Jewish Shorts

Co-Presented by Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History

Sponsored by Elaine Lindy

I WANT TO MAKE A FILM ABOUT WOMEN

Directed by Karen Pearlman
Docudrama Short | Australia | 2020 | 12 min | English and Russian with English subtitles

Described as a “speculative” love letter to the Russian constructivist women of 1920s Soviet Union, this surreal, wildly imaginative short explores the revolutionary female filmmakers of the decade and the art they made – or could have made – among the endless male noise.

BOURN KIND: THE TINY KINDNESS PROJECT

Directed by Rachel Myers
Narrative Short | USA | 2022 | 12 min | English

Official Selection of the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, this wonderful film follows Bourn, a Black Jewish street artist, who designs a street mural to spread kindness in his community and practice the Jewish concept of tikkun olam (“repair the world”).

ANNE

Directed by Desiree Abeyta
Narrative Short | USA | 2022 | 10 min | English

Tension is in the air when two young actresses – a white Jewish American and an African American – are called back for the role of a lifetime: Anne Frank. As they wait to audition, both ponder the ethics of this role, instigating a broader conversation about color-blind casting.

MAKE ME A KING

Directed by Sofia Olins
Narrative Short | UK | 2021 | 16 min | English

A Jewish drag king ignores the disapproval of their family and mimics their real-life Yiddish vaudeville idol, Pepi Litman, in a beautiful, relatable story about the courage to be yourself.

DESERT HEART

Directed by Carnie Bezalel
Narrative Short | Israel | 2021 | 17 min | Hebrew with English subtitles

A brother and sister trek across the Israeli desert, recounting their differences and a past tragedy that will bring them closer than they expected to be.

BECOMING NAKUSET

Directed by Victoria Anderson-Gardner
Documentary Short | Canada | 2020 | 13 min | English

A raw, emotional film about identity, this true story tells the tale of Nakuset, an Indigenous survivor of the Sixties Scoop – a series of Canadian policies that allowed child welfare services to take Indigenous children from their families – and her time growing up as an adopted member of a Jewish family in Montreal.

MINYAN DUTY

Directed by Ivan Kander
Narrative Short | USA | 2022 | 14 min | English

Two sisters, wishing to recite Kaddish at their synagogue after their mother’s passing, find themselves in a dilemma when they realize they are one person short of a minyan (a quorum of ten Jews). As a result, they turn to the most unlikely of people to solve the solution.