Join us at the 2024 Cleveland Jewish FilmFest!

Schedule of Events:

September 5, 2024

7:00pm: OPENING NIGHT: Running on Sand

Aumari, a young Eritrean refugee living in Israel, is about to be deported back to his home country. After a spontaneous escape attempt at the airport, he is miistaken for a Nigerian striker, who is supposed to arrive at the same time. Aumari seizes the opportunity and benefits for his change of identity as the new key acquisitions for the team of 'Maccabi Netanya'. Despite the absence of any soccer talent, Aumari is able to cover-up and heal the divisions of his struggling team, while a tender romantic bond with charmingly unconventional daughter of the team owner is growing.

Location: Cleveland Museum of Natural History Murch Auditorium

September 6, 2024

1:00pm: Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara

Based on a true story in the Jewish quarter of Bologna, Italy in 1858, the Pope's soldiers burst into the home of the Mortara family. By order of the Cardinal, they have come to take Edgardo, their seven-year-old son. The child had been secretly baptized by his nurse as a baby and the papal law is unquestionable: he must receive a Catholic education. Edgardo's distraught parents will do anything to get their son back. The harrowing tale reveals a dark chapter of historical tyranny in the church set against the backdrop of a nation on the verge of revolution.

Location: Cedar Lee Theatre

September 7, 2024

9:00pm: The Monkey House

Amitay, a once successful novelist, tries to revive his fading career in hopes of impressing Tamar, whom he has loved since childhood. Through a highly inventive scam, he recruits a reckless actress and trains her to assume the somber identity of a literature master's student.

Competing narratives collide with the truth, resulting in life-changing consequences for all. A moving blend of literary mystery drawn from real events, this light comedy and an endearing character study has something for everyone.

Location: Cedar Lee Theatre

September 8, 2024

10:00am: The Catskills

The Catskills is a humorous and nostalgic tribute to what became affectionately known as the Borscht Belt. Stand-up comedians share their best shtick while former waiters, entertainers, and dance instructors recount tales of the family-run resorts and bungalows that inspired films like Dirty Dancing. Featuring home movies, publicity photos, postcards, and menus, this time capsule provides an overview of Jewish immigration to New York going back to the early twentieth century. Director Lex Gillespie maps the development of the vacation destination, from a refuge for working-class Jews seeking a respite from poverty in overcrowded New York City tenements to a lavish summer playground for the affluent.

1:00pm: Children of Peace

Arabs and Jews have lived in ongoing conflict for over a century. In 1970s Israel, a group of dreamers decided to challenge everything they knew about their nationalities and histories and founded a new Israeli village, Neve Shalom, the only community in the world where Palestinians and Israelis chose to live together. The documentary, which follows the many children who were brought up in this environment, focuses on the internal struggles and the outside conflict that challenged the community's revolutionary ecosystem.

4:00pm: The Boy in the Woods

Based on Maxwell Smart's best-selling memoir, The Boy in the Woods follows the true story of a resourceful young boy's harrowing experience of surviving the Holocaust. After his family is rounded up by the Germans, Max's mother and aunt help him escape into the woods where he must learn to fend for himself. Max encounters another young boy in hiding and the two heroically save a baby girl. More than just an individual survival story, the film is testament to Max's innate sense of compassion to set aside his fear and help others.

7:00pm: Home

Home is the engrossing story of Yair, a newly married ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva student, who opens an electronics shop in Geula, a neighborhood that is the shopping epicenter for the ultra-Orthodox community in Jerusalem. The religious character of the neighborhood is enforced by the "Geula Committee" and Yair strictly adheres to their rules. His shop is introducing a world of advanced technology that overnight becomes a magnet for every ultra-Orthodox household, but the increasing intrusion of modernity is an affront to the committee, leading to an inevitable conflict that forces Yair into a desperate struggle for survival. Based on true events.

Location: Cedar Lee Theatre

September 9, 2024

1:00pm: Troll Storm

A successful Montana realtor and soccer mom's life is turned upside down when Neo-Nazis unleash an orchestrated harassment and intimidation, known as a "troll storm," against her and her family. In the face of an alarming growth of American fascism, she finds solidarity with her community by standing up, fighting back and ultimately filing a landmark case for the First Amendment, setting a precedent that could shape America's future.

4:00pm: Moses Ezekiel: Portrait of a Lost Artist

Hundreds of Confederate monuments have been removed throughout the United States, largely in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. But who knew that one of the nation's most prominent Confederate monuments was created by an internationally famous Jewish sculptor who had fought for the Confederacy as a young soldier? From the award-winning director of 50 Children and The Levys of Monticello, Steven Pressman's timely and provocative new documentary film tells the unknown story of artist Moses Ezekiel while also focusing on the current fate of Civil War monuments devoted to the dangerous "Lost Cause" myth of the Confederacy.

7:30pm: Shoshana

A political thriller that unfolds during the British Mandate in 1930s Tel Aviv, following two British police officers, Thomas Wilkin and Geoffrey Morton, in their hunt for poet and Zionist activist Avraham Stern, who is plotting to evict British authorities.

Location: Cedar Lee Theatre

September 10, 2024

1:00pm: Shari and Lamb Chop

Shari Lewis was a dancer, singer, and magician but is best known as the ventriloquist behind sock puppets Charlie Horse, Hush Puppy and, of course, Lamb Chop. This lively documentary charts the life, loves, and career hits and misses of this spunky perfectionist, who forever changed the face of children's television.

4:00pm: Martha Liebermann: A Stolen Life

Berlin, 1943, during World War II. Martha Liebermann, an elderly upper-class Jewish woman, faces the decision of her life: should the widow of the world-famous and revered painter Max Liebermann continue to try to obtain an exit permit from the Nazis or, with the help of a resistance group, should she flee to Switzerland?

7:30pm: Seven Blessings

Marie was just two years old when her mother gifted her to her infertile sister, a common Moroccan custom at the time. 40 years later, Marie travels from France to Israel, where her family now lives, to marry her one true love. Her warm and excited family is preparing for the custom of "Seven Blessings"- a week of festive meals in honor of the bride. But Marie has also come to open old wounds. Between intoxicating family meals, secrets and lies are revealed. Marie is desperate for an apology although her family is sure she should be thanking them. This week turns into a sad comedy about family crimes, forgiveness and loss.

Location: Cedar Lee Theatre

September 11, 2024

1:00pm: Auction

Andre Masson, an auctioneer at Scottie's, receives a letter from a lawyer claiming that a common worker in the suburbs of Mulhouse owns a painting by Egon Schiele. André's first reaction is to believe that it can only be a fake. He decides to make the trip to Mulhouse anyway and against all odds, the painting turns out to be a masterpiece gone missing in 1939. This could undoubtedly be the turning point of his career, but after a brief investigation, he realizes that he has in his hands a looted work of art.

4:00pm: We Will Dance Again

Friendship, love, and freedom-these ideals drew young hearts from around the globe to Nova's EDM music festival in south Israel. But as the sun rose on October 7th the fantasy shattered. Rockets sliced through the sky, and the music cut off. Confusion morphed into terror as gunfire erupted amidst the chaos. Hamas terrorists breached the border fence and unleashed barbarity in its rawest form. It is a stark portrayal of the experiences of those who survived and those who didn't. The film meticulously reconstructs the horrifying events capturing the raw emotions and heroism that emerged amidst the senseless violence.

6:30pm: Young Professional Night at the FilmFest: UNSPOKEN film screening and social

Join other young adults for an exclusive screening of Jeremy Borison's new film Unspoken. After the film, gather with friends, old and new, at a neighborhood venue to mingle with Jeremy.

7:30pm: Call Me Dancer

Manish is a talented and athletic street dancer from Mumbai who dreams of becoming professional against the wishes of his struggling parents. He meets a curmudgeonly Israeli ballet master who gives him the determination to keep going. But when he is pitted against another boy who's got the attention of the top school in the world, Manish realizes he must push himself to his physical limits if he has any chance to succeed.

September 12, 2024

1:00pm: Unspoken

Noam Stein is a closeted teenager in a religious community who discovers he might not be alone. When he finds a love letter written to his grandfather by another man before the Holocaust, he sets out to find this mysterious person and uncover both his grandfather's identity as well as his own.

4:00pm: Silver's Uprising

Raised in an orthodox home, Amos Dov Silver dreams of becoming Prime Minister. But when the State continues to shun him, he soon finds unexpected solace in the velvety smoke of Marijuana. Spreading his new Torah, he establishes an online community using a mobile app called "TeleGrass" that turns into the largest marketplace for drugs in Israel, raising Silver to Messiah status. Through exclusive footage of Silver, his family and his partners' investigations, as well as secretly filmed footage of Silver in the Ukrainian prison, a polarizing portrayal of the man charged with heading a crime organization emerges. Champion of the people, or a lost soul corrupted by power?

7:30pm: Diane Warren: Relentless

An intimate look at the life, career and creative process of one of the most accomplished songwriters of all time, Diane Warren.

Location: Cedar Lee Theatre

September 14, 2024

9:00pm: The Performance

Harold May, an excellent Jewish-American tap dancer, on tour in Europe with his company, receives an offer from a German that is difficult to pass up: a large sum to put on a show in Berlin. The German does not know that Harold is of Jewish origins; the year is 1937 and, once they arrive in Germany, the company discovers that he will have to perform in the presence of Adolf Hitler.

Location: Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque

September 15, 2024

11:00am: Shorts Program

We Should Eat

Growing Up Mizrahi - Through cartoons and music this short documentary explores what it's like to be the UK-born daughter of Iraqi Jews growing up in an Ashkenormative world.

The Eighth Day - Noah and Jonah are gay Jewish husbands and new parents to a baby boy. When Noah and Jonah's parents arrive at their home expecting a traditional bris for their grandson, Noah and Jonah are forced to reveal that they had something very different in mind for their son: no circumcision.

More Than Friends - An Israeli short that delves into themes of acceptance, love, and the complexities of relationships. It tells the heartfelt story of a quirky lesbian mom who discovers a love letter written by her 11-year-old son to another boy.

The Anne Frank Gift Shop - Is there a wrong way to talk about the Holocaust? That's the question at the heart of THE ANNE FRANK GIFT SHOP, a dark comedy about anti-Semitism that packs a vital and timely message. When a high-end design firm presents its plans to reimagine the gift shop at The Anne Frank House, the company's overt appeal to Generation Z sparks a debate about collective trauma, the Holocaust and tote bags.

Location: Maltz Museum

Buy Tickets

Date: September 5 - September 12 and 14, 15, 2024

Location:

Cleveland Museum of Natural History Murch Auditorium, 1 Wade Oval Drive, Cleveland, OH

Cedar Lee Theatre, 2163 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights, OH

Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, 11610 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH

Maltz Museum, 2929 Richmond Road, Beachwood, OH

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