past. He contacts the colonel’s daughter, Nonie Darwish, once intent on avenging her father’s death but now a prominent voice against radical Islam and a supporter of Israel. The mysterious email from Tsafrir sets Darwish on an emotional journey into her past, culminating in a meeting with him in Los Angeles. This winner of the Haifa International Film Festival’s Best Israeli Documentary explores intricate emotions, history’s complexities, and the bumpy path toward mutual understanding and forgiveness. Our Veterans Day program also includes Footsteps of My Father, a tribute to Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, a devout Christian from Tennessee who risked his own life to save the lives of 200 Jewish G.I.s when they were prisoners of the Germans in WWII. (26m)
VIEW TRAILER
Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara
Monday, November 11 | 6:30 PM | Grace Gamm Theater
Directed by: Marco Bellocchio, Language: Italian, Hebrew
(Feature Film, 2023, Italy, 134m)
Sumptuously directed by Marco Bellocchio, a legendary and beloved Italian director now in his 80s, this is a grand, historical fresco depicting a scandalous true story. In 1858, in the Jewish quarter of Bologna, the Pope’s soldiers burst into the home of the Mortara family to take Edgardo (Enea Sala), their seven-year-old son, who the church says was secretly baptized as a baby. Awash in painterly chiaroscuro evoking the masterworks of Caravaggio and Delacroix, Kidnapped is at once a personal, human-scale narrative of a family in crisis, and a portrait of a country on the cusp of revolution. An absolute masterpiece.
VIEW TRAILER
Stella: A Life
Tuesday, November 12 | 3 PM | Boedecker Theater
Directed by: Kilian Riedhof, Language: German, English
(Feature Film, 2023, Germany, 121m)
A stunning portrait of degradation and desperation, this accomplished drama depicts a chilling and disturbing reality of the Holocaust rarely examined on screen. Vivacious Stella Goldschlag dreams of a career as a jazz singer but as a Jew in Berlin during the Nazi regime she is forced to go into hiding before her life takes a tragic turn. In order to save herself and her parents from deportation to Auschwitz, Stella begins to systematically betray other Jews by turning them over to authorities. Based on a true story and featuring a terrific performance by award-winning actress Paula Beer, this morally complex drama examines the fine line between victims of evil and participants in the same horror.
VIEW TRAILER
Israel Swings for the Gold
Tuesday, November 12 | 6:30 PM | Grace Gamm Theater
Directed by: Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger, Language: English
(Documentary, 2023, USA, 77m)
In 2021, Israel's baseball team competed in the Olympics for the first time. With no media allowed in Tokyo's Olympic Village, the players record their own experiences, logging unexpected battles against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. A disturbing and inspiring follow-up to the crowd-pleasing 2018 hit Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel, about Israel's Cinderella run at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, this underdog documentary could not be more relevant today. Ryan Lavarnway, the major league catcher who played on both Israeli teams, will appear in person at the screening.
VIEW TRAILER
Auction
Wednesday, November 13 | 3 PM | Boedecker Theater
Directed by: Pascal Bonitzer, Language: French
(Feature Film, 2024, France, 91m)
A Parisian auctioneer receives a letter from a lawyer claiming that a common worker in the suburbs owns a painting by Egon Schiele. Although he believes it can only be a fake, he discovers that the painting is a masterpiece gone missing in 1939. This could undoubtedly be the turning point of his career, but after a brief investigation, he realizes that he has in his hands a work of art looted from its Jewish owners by the Nazis. This is a morally complex drama depicting a tragic personal drama behind the largest art and property theft in human history; dozens of Egon Schiele’s paintings were looted from Jewish owners and a handful finally returned to their rightful owners’ heirs.
VIEW TRAILER
Running on Sand - Community Centerpiece
Wednesday, November 13 | 6:30 PM | Grace Gamm Theater
Directed by: Adar Shafran, Language: Hebrew
(Feature Film, 2024, Israel, 104m)
In this feel-good fable, a young Eritrean refugee deported from Israel is mistaken for the new foreign player of a struggling football team, and his survival depends on the team's success. Nominated for the Israeli Academy Award for Best Film and a popular sensation in Israel, this heartfelt and humorous tale of mistaken identity sheds light on the challenges faced by refugees – and stars the charismatic Congo-born actor Chancela Mongoza and a group of other African migrant actors. Selected by the festival’s newly formed program committee.
VIEW TRAILER
Here Lived
Friday, November 15 | 12 PM | Boedecker Theater
Directed by: Jane Wells, Language: English
(Documentary, 2024, USA, 79m)
This moving documentary tells two intertwined stories of hidden children, murdered parents, and the stones that bring healing. The first, set in the present and dealing with Holocaust remembrance, focuses on the "Stolpersteine" (stumbling stones) project originated by German artist Gunter Demnig, born in 1947, in which commemorative brass-plated plaques are placed in the pavement in front of the houses previously occupied by Jews throughout Europe. The second is the history of Holland during the Shoah, a Western European country that saw 80% of the Jewish population annihilated. Both stories are told with compassion and care.
VIEW TRAILER
The Catskills
Saturday, November 16 | 6:30 PM | Grace Gamm Theater
Directed by: Lex Gillespie, Language: English
(Documentary, 2023, USA, 86m)
The rise and fall of the Borscht Belt is captured in all its glory in this delightful documentary by Lex Gillespie, whose previous high-spirited bit of Jewish nostalgia, The Mamboniks, closed the 2019 festival. With a trove of lost-and-found archival footage and a cast of characters endowed with the gift of gab, The Catskills journeys into the storied mountain getaway north of New York City that served as refuge for Jewish immigrants fleeing poverty as well as a lavish playground for affluent Jewish families. Stand-up comedians share their best shtick while former waiters, entertainers, and dance instructors recount tales of the family-run resorts and bungalows that inspired films like Dirty Dancing.
VIEW TRAILER
Song of Ascent
Sunday, November 17 | 12 PM | Grace Gamm Theater
Directed by: Directed by Shlomo Weprin, Language: English
(Documentary, 2024, USA, 86m)
In the wake of the October 7th massacre in Israel, acclaimed singer-songwriter Matisyahu finds himself at the center of a cultural storm. This powerful documentary/concert film follows Matisyahu’s journey as he performs three sold-out shows in Israel while facing cancellations and protests at his US tour dates due to rising anti-Israel sentiment. Thrust into a role he never sought, Matisyahu becomes a significant voice for Jewish people worldwide, navigating the complexities of identity, faith, and resilience amidst a global crisis.
VIEW TRAILER
.jpg)
The Blond Boy from the Casbah
Sunday, November 17 | 3 PM | Grace Gamm Theater
Written & Directed by: Alexandre Arcady, Language: Arabic, French
(Feature Film, 2023, France, 126m)
A film within a film, this loving portrait of the once thriving Sephardic community in Algiers in the 1960s finds a famed French filmmaker returning home with his teenage son to present his beautifully reenacted memoir. Growing up in the final moments of Algeria's pre-independence period, the young Antoine discovers his profound fascination with cinema and starts to understand who he truly is. In the present, the adult Antione wanders through the city, immersed in the moments of happiness, laughter, and tears of his youth - spent between school, friends, and his Jewish family. Take part in a Sephardic Reception (included in your ticket) in the Dairy Arts Center Lobby on Sunday, November 17 from 5:30 - 6:30 PM.
VIEW TRAILER
Seven Blessings - Festival Closer
Sunday, November 17 | 6:30 PM | Grace Gamm Theater
Directed by: Ayelet Menahemi, Language: Hebrew, French, Moroccan
(Feature Film, 2023, Israel, 108m)
Winner of ten Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Script & Actress, Seven Blessings was Israel’s submission to the Oscars for Best International Film. In early 1990s Jerusalem, a boisterous Moroccan-Jewish-Israeli clan celebrates the wedding of a Moroccan-Jewish bride and French-Ashkenazi groom over the course of seven nights (sheva brachot) occasioning joy, laughter and oh so much delicious food. But behind the joie de vivre are family secrets. With humor, pathos, and confidence, Seven Blessings puts Sephardic mothers, daughters, and sisters at the beating heart of this rich enveloping story. Written by co-stars Reymonde Amsallem and Eleanor Sela. Take part in a Sephardic Reception (included in your ticket) in the Dairy Arts Center Lobby on Sunday, November 17 from 5:30 - 6:30 PM.
VIEW TRAILER
Film Shorts
Peacocks, Pops & Pepchook
Thursday, November 14 | 3 PM | Boedecker Theater
Friday, November 15 | 3 PM | Boedecker Theater
Various Directors & Languages, 120m
Featuring narrative, documentary, and animated films from Israel, the UK and the USA, this year’s program of 7 shorts curated by Judith Dack and the Shorts Committee will surely leave you smiling.
The Peacock That Passed Over
An unlikely whimsical creature takes up long term residence at a Leeds synagogue.
Pops
A comedic drama about a battle between two siblings over their late Jewish father’s eccentric last request.
No Flowers
The florist’s delivery woman must call forth previously unused counseling skills as she becomes embroiled in a couple’s dispute.
Pepchook
An Israeli woman visits her cruise ship boyfriend in his home country of Samoa, where they have never even heard of the Holocaust.
Heritage Day
In this dark comedy, an eight-year-old dresses up as her estranged grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, for Heritage Day at school.
The Anne Frank Gift Shop
A high-end design firm plans to reimagine the gift shop at The Anne Frank House to appeal to Generation Z.
Merv
Lovelorn Simon is unexpectedly summoned to his grandmother's house to meet her new boyfriend, Merv, played by Hal Linden.