Triumph of Hope is a documentary exploring and celebrating the resilience of the human spirit. The first in a planned series of films, the documentary introduces viewers to three fascinating individuals who survived the Holocaust as hidden children.

These three survivors–Arye Ephrath, Helga Morrow, and Regine Archer–share deeply personal and increasingly harrowing experiences in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. Guided by the stories shared by these survivors, viewers will go on a journey that puts both the very worst and the very best of the human spirit on display. 

Tickets: $10 each / $50 Reel Deal Pass / $100 Friend of the Festival

A high school teacher in the Bronx loses funding for the school musical and convinces his fellow statistics teacher—secretly a recovering gambling addict—to help him cheat at an underground card game run by the Hasidic Jewish community. The plan goes awry with mounting consequences, but help comes at an unexpected time from the least likely people.

Tickets: $10 each / $50 Reel Deal Pass / $100 Friend of the Festival

Colleyville is a critically acclaimed documentary that delves into the heart-pounding 11-hour hostage crisis that rocked the quiet Texas town of Colleyville Texas.

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday morning, a terrorist stormed Congregation Beth Israel during a live-streamed service, taking a group of innocent worshippers hostage. Led by the courageous Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, the hostages endured a harrowing ordeal that captured the world's attention.

From award-winning writer-director Dani Menkin, Colleyville is a must-watch for those seeking a story of inspiration and resilience. This gripping film not only offers an intimate look at the hostages' bravery and the community's unwavering support but also explores the complexities of hate crimes and antisemitism.

Tickets: $10 each / $50 Reel Deal Pass / $100 Friend of the Festival

Audience Award Winner at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, BAD SHABBOS is here to prove that even Shabbat can go haywire in this off-beat comedy. Directed by Daniel Robbins and co-written by Zack Weiner, this chaotic “one-night-in-New-York” story turns family dinner into a sidesplitting disaster.
 
When two couples — Abby and Benjamin, and David and Meg (freshly converted to Judaism)— gather for a traditional Shabbat dinner, things spiral faster than you can say “hamotzi” when an accidental death (or...murder?) derails the evening entirely, and Meg’s devoutly Catholic parents are due any moment to meet David’s very Jewish family. Before you know it, Shabbat becomes a comedy of biblical proportions.

Tickets: $10 each / $50 Reel Deal Pass / $100 Friend of the Festival

The previously untold story of a group of young Jewish housewives and mums, who, at the height of the Cold War, took on the might of the USSR in defense of the rights and freedoms of Soviet Jews… and won.

The 35s were an international network of women with no political power or experience, who simply refused to stand idle in the face of Soviet tyranny and persecution of their co-religionists. Starting with demonstrations and protests, they progressed to a series of clandestine visits behind the Iron Curtain, worthy of a spy novel, posing as tourists in order to support and find out about the conditions of so-called “Refusenik” Jews. Helped by a top-secret Israeli Government agency, Nativ, these trips helped fuel political campaigns that secured the release of key dissidents, opening fissures that led to the eventual liberation of over a million Soviet Jews. For decades, the women kept their activities secret, but now, in their seventies and eighties, they are finally ready to talk.

Tickets: $10 each / $50 Reel Deal Pass / $100 Friend of the Festival

A beloved small-town rabbi becomes an unlikely gunslinger after his community is violently attacked.

Moses Zaltzman is a beloved Hasidic rabbi in a dusty desert town. When his congregation is violently attacked, police quickly arrest a young white nationalist who threatened them in the past, but Rabbi Mo thinks the troubled teen may be innocent. With no one else willing to investigate, Rabbi Mo becomes the detective, and as the bodies pileup, he must learn how to use a gun in order to battle the real enemy. At the heart of the film is the unexpected bond between the rabbi and an antisemite, as well as Mo’s looming fear that he won’t pull the trigger if he has to...and that he will.

Tickets: $10 each / $50 Reel Deal Pass / $100 Friend of the Festival