When the 45th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival opens July 17, guest festival director Ash Hoyle will bask in what the festival team has brought to the screen.
“It’s a gift to do this work,” he told J. last week, referring to the task of watching, choosing and curating dozens of thought-provoking films. “At a time when a lot of us are looking to creatives to make sense of the moment that we’re in, it’s really nice to feel close to that and offer our platform to give a lot of entry points for people to come into the conversation.”
The films provide more than a way to spend an hour or two in a dark room. Narrative or documentary, comedy or drama, live action or animated, the films chosen for this year’s SFJFF aim to inspire, delight, confound and, above all, generate conversations — conversations about love, family, history, Israelis, Palestinians, the Holocaust and individuals who have changed the world.
Ticket go on sale Tuesday for members of the Jewish Film Institute (JFI), the festival’s parent organization, and Friday for the general public.
This year the festival is highlighting independent films, several of which are the product of completion grants from the JFI. That thematic focus is no accident, Hoyle said, because film and all the arts are facing cuts in federal funding, either proposed, feared or already enacted.
“At a time where the independent film landscape is in such a challenging place, it feels really, exciting and actually more vital than ever to be able to present works and offer meaningful support to independent filmmakers,” he said, noting that several films are world premieres, a “very large number for us, historically.”
Among those world premieres is “The Feeling Remains,” a highly personal documentary from Sophie Rose that utilizes 16mm film and home videos to explore a family’s lived trauma. Another world first is “Lost Cause,” from Adam Kritzer, described in the festival brochure as an “allegorical musical about a Yom Kippur service that goes off the rails,” as well as “Labors of Love: The Life and Legacy of Henrietta Szold,” an inspiring documentary about the feminist educator and healthcare pioneer who created Hadassah, the women’s Zionist organization, and rescued thousands of Jewish children from Nazi Europe.
There are also a number of films about women artists, including “Maintenance Artist,” a documentary that tells of a woman’s 1969 manifesto declaring her household work to be performance art and spurring a lifelong collaboration with maintenance workers. Another of note is “The First Lady,” an Israel-Germany co-production receiving its international premiere at the festival. The documentary follows the now-elderly Israeli transgender pioneer Efrat Tilma who left Israel as a teen to escape oppression, then returned two decades ago but finds herself once again fighting for her rights. Directors of both films received a year of JFI support as Filmmakers in Residence, another way that JFI seeks to lift up independent films and the people who make them.
As part of its mandate to push the envelope on the events that constitute a film festival, this year the SFJFF will present transgender actor and filmmaker Tommy Dorfman reading from her new book, “Maybe This Will Save Me: A Memoir of Art, Addiction and Transformation.” There will also be not only a screening of the pilot episode of an upcoming American series called “Bulldozer,” but a live table read by the creators of a future script. Both events will take place at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco.
As usual, Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a focus of the festival, with several films offering various perspectives. “Rule of Stone” tells the history of Jerusalem from Biblical times to the present, in the voice of the golden-rose stone used in the construction of its buildings. And “Holding Liat” is a documentary about Liat Beinin Atzili, an American Israeli kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and returned during the initial cease-fire in November 2023. (The body of her husband, Aviv Atzili, was found by the Israeli military last week in Gaza and returned to Israel.)
Hoyle is particularly excited by the festival’s opening-night film, “Coexistence, My Ass!” This JFI-supported documentary features former U.N. diplomat turned standup comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi examining her shifting perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Shuster-Eliassi is expected to attend the July 17 screening at the Herbst Theatre, and in another festival first, will perform her standup later that week at the AMC Kabuki 8.
“This film is a gift to our community at a time that feels so challenging. It’s unabashed in its approach to the issue, really taking things on straight, grappling with some really big questions, but doing so with an amount of levity and humor that’s really admirable,” Hoyle said. “It holds a lot of perspectives within it, and I think many people will be able to find new ways of thinking and engaging with the issue, through being part of the conversation that the film starts.”
So there’s a lot going on at this year’s festival, including screenings of old favorites such as “When Harry Met Sally.” Oakland native and “Hamilton” star Daveed Diggs will accept the annual Freedom of Expression Award on July 31 at Landmark’s Piedmont Theatre, in an evening that will include the California premiere of “Magic Hour,” in which he stars. A Next Wave Party is set for July 25 at the New Farm in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood. And a town hall meeting is scheduled for July 27 at the JCCSF where people are invited to contribute to the vision for JFI’s future.
“It’s our 45th anniversary, and it feels like a really special time to come to the festival,” said Hoyle. “I think a lot of the conversations that have emerged in the Bay have been conjured by the community created at our festival over 45 years. So it’s a wonderful time to take a pause and look back at that legacy, and then take a look forward as well.”