At the Boulder Jewish Film Festival, the projector will roll, the popcorn will pop and the post-screening Q&As will veer into debates about character arcs and camera work.
But outside of the Dairy Arts Center, the world isn’t exactly a cushy arts hub with world-class popcorn on tap. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military offensive following the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, according to reports from the Gaza Health Ministry on Oct. 1.
Closer to home, Jewish communities also still face violence, including the horrific anti-semitic terror attack in Boulder at a protest in June on the Pearl Street Mall that left one woman, who was burned in the attack, dead less than a month later.
The 2025 Boulder Jewish Film Festival (BJFF) arrives in the midst of this chaos, where memory and identity keep elbowing their way into the headlines. But inside the Dairy Arts Center, festival director Kathryn Bernheimer is determined to remind audiences that the lineup isn’t only about grief. Thrillers, comedies, even a Western or two are sprinkled in, which is proof that the Jewish Film Festival in Boulder can still make room for laughs and a little lightness, even when the outside world feels like anything but.