Join us for the Charlotte Jewish Film Festival!!

Schedule of Events:

January 22, 2025

7:30 pm: The Charlotte Jewish Film Festival Presents Iron Ladies (Preview Screening).

In the 1970s, the Soviet Union increased their persecution of "Refusenik" Jews, banning them from immigrating to Israel. Sparking international outrage, a network of young Jewish women took to the streets to protest against this policy, all the while they were secretly delivering aid to those in need by sneaking it into the country. This remarkable true story showcases how the power of the people can bring down the might of an authoritarian government. Told by the women themselves, this is an unmissable documentary.

Location: Sam Lerner Center for Cultural Arts

January 25, 2025

7:30 pm: The Charlotte Jewish Film Festival Presents Bad Shabbos.

Newly engaged couple David (Jon Bass) and Meg (Meghan Leathers) plan to introduce their parents for the first time over a Shabbat dinner at David's parents' Upper West Side apartment. As the finishing touches for the evening come together, a dead body throws a wrench into this high-stakes affair. This day of rest is anything but, as David's family must find a way to get rid of the body before their future in-laws arrive. Daniel Robbins' winning interfaith comedy BAD SHABBOS boasts a hilarious cast (Kyra Sedgwick, Method Man, Catherine Curtin, and David Paymer) and highly satisfying high jinks.

Director, Daniel Robbins will participate in a Q and A session after the film along with a dessert reception.

Bad Shabbos premiered in the Narrative Spotlight strand of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival.

Price: $25

Location: Temple Israel

January 26, 2025

7:30 pm: The Charlotte Jewish Film Festival Presents Never Alone.

Never Alone tells the gripping story of Jewish refugees seeking safety in Finland during WWII. As Nazi influence grows, a Jewish leader must risk everything to protect his community. This powerful film showcases courage, resilience, and the fight for hope amidst overwhelming adversity.

From the celebrated director Klaus Haro, known for My Sailor, My Love, and Oscar-shortlisted and Golden Globe-nominated The Fencer, comes a powerful, true story of resilience and defiance. Based on actual events during World War II, Never Alone shines a light on the plight of Jewish refugees seeking sanctuary in Finland and the unwavering hero who risked everything to protect them.

Klaus Haro's film The Fencer (2015) was nominated for the Golden Globes as well as Oscar shortlisted in the Best Foreign Film Category. Elina (2003), Mother of Mine (2005), and Letters to Father Jacob (2009) were selected to represent his native country Finland in the Best Foreign Film Category at the Oscars. Altogether Haro's films have won more than 60 prizes at festivals all over the world including The Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and the prestigious Ingmar Bergman prize, the winner of which was chosen by Ingmar Bergman himself.

Price: $15

Location: Temple Israel

January 28, 2025

7:30 pm: The Charlotte Jewish Film Festival Presents October H8te.

From Executive Producer Debra Messing and Director Wendy Sachs, OCTOBER H8TE is a documentary about the explosion of anti-Semitism on college campuses, on social media, and in the streets of America in the aftermath of October 7th.

High-profile people featured in the film include Debra Messing, Michael Rapaport, Mosab Yousef (son of Hamas's co-founder), Sheryl Sandberg, Scott Galloway, US Rep. Ritchie Torres, US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, Dan Senor, Noa Tishby, Bari Weiss, and a survivor from Nir Oz.

Price: $15

Location: Temple Israel

January 29, 2025

7:30 pm: The Charlotte Jewish Film Festival Presents the Stronghold.

Sinai Desert, Yom Kippur War, 1973. In a remote outpost, a company of Israeli soldiers are overwhelmed by a sudden Egyptian onslaught. After a week of ceaseless assaults, the survivors face imminent doom. With lives hanging by a thread, a young lieutenant and an army doctor confront a soul-shattering choice: a desperate last stand, or a perilous gamble that could betray everything they stand for.

Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte's Israel and Global Jewry Associate, Noah Goldman will host a Q and A with Veterans of the Yom Kippur War after the film.

Price: $15

Location: Temple Israel

February 1, 2025

7:30 pm: CJFF - The Blond Boy From The Casbah

Passionate filmmaker Antoine travels to his birthplace, Algiers, with his young son to present his new film: an account of his childhood in mid-20th century Algeria during the country's civil war. As he wanders through the city, the filmmaker immerses us in the moments of happiness, laughter, and tears of his childhood - spent between school, friends, and his Jewish family. Growing up in the final moments of Algeria's pre-independence period, the young Antoine discovers his profound fascination with cinema and starts to understand who he truly is.

Price: $15

Location: Gorelick Hall at the LJCC

February 5, 2025

7:30 pm: CJFF - UnBroken

As each generation ages, the need to record family history before it is forever lost increases in urgency. Filmmaker Beth Lane embarks on an international quest to uncover answers about the plight of her mother and her six siblings who, as mere children, escaped Nazi Germany relying solely on their own youthful bravado and the kindness of strangers. After being hidden in a laundry hut by a benevolent farmer, the children spent two years fending for themselves. Emboldened by their father's mandate that they always stay together, the children used their own cunning and instincts to fight through hunger, loneliness, bombings, and fear.

Their journey culminates with a painful ultimatum, when, separated from their father, they are told that they must declare themselves as orphans in order to escape to a new life in America. Unbeknownst to them, this salvation would become what would finally tear them apart, not to be reunited for another 40 years. Told with wit, warmth, and a sense of unfolding discovery, UnBroken is a heartwarming achievement.

Price: $15

Location: Sam Lerner Center for Cultural Arts at Shalom Park

February 8, 2025

7:30 pm: CJFF - Running on Sand

Aumari, a young Eritrean refugee living in Israel, is about to be deported back to his home country. After dodging authorities at the airport, he is mistaken for a Nigerian soccer player, who is supposed to arrive at the same time. Aumari seizes the opportunity and benefits from the change of identity as the new key acquisitions for the team of ‘Maccabi Netanya'. Despite the absence of any soccer talent, he hides his identity and heals the divisions of his struggling team. A tender romantic bond with the charmingly unconventional daughter of the team owner grows. Nominated for the Israel Academy Award Best Film, this sweet film melds humor and heart.

Price: $15

Location: Sam Lerner Center for Cultural Arts at Shalom Park

February 9, 2025

2:00 pm: CJFF - Call Me Dancer

Manish is an athletic street dancer from Mumbai, whose working-class parents depend on their only son's support. When he accidentally walks into an inner-city dance school and encounters a curmudgeonly 70-year-old Israeli ballet master, a hunger develops within him. Ambitious and passionate, Manish is determined to make it as a professional dancer, but the odds are stacked against him. Call Me Dancer is a story of hope, heartache, and hard work. Together, Manish and Yehuda transform each other's lives, searching to uncover who and what they are. Yehuda seeks a purpose and a place to call home. Manish dreams of dancing on the world stage but struggles to break free from the confines of his own economic and social circumstances.

Since the World Film Festival premiere in February 2023, Call Me Dancer has won 23 film festival awards, ten of which are Audience Awards at festivals throughout the US and Canada, in Israel, and the rest of the world.

Price: $15

Location: Sam Lerner Center for Cultural Arts

February 12, 2025

7:30 pm: CJFF - Avenue of the Giants

Herbert Heller carries a traumatic secret from his childhood in Eastern Europe: Now the owner of a toy store in Marin County, California, Herbert survived the Holocaust in his teens. The Nazis forced him into the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp at the age of 12, but he managed to escape three years later and kept the secret from everyone - including his own children - for 60 years. When Herbert is diagnosed later in life with a terminal illness, he befriends Abbey, an isolated teenager whose own brush with pain and death inspires him to open up. Abbey and Herbert reveal their stories to each other, forge an unlikely intergenerational friendship, and together find a path toward healing.

Price: $15

Location: Sam Lerner Center for Cultural Arts at Shalom Park

February 13, 2025

7:30 pm: CJFF - 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 doc charts the life, loves, and career hits and misses of this spunky perfectionist, who forever changed the face of children's television. Featuring ventriloquists who she inspired and nostalgia-inducing clips, this upbeat portrait of brilliant Bronx native turned beloved TV personality brims, like Lewis, with warmth and charm.

Mallory Lewis, Shari Lewis' daughter and Lamb Chop will participate in a Q and A session after the film.

Price: $15

Location: Sam Lerner Center for Cultural Arts at Shalom Park

February 15, 2025

7:30 pm: CJFF - Bliss

Sassi and Efi are hard workers, struggling with the debt left by Sasai's son before he left for Brussels. Though there is quite an age gap between them, their love and humor keep them from life's weariness and despair. When two youngsters - Omri, Sassi's hormonal and kind-hearted grandson, and David, Efi's former student - appear in their lives, their carefully kept routine breaks and the couple's love is tested. Eighteen years after Aviva, My Love, Sasson Gabai and Asi Levi collaborate once again with director Shemi Zarhin to showcase their unique talents. Sassi and Efi's love story is both funny and touching. It illuminates in its unique way issues of relationships, family, and loyalty and sends a painful but also warm and optimistic look at the social realities of today.

Light dessert reception before the Film.

Price: $15

Location: Sam Lerner Center for Cultural Arts at Shalom Park

February 16, 2025

2:00 pm: CJFF - Unspoken

Noam is a closeted teenager in a religious community who discovers he might not be alone.  When he finds a love letter written by 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.

Price: $15

Location: Independent Picture House

7:30 pm: CJFF - Song of Ascent

In the wake of the October 7th massacre in Israel, acclaimed singer-songwriter Matisyahu finds himself at the center of a cultural storm. This powerful documentary/concert film follows Matisyahu's journey as he performs three sold-out shows in Israel while facing cancellations and protests at his US tour dates due to rising anti-Israel sentiment. Thrust into a role he never sought, Matisyahu becomes a powerful voice for Jewish people worldwide, navigating the complexities of identity, faith, and resilience amidst a global crisis.

Price: $15

Location: Sam Lerner Center for Cultural Arts at Shalom Park

February 19, 2025

7:30 pm: CJFF - Colleyville

In the safe haven of Colleyville, Texas, on January 15, 2022, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and three others find themselves hostages when a stranger disrupts a typical Saturday morning at Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue.

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, Director Dani Menkin, and Rabbi Asher Knight of Temple Beth El will participate in a QandA after the film.

Price: $15

Location: Sam Lerner Center for Cultural Arts at Shalom Park

February 22, 2025

7:30 pm: CJFF - Air War

A rivalry between two charismatic Israeli fighter pilots reaches breaking point on the eve of the six-day war. As their country's existence hangs by a thread, the two men must learn to work together. It is only then that they are ready to lead their squadron to victory.

Price: $15

Location: Temple Beth El

February 23, 2025

2:00 pm: CJFF - Auction

André Masson, an auctioneer at Scottie's, receives a letter from a lawyer claiming that a worker in the east French 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 inspect it anyway and against all odds, the painting turns out to be a masterpiece gone missing in 1939. This could undoubtedly be the major turning point of his career, but after a brief investigation, he realizes that he has in his hands, a looted work of art, with an opportunity to take an elevated path.

Light reception following the film showcasing local, Charlotte, Jewish Artists.

Price: $15

Location: Independent Picture House

7:30 pm: CJFF Closing Night - Midas Man

When Brian Epstein set foot in the Cavern Club in November 1961 to watch The Beatles perform, he saw something no one else could - a glimmer of gold. Sharply dressed and well-spoken, Brian was hardly the most obvious radical - but being Jewish and having grown up as an outsider who had failed at pretty much everything, he was a 26-year old with something to prove and who wanted to tear up the rulebook.

Dessert Reception following the film.

Price: $15

Location: Temple Beth El

Date: January 22 - February 23, 2025

Location: Temple Israel, 4901 Providence Road, Charlotte, NC 28226

Shalom Park, 5007 Providence Road, Suite 102, Charlotte, NC 28226

The Independent Picture House, 4237 Raleigh Street, Charlotte, NC 28213

Temple Beth El, 5101 Providence Road, Charlotte, NC 28226

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