San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2023

[Chris Knipp]

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2023



San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 43
July 20 – August 6

FESTIVAL REVIEWS THREAD


SFJFF43 Lineup on Sale to Public

The 43rd San Francisco Jewish Film Festival celebrates the diverse creativity of global Jewish life with 67 films from 18 countries, each one overflowing with all of the joy, drama, and comedy that define Jewish storytelling. This year's Festival offers something for everyone with beloved cultural touchstones, groundbreaking films, and vibrant community events.

Tickets and passes are on sale now to the general public. An All-Festival Pass grants you priority access to all SFJFF43 programs for the best possible price. Join us for 18 days of Jewish film at venues in San Francisco and Oakland with our vibrant community of movie-lovers!

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Local Spotlight

The Secret Art of Human Flight

Sunday, July 23 · 8:30pm
Castro Theatre
Director H.P. Mendoza expected to attend

In this heartwarming and captivating tale, a young widower seeks escape from grief by training with an eccentric stranger who claims his methods will allow the man to fly.

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Centerpiece Documentary

Red Herring

Sunday, July 23 ·2:45pm
Castro Theatre
Director Kit Vincent and participant Lawrence Vincent expected to attend

When 24-year-old director Kit Vincent receives a terminal diagnosis, his first instinct is to turn on his camera and embark on an emotional, spiritual and darkly humorous journey.

Recipient of a 2022 JFI Discretionary Grant. Kit Vincent is a 2022 JFI Filmmaker in Residence

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Next Wave Spotlight

I Like Movies

Friday, July 21 · 6pm
Castro Theatre
It’s 2003, and socially inept 17-year-old Lawrence has just nailed his dream job at the local video store. Having already alienated those closest to him, he forges a new complicated friendship with his tough but tender hearted manager.

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Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy

Saturday, July 25 · 6pm
Vogue Theater
Documentarian Nancy Buirski explores the tumultuous personal history of director John Schlesinger and the larger cultural and political groundswell that converged to create Midnight Cowboy, one of the defining turning points of American cinema.

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JFI Supported Films at SFJFF43
The Jewish Film Institute is fostering the next generation of Jewish films, from inception to presentation, through our Filmmaker Residency and Completion Grants programs. This year we are proud to showcase 5 completed JFI supported projects at SFJFF43. You won't want to miss these bold stories about Jewish life, culture, and identity, with many filmmakers expected to attend.

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Festival Spotlights

The Body as Battleground: Abortion Access in Post-Roe America

From the outlaw activists ensuring access to the abortion pill, to Jewish champions of the right to choose, SFJFF43 is spotlighting stories of resistance past and present.

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Fractured Lens: Divergent Perspectives on Israel and Palestine

SFJFF43 is highlighting the stories of Israelis, Palestinians, and American Jews grappling with their relationship to the Jewish State.


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JFI in the News
S.F. Jewish Film Fest 2023 lineup announced: Gene Wilder, Bella Abzug, ‘Prince of Egypt’
J. The Jewish News of California

[Chris Knipp]

Savoy (Zohar Wagner 2022)

A turbulent feature film using a mixture of invented film and archival material to recreate the 1975 Tel Aviv Savoy Hotel attack from the point of view of a woman hostage. The director is a woman.

Reviewed here as part of the 2023 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Scheduled:
Thursday August 3, 2023
5:45 p.m.
Piedmont Theatre

[Chris Knipp]

PLAN C (Tracy Droz Tragos 2023)

Plan C means the abortion pill. It also refers to the subject of this film, the organization working to inform women of the pill's availability and how they can get it, depending on where they are. This rough, and urgent film has become more so in the course of its making with the now one-year-old Supreme Court Dobbs decision to overthrow Roe v. Wade, making abortion no longer legal nation-wide. But this does not discuss the wider issues, nor are these women of Plan C providing abortions.

Reviewed here as part of the 2023 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Scheduled:
Saturday July 22, 2023
11:30 a.m.
Castro Theatre

[Chris Knipp]

FOOD AND COUNTRY (Laura Gabbert 2022)

The pandemic becomes a time to reconsider America's broken food system as famous food writer Ruth Reichl speaks with widely scattered people in the industry, farmers, ranchers, restauranteurs in what becomes a hopeful film about positive change.

Reviewed here as part of the Jul. 20-Aug. 6, 2023 San Francisco Jewish Film festival. Scheduled:
July 30
Sunday July 30, 2023
11:30 a.m.
Castro Theatre
Castro Theatre
429 Castro Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

[Chris Knipp]

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST'S DAUGHTER, OIL ON CANVAS (Margarita Linton 2022)

Estranged from her famous Russian born Israeli father, Rita attempts to make a film about a big retrospective exhibition of his work and reunite with him in this heartrending doc hybrid about family ties and how artists sever them.

Reviewed as part of the 2023 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Scheduled:
Thursday July 27, 2023
3:00 p.m.
Vogue Theater
Wednesday August 2, 2023
5:30 p.m.
Piedmont Theatre

[Chris Knipp]

NATHAN-ISM (Elon Golob 2023)

Portrait of a Sephardic Jewish American veteran soldier in his nineties who became an outsider artist endlessly chronicling the Nuremberg Trials where he once was a guard at the age of 18. It became the central experience of his life - but how much of his memory of it is his own?

Reviewed as part of the 2023 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
Scheduled:
July 28
2:50 p.m.
Vogue Theater
3290 Sacramento St
San Francisco, CA 94115

[Chris Knipp]

ERICA JONG - BREAKING THE WALL (Kaspar Kasics 2022)

The author of the sexually revolutionary 1973 novel FEAR OF FLYING is shown active and youthful at eighty and living a posh lifestyle whose entitlement is not questioned.

Scheduled:
Tuesday July 25, 2023
12:30 p.m.
Vogue Theater
3290 Sacramento St
San Francisco, CA 94115