Welcome to Yiddishland

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 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.

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 bissele Glik(de)

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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?

I, Putin: A Portrait(de)

The multiple, award-winning television author Hubert Seipel, accompanied Vladimir Putin in Russia, over a period of many weeks. He not only conducted several interviews with him, but was also present when Putin shouldered judo opponents, or challenged his bodyguards during a game of ice hockey.

A Meeting with Milton Santos(pt)

The film deals with the process of globalization based on the thought of geographer Milton Santos, who through his ideas and practices, inspires the debate about Brazilian society and the construction of a new world. Santos discusses his views on the importance of respecting difference and his belief that an alternative globalisation model could wholly enfranchise all citizens of the world. An illustrious presence in 20th century social sciences, the man dubbed as ‘geography’s philosopher’ eloquently elucidates a developing world perspective on the global age.

H2Omx(es)

Can a región of 22 million people become water sustainable? Mexico City was not built near water, but in the middle of a lake. To supply it with fresh water, it is necessary to bring it from other states. In addition, once sewage water leaves the city, it ends up in the state of Hidalgo to be used in agriculture. This is an environmental case study of the Valley of Mexico and its struggles to save itself as the population grows.

The Man Who Predicted 9/11(en)

After the planes hit on 9/11, Morgan Stanley security chief Rick Rescorla put into effect plans that he had developed years before. Rick had seen the potential for an airborne suicide attack on the twin towers as part of evaluating the risk posed to his wards within their building. After the attack in 1993 Rick took it personally to prepare and avoid the chaotic scenes that came with the 93 attack. This documentary tells the story of the man who predicted the 9/11 attacks and saved thousands of lives and died in the process.

German Concentration Camps Factual Survey(en)

On the 29th September 1945, the incomplete rough cut of a brilliant documentary about concentration camps was viewed at the MOI in London. For five months, Sidney Bernstein had led a small team – which included Stewart McAllister, Richard Crossman and Alfred Hitchcock – to complete the film from hours of shocking footage. Unfortunately, this ambitious Allied project to create a feature-length visual report that would damn the Nazi regime and shame the German people into acceptance of Allied occupation had missed its moment. Even in its incomplete form (available since 1984) the film was immensely powerful, generating an awed hush among audiences. But now, complete to six reels, this faithfully restored and definitive version produced by IWM, is being compared with Alain Resnais’ Night and Fog (1955).

Disposable Hero: The Brian Deegan Story(en)

Disposable Hero documents Brian's journey from hospital beds to podium tops!!! No one in freestyle has had it as good and as bad as Brian Deegan. Brian has collected more X Games and Gravity Games medals than any other competitor. He's appeared on the cover of Racer X Illustrated, Transworld Motocross & FreeriderMX. Features of him have appeared in not only these motocross industry related magazines but in FHM, ESPN The Magazine, DUB and Rolling Stone. Yet at the same time, he's accumulated more X-Rays, Pins, Rods, Plates, Casts, Gashes, and screws than most freestyle motocross riders. To top it all off, he most recently lost a kidney and severely injured his spleen while filming for MTV's Viva La Bam. "Disposable Hero motivates you to throw away your crutches and kick the weak in their ass, The Grim Reaper was at the door and Deegan did not answer." - Jerry Bernardo

Entertain Me: A Film About the Deftones(en)

Entertain Me has all the great stories about how the band got together, what it was like in the early years, and all the other shit that we as fans love to hear, but it also flips it, and talks about the price you pay when touring non stop for years, being in the studio for months and years, and how just being in a band effects not just you, but your family and friends. That might be where it gets depressing. Yes, there are moments that are not so happy, both in interviews and on the road.

John Martyn: Johnny Too Bad(en)

This honest and often blackly hilarious film shows Martyn at home in Ireland, during the lead-up to and aftermath of an operation to have one of his legs amputated below the knee. Contributors include sometime collaborator and buddy Phil Collins, the late Robert Palmer, Ralph McTell, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, fellow hellraiser bassist Danny Thompson, John's ex-wife Beverley Martyn and younger generation fan Beth Orton. We see a man incapable of compromising his creative vision, from his folk club roots in the Sixties, through a career of continuous musical experimentation. Along the way there is a surreal roll-call of accidents and incidents, including a collision with a cow

Gary Barlow On Her Majesty's Service(en)

On Her Majesty’s Service follows Gary Barlow as he embarks on a mission to record a special song to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. He writes the melody with Lord Lloyd Webber, but wants performers from around the Commonwealth to play on it. Prince Charles gives Gary some suggestions before he begins an extraordinary trip, recording a vast number of musicians on their home turfs to make the unique record "Sing".

Here & Now(en)

This film was shot in one day. More than 25 filmmakers and surfers worked in unison to document the world of surfing in a single 24-hour period: May 2, 2012. From world champs like Kelly Slater and Stephanie Gilmore to free spirits like Dave Rastovich, Ozzy Wright and Alex Knost, this project brings together shapers, photographers, legends, beginners, third world, first world and surf world. Some scored big. Others couldn’t find a ripple. It’s all part of the surfing experience. From contests to camping, hanging at home or hitting the road, veteran surf filmmaker Taylor Steele pulls together an epic, international cast to prove the best place to be is here and now.