Welcome to Yiddishland(2024)

A Yiddish World Remembered(en)

Elliott Gould narrates this affectionate look at life in the shtetls of Eastern Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries. "It's unreal that all this could have just disappeared," says Polish native Mariem Adler Stok, one of the seniors whose memories of this "Yiddish world" give this documentary its life. The hour traces Jewish history in Europe and explores Jews' focus on education, their religious customs, clothing, food, music and theater.

The Paper Brigade(fr)

Lithuania, 1941, during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of texts on Jewish culture, stolen by the Germans, are gathered in Vilnius to be classified, either to be stored or to be destroyed. A group of Jewish scholars and writers, commissioned by the invaders to carry out the sorting operations, but reluctant to collaborate and determined to save their legacy, hide many books in the ghetto where they are confined. This is the epic story of the Paper Brigade.

A Little Family Conversation(fr)

The questioning of Jewish heritage and identity via the portrait of a diversed family, across Belgium and the United States.

A bissele Glik(de)

The Great Yiddish Love(en)

Set in Berlin and New York's Lower East Side, The Great Yiddish Love stars the self-exiled Marlene Dietrich and her Nazi-endorsed replacement, Zarah Leander. It is a melodrama of love, emigration, and betrayal reassembled from Hollywood, German Ufa and Yiddish films from the 1930s and 40s.

40 Nickels(en)

Based her grandfather’s boyhood in St. Louis, Yasmin Gorenberg tells a story of the pain passed from refugee parents to their children and the hope that can overcome it. “40 Nickels” captures the image of a generation of immigrants to the United States in the 1920’s and 1930’s and through that spotlights the effects of the 1919 pogroms in Eastern Europe. This is a film about parents and children: how trauma never leaves a family, and how hope and resilience is also passed down. It asks the question: Can a new generation look at the world with wonder rather than fear?

Gold for Fools(en)

Raised in rural isolation by an extremist Hasidic sect, Chaim is torn between his devotion to his grandmother, an aging Holocaust survivor, and his attraction to a sexy blond in a Liberty car insurance ad.

4th Dementia(en)

In this multiverse comedy about Alzheimer's, Nellie travels through alternate dimensions in search of her husband.

Motel the Operator(yi)

Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.

SHTTL(yi)

In one continuous shot, SHTTL shows the lives, loves, and inner conflicts within a Yiddish speaking shtetl on the border between Ukraine and Poland - one day before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

An American Pickle(en)

An immigrant worker at a pickle factory is accidentally preserved for 100 years and wakes up in modern day Brooklyn. He learns his only surviving relative is his great grandson, a computer coder who he can’t connect with.

The Man Without a World(en)

The Man Without a World is credited to the legendary (and imaginary) 1920s Soviet director, Yevgeny Antinov. But the film is anything but old. In fact, Antinov himself is the creation of contemporary filmmaker Eleanor Antin. Her film is a moving, comic melodrama set in a typical shtetl (village) in Poland. The Jews’ struggle against poverty and racial hatred is complicated by their own division into hostile political factions of the religious orthodoxy, assimilationists, socialists, Zionists, anarchists and survivors. While the Jews of the shtetl pursue their loves, politics, religion, business and dreams for the future, the Angel of Death is ever near...

Isaac Babel. The Fatal Triangle(ru)

When the collection of short stories by I.E.Babel "Konarmiya" was published, S.M. Budyonny became one of its first readers. The "horse army" infuriated him. Budyonny called the essays slanderous speculation and threatened to personally hack Babel with a saber. Defending the writer, Gorky wrote: "He showed the fighters of the First Cavalry better, more truthfully than Gogol — Zaporozhtsev." The writer was saved that time. But on May 16, 1939, no one could help Babel anymore. The writer was arrested. He ended up in the most terrible NKVD prison, Sukhanovskaya. Few people managed to get out alive.…

Hollywood Bulldogs: The Rise and Falls of the Great British Stuntman(en)

They created and performed the iconic action sequences of 007, Indiana Jones, Superman, Rambo, Star Wars, Conan, the Alien films and pretty much everything since. They crashed cars, jumped from burning buildings, shot, stabbed, kicked and punched their way into cinema history. This is the first feature documentary to unite the legendary community of stuntmen in telling their story and, as you'll see, there's life in the old dogs yet.

Sonic 30th Anniversary Symphony(en)

30 years ago, on June 23rd, 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog was released on the SEGA Genesis, beginning a new era of gaming. Since then, Sonic has been running through countless zones, beating badniks, and saving the world with the help of his friends. This performance is to thank you, all of you, for being there every step of the way, and to remind us all of the amazing journey we've been on. Happy 30th Anniversary, Sonic!

Alice(pt)

A documentary about deconstructing what seems complex to create something simple, something meaningful. The documentary introduces Alice, who co-wrote the script with the director. A surfer, skateboarder, artist and transgender woman born in Maceió, in the Northeast of Brazil, Alice builds her identity and finds ways to exist in a society still marked by prejudice and violence.

The Secret Wars of the Big Sport(ru)

The authors selected four of the most popular sports in Russia. And their brightest "stars" who survived the "conflicts of the century." Biathlete Alexander Tikhonov, football player Pavel Sadyrin, hockey player Alexander Mogilny, chess player Viktor Korchnoi. They confronted, each at his own time, rivals, outdated rules, and even the political system...

Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade(en)

A visionary new documentary exploring the final decade of John Lennon's life in extraordinary detail. Follow the legend as he evolves beyond The Beatles, creating revolutionary music and standing at the forefront of anti-war protests that would make him one of the most influential pop culture icons of all time.

Exempt(es)

There are public places in Cuba where the gay community meets secretly. The link between the director and these places provokes conflicts that force him to return to the “potajeras”. In this journey, the director's feelings of love and hate for these places are intertwined.

Treasures Untold: The Making of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'(en)

Find out how the spectacular music inspired the animation, and learn more about the development of the characters—such as how Ursula ended up being a big octopus—and how the memorable song "Part of Your World" almost got cut from the film.