Directed by award-winning filmmaker Yoav Potash this powerful documentary plays like a real-life murder mystery, excavating buried truths of violence, complicity, and silence. In the small Polish town of Gniewoszów, the erased history of neighbors bound by ties of love and betrayal are brought to life through stunning animation enriched with touches of magical realism.
Runtime: 100 minutes.
Natalie Braun’s anti-war film offers a poetic and politically urgent exploration of maternal refusal. An eerily prescient work, OXYGEN follows a mother’s radical act of resistance as she attempts to stop her son from crossing the border into war. At a moment when the human cost of military conflict is being debated globally, this mother and son, Anat and Ido, wrestle with their relationship and their understanding of patriotism, obligation, family and freedom.
Runtime: 93 minutes.
Director Shai Carmeli Pollak tells the story of a boy from a Palestinian village in the occupied west bank who sets out to see the sea for the first time, not knowing the language or the way. When his father, Ribhi, an undocumented laborer working in Israel, learns that his son is missing, he leaves his job in search for him—risking arrest and the loss of his livelihood.
Runtime: 93 minutes.
The Torah Is an Open Book reclaims holy text as a space for dialogue, transformation and moral courage, where questioning, wrestling, and interpreting are not only allowed—they’re sacred.
Rabbi Caryn Broitman and Rev. Cathlin Baker of the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury will be in conversation about the ways our respective sacred—and sometimes problematic—texts can speak to the challenges we face today.
All are welcome and there is no charge for the event, registration is required:
The book will be available for purchase at the event, as well as for pre-order here.
If you feel moved by Rabbi Broitman’s work, please consider making a gift to Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center in her honor Donate Here
Learn more about Rabbi Broitman and her book here: rabbicarynbroitman.com
Released in 1936, I Have Sinned (Al Khet) was the first Yiddish sound film made in Poland, and marks the film debut of the Polish-Jewish comedy team Dzigan and Schumacher ( known as the Yiddish Abbot and Costello). Unseen for generations until its new rescue and restoration by The National Center for Jewish Film, I Have Sinned (Al Khet) blends melodrama with a bissel of comedy and music.
Set in a small Jewish town during World War I, the film follows Esther (Rachel Holzer), a rabbi’s daughter who abandons her child after her lover dies in battle and the Russians invade. Complications unfold as Esther’s friends played by Dzigan and Schumacher attempt to reunite mother and daughter years later.
Runtime: 90 minutes.
Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse (2024) examines Spiegelman’s “irreverent” life, his artistic partnership with wife Françoise Mouly, and the development of his groundbreaking graphic novel Maus. Premiering at DOC NYC 2024, the film covers his underground comix roots, New Yorker covers, and 9/11 experiences as he emerges as a leading advocate for free speech in response to book bans and rising authoritarianism.
Runtime: 98 minutes.