First Run Features: Theatrical Catalog

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

	Animation
	Cult Classics
	Documentaries
	Erotica
	Family
	Films About Faith
	Foreign
	Gay & Lesbian
	Jewish Interest


Jewish Interest

A Life Apart: Hasidism in America	Menachem Daum & Oren Rudavsky	95 min, 35mm, Color, English, 1997
A Film by Menachem Daum & Oren Rudavsky. Seven years in the making, this extraordinarily intimate film takes us into the mysterious and joyous world of the Hasidic Jews, revealing a place few outsiders have seen and fewer yet could imagine.

Arguing The World	Joseph Dorman	56 min, Color, 1982
Arguing the World traces the fascinating trajectory of the lives of Irving Howe, Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer, and Irving Kristol, four of the 20th century's leading thinkers.

Be Fruitful and Multiply	Shosh Shlam	50 min, Video, Color, 2006
A film by Shosh Shlam. How does it feel to have been pregnant or breastfeeding for 25 of 26 years of your married life? This and other questions are posed openly and directly, exposing the consequences of the commandment "Be fruitful and multiply" – the mother of all Mitzvot – upon the ultra-orthodox Jewish woman.

Black to the Promised Land	Madeleine Ali	95 min, 16mm, Color, 1992
A Film by Madeleine Ali. Inner-city teens travel to Israel and work on a kibbutz in this powerful portrayal of the importance of cross-cultural exchange

Cup Final	Fran Riklis	107 min, 35mm, Color, Hebrew w/English Subtitles, 1992
A Film by Eran Riklis. When an Israeli soldier is captured by a band of PLO fighters en route to Beirut, a passion for soccer leads to a tale of shared humanity.

Dad on the Run	Dante Desarthe	92 min, 35mm, Color, French w/English Subtitles, 2000
A Film by Dante Desarthe. Fueled by klezmer and set in the Paris night world, Dad On The Run is an intelligent and hilarious screwball comedy involving Bar Mitzvahs, frozen fish and a misplaced foreskin.

Diaries of Yossef Nachmani	Dalia Karpel	63 min, Video, Color/B&W, 2006
A Film by Dalia Karpel. A look into the complex and contradictory personality of Yossef Nachmani, the man largely responsible for the first Zionist settlements in the Galilee. The film focuses on events in Tiberius, Nachmani's hometown, a mixed community where Arabs and Jews coexisted harmoniously.

Faith and Fortune: The Reichmann Story	Alan Handel	90 min, Beta, Color, 2001
Chronicling the rise and fall of one of the world's most secretive and wealthy Jewish families, the film tells the epic tale of a dynastic family that acquired staggering wealth, only to lose it all in a gamble of astonishing proportions at London's Canary Wharf.

Fighter	Amir Bar-Lev	91min, 35mm, Color, 2000
A Film by Amir Bar-Lev. A unique adventure unfolds as two friends take a risky road trip into their past in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia.

Forgiving Dr. Mengele	Bob Hercules & Cheri Pugh	80 min, Video, Color, 2005
Eva Kor and her sister were victims of the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. Haunted ever since, something shocking occurs: Eva finds the power to forgive him. But not everyone is ready to forgive the unforgivable.

Freud Leaving Home	Susanne Bier	100 min, 35mm, Color, Swedish w/English Subtitles, 1991
At 25, Freud still lives at home with her parents, but just when her mother's 60th birthday approaches she falls in love and finally attempts to leave her nest.

The Goebbels Experiment	Lutz Hachmeister & Michael Kloft	107 min, 35mm, Color/B&W, German w/English Subtitles, 2004
Kenneth Branagh reads from the diaries of Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. A rare and chilling glimpse into a brilliant but toxic mind..

Go For Zucker	Dani Levy	95 min, 35mm, Color, German w/English Subtitles, 2005
Dani Levy's controversial and hilarious contemporary farce about pool shark and all-around hustler Jaeckie Zucker is the first German-Jewish comedy to come out of Germany since World War II.

Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg	Kjell Grede	115 min, 35mm, Color, Swedish w/English Subtitles, 1990
A Film by Kjell Grede. The story of Swedish businessman Raoul Wallenberg who helped Jews in Budapest, Hungary in 1944 obtain Swedish passports to get them out of Adolph Eichmann's deadly path.

Le Grand Role	Steve Suissa	90 min, 35mm, Color, French w/English subtitles, 2004
Thinking he has been cast in a Yiddish version of The Merchant of Venice, Parisian actor Maurice tells his beloved wife Perla. But when the part goes to another, Maurice must play the role of his life to be sure she doesn’t find out.

Hamsun	Jan Troell	160 min, 35mm, Color, Swedish w/English Subtitles, 1996
A Film by Jan Troell. The shocking, true story of Knut Hamsun (Max von Sydow), the Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian author who stunned the world by siding with Hitler and the Nazis.

Hiding and Seeking	Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky	85 min, Digibeta, Color, English, Yiddish & Polish w/English Subtitles, 2004
Hiding and Seeking tells the story of a father who tries to alert his adult Orthodox Jewish sons, whose views have shifted considerably from his own, to the dangers of insularity and intolerance of those outside the faith.

Homo Sapiens 1900	Peter Cohen	85 min, 35mm, Color, 1998
A Film by Peter Cohen. A haunting exploration of the history of eugenics, race hygiene and the idea of the 'new man.' Emerging at the turn of the century, eugenic movements spawned government sanctioned research projects.

The Jew	Jom Tob Azulay	85 min, 35mm, Color, Portuguese w/English Subtitles, 1996
A Film by Jom Tob Azulay. In 18th Century Portugal, a talented and popular Jewish writer battles the repressive and dangerous forces of the Inquisition.

Jewish Soul, American Beat	Barbara Pfeffer	60 min, 16mm, Color, 1997
A Film by Barbara Pfeffer. With insight and humor, Jewish Soul, American Beat explores the new landscape of Jewish tradition in America, from a feminist seder to a Yiddish Cabaret.

A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden	Michal Goldman	76 min, 16mm, Color, 1987
A Film by Michel Goldman. Klezmer is rediscovered in this celebration of the lively and eclectic music of Eastern European Jews.

Kaddish	Steve Brand	92 min, 16mm, Color/B&W, 1984
A Film by Steve Brand. A candid portrait of a young Jewish activist who must face his father's traumatic history.

Last Dance	Mirra Bank	84 min, Video, Color, 2002
A Film by Mirra Bank. Go behind the scenes with the audacious, innovative dance company Pilobolus and legendary author-illustrator Maurice Sendak to reveal a stormy collaboration. Their shared creative venture - to create a work that confronts the Holocaust.

Mendel	Alexander Rosler	98 min, 35mm, Color, Norwegian w/English Subtitles, 1997
A Film by Alexander Rosler. When a Jewish family relocates from post-war Nazi Germany to Norway a young boy must learn how to fit in as he uncovers the secret his parents are keeping from him.

Nazi Medicine: In the Shadow of the Reich	John J. Michalczyk	54 min, Color/B&W, 1997
A Film by John J. Michalczyk. From sterilization to death camps to human experimentation, Nazi Medicine studies what led Germany's doctors down an unethical road to genocide.

Pop	Joel Meyerowitz	80 min, 16mm, Color, 1999
A Film by Joel Meyerowitz. Photographer Joel Meyerowitz, his father Hy (suffering from Alzheimer's) and son Sasha - three generations - take a heartwarming and sometimes hilarious road trip from Florida to NYC, trying to recapture the fading memories of Hy's life.

Spark among the Ashes	Oren Rudavsky	56 min, 16mm, Color, 1986
A 13-year-old American's trip to the holocaust-devastated Jewish community of Cracow for his bar mitzvah.

Terezin Diary	Dan Weissman	88 min,16mm, Color, 1990
A Film by Dan Weissman. Terezin Diary focuses on Helga Kinsky who, with nine other survivors, describes the eerie paradoxes of life as children in the model ghetto. They were encouraged to draw and write, to publish their own magazines, and to perform in "Brundibar," a children's opera. But by the war's end, fewer than one in ten of these children was alive.

We Were So Beloved	Manny Kirchheimer	16mm, Color/B&W, 1986
A Film by Manfred Kirchheimer. Kirchheimer explores the experiences of German Jews who fled Nazi Germany to settle in New York's Washington Heights.

The Winners	Peter Cohen	85 min, Beta, Color, English, French, Russian & Flemish w/English Subtitles, 1998
A Film by Peter Cohen. One of the most prestigious arenas is the Queen Elizabeth in Brussels. This competition is to music what the Olympic Games are to sports. This film does not presume to be a value judgment on the merits of competition. A major prize can make a career. But it can also cause a great deal of pain.