Jacob Burns Film Center Jewish Film Festival

The films in the 23rd edition of the JBFC's Jewish Film Festival offer close encounters with remarkable individuals in a wide range of fiction films and documentaries. In all of these films, personal stories lead to broader perspectives on history, culture, and society.

Schedule of Events:

12:00pm - Midas Man

Midas Man
2024. 112 m. Joe Stephenson. Menemsha Films. UK. English. Rated NR.

The life story of Brian Epstein, the entrepreneurial Liverpudlian who discovered The Beatles, managed them to meteoric global superstardom, and died at 32, has not had a proper feature-film treatment… until now. With an absorbing lead performance by Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Midas Man shows how Epstein escaped his fate working in his family's retail furniture business to help launch Beatlemania, changing the world of music forever.

"Brian deserves an honest film that celebrates everything he did and was. Through an honest film we can celebrate him without sugar coating the difficult subjects. An honest film can remind people what a society that oppresses people for who they are does on a personal level." —Director Joe Stephenson

Tickets: $13 (members), $18 (nonmembers)

7:20pm - Janis Ian: Breaking Silence

2025. 114 m. Varda Bar-Kar. Greenwich Entertainment. US. English. Rated NR.

Singer-songwriter Janis Ian spent her Jewish childhood on her family's chicken farm in New Jersey. She was catapulted into stardom and then controversy as a teenager, with her surprise hit "Society's Child," about interracial love, and her piercingly bittersweet hit song "At Seventeen," about body shaming. Her life and career have had remarkable ups and downs, all depicted in this thoroughly absorbing documentary that features rare material from her vast personal archive and fascinating interviews with family, friends, and musicians with whom she worked. A compelling story about a uniquely gifted and resilient artist that feels epic in scope.

Tickets: $13 (members), $18 (nonmembers)

2:35pm - Of Dogs and Men

2024. 82 m. Dani Rosenberg. Menemsha Films. Italy/Israel. Hebrew with subtitles. Rated NR.

How is it possible to make a narrative film that addresses the massive horror of the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel, and also acknowledges the tragedy of the inevitable retribution just across the border in Gaza? In the case of Dani Rosenberg's Of Dogs and Men, the answer is by going small. With deep humanism and sensitivity, he tells the story of a 16-year-old survivor who returns to her kibbutz searching for her lost dog. Remarkably, Rosenberg picked up his camera to start filming less than a month after the attacks. A touching, necessary, and poetic work.

Tickets: $13 (members), $18 (nonmembers)

7:00pm - Come Closer
2024. 107 m. Tom Nesher. Greenwich Entertainment. Israel. Hebrew with subtitles. Rated NR.

Israel’s official selection for the Best International Feature Academy Award (and winner of Israel’s own Best Film and Best Director awards), Come Closer is an electrifying debut by Tom Nesher, daughter of the acclaimed director Avi Nesher. Deeply personal, the film was made as a response to the tragic death of Tom’s younger brother, Ari. Also making her unforgettable debut is lead actress Lia Elalouf, who is exhilarating and heartbreaking as she goes through a wild emotional journey that includes an intense and transformative relationship with a secret girlfriend from Ari’s past. This gripping film marks Tom Nesher as an important talent to watch.

Tickets: $13 (members), $18 (nonmembers)

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