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.

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.

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.

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?

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...

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.

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.

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.

And the Soul Lasted the Longest(ru)

About the VI International Competition of Young Ballet Dancers and the tragic fate of dancer Māris Liepa.

Dinosaurs: Fun, Fact and Fantasy(en)

Everything you ever wanted to know about the world of dinosaurs - and quite a lot of amazing things you've never even dreamed about!

Once Upon A Time On The Internet(en)

Learn about Newgrounds.com and the site's 30 years of impact on internet culture in this feature-length documentary.

Auschwitz: Countdown to Liberation(en)

The last weeks in the Nazi concentration camp revealed through the touching stories of survivors such as Eva Kor and Samuel Modiano. Between suffering and resistance, the documentary explores human courage in inhumane conditions, revealing the hope that flourished even in the darkest moments. A powerful tribute to memory and freedom, essential for not forgetting.

Britpop Conservation Society(en)

Henry runs the Britpop Conservation Society and no one else cares. This mockumentary shows how everyone is a bit obsessed with something, but some more than others.

Departementet eller Irrfärder i byråkratin(sv)

Depicts the Teko issue, the oil resources, trade agreements with Mexico, and visits to textile factories.

Veckan då Roger dödades : Filmen om det s.k. punkdråpet(sv)

On February 28, 1981, sixteen-year-old Roger Johansson was knifed to death at the Old Town's subway station during a fight with two boys of the same age. This was in the media referred to as the punk-killing.

The Sailor & the Scholar: Voyage of the Sunstone(en)

A small team of sailors, scholars and archaeologists challenge the accepted history of Christopher Columbus's voyage to America.