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Film

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"A Real Pain" Film Still

"A Real Pain" Explores the Grief We Inherit

Sarah Jae Leiber

The film is at its sharpest depicting grief as a series of elephants in rooms, of ghost towns beneath well-trodden cobblestones.

Topics: Film, Holocaust
Kristen Bell and Adam Brody in "Nobody Wants This"

Romcom Magic Can't Save "Nobody Wants This"

Sarah Jae Leiber

Sparks fly between the charming leads, but the series too often relies on tired stereotypes and shallow conflicts. 

Topics: Film
Tiffany Shlain Dendrofeminology

7 Questions For Artist Tiffany Shlain

Sarah Groustra

JWA chats with artist and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain about her new solo show, YOU ARE HERE, why nature inspires her, and why people who say they're not creative are wrong. 

Birth of Bollywood Actress Nadira

December 5, 1932

Florence Ezekiel, known by her stage name Nadira, was an Indian actress who worked in the Hindi film industry, usually playing "vamp" or femme fatale roles in the 1950s and 60s.  

Elizabeth Taylor, circa 1955

The Self-Mythology of Elizabeth Taylor

Sarah Jae Leiber

The film shines brightest as a catalog of one woman’s robust self-mythology, written and rewritten to protect herself from the reality of how she was perceived by the world.

Topics: Film, LGBTQIA Rights

Birth of Bollywood Actress Pramila

December 30, 1916

Esther Victoria Abraham, better known by her stage name Pramila, was born in Kolkata, India, to a Baghdadi Jewish family on December 30, 1916. Winner of the first ever Miss India beauty pageant and a Bollywood star, she had an impressive career, working both as an actress and later as a pioneering woman in film production. 

Berta Singerman

Berta Singerman (1901-1998) was an Argentine actress and reciter of poetry, famous throughout the Ibero-American cultural world. Born in Russia to a family of traditional singers (chazanim), she immigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina, when she was four years old.

Collage of Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie

What Was the Barbie Movie Made For?

Eva Stern

Movie-goers left screenings of the Barbie movie with a multitude of reactions. Some felt empowered to make change, others felt uncomfortable with the movie and with how it made them feel.

Topics: Film, Activism
Sabina Vajraca and a poster from Sevap/Mitzvah

Q & A with Sabina Vajraca about her New Film, "Sevap/Mitzvah"

Mirushe "Mira" Zylali

JWA chats with Sabina Vajraca about her new film Sevap/Mitzvah, inspired by a remarkable true story of female friendship and our common humanity.

Collage of "Do Revenge"

The Subtle Antisemitism of "Do Revenge"

Halleli Abrams Gerber

The film is inclusive in terms of race, sexuality, income, and more. However,  Max Broussard, the high school’s “king" embodies many of the worst stereotypes that Jews face.

Topics: Film, Antisemitism
Collage of "The Believer"

Wrestling with God and Neo-Nazis

Ava Cohen

What’s frightening about 2001 film, "The Believer,"  is that struggling with the idea of God as all-powerful is far from a unique experience.

Collage of the "Barbie" Movie

Feminism, Sexism, and the "Barbie" Movie

Roz Larsen

Barbie's core message that women can transcend their “assigned” roles and defy societal double standards may not have landed with everyone.

Topics: Film, Feminism
Collage of Gretchen Wieners from "Mean Girls"

Gretchen Wieners Complicates "Good" Jewish Representation

Lucy Targum

Gretchen's Judaism is surface level at best, and yet, I can’t help but relate to her.

Topics: Film
Maestro Film Still

Beyond "Maestro's" Prosthetics and Into Bernstein's World

Sarah Jae Leiber

Bradley Cooper’s Maestro nose, in context, reads less to me like internalized antisemitism and more like Cooper’s deep, spiritual obsession with getting it right.

Topics: Film, Music

Episode 97: Golda Reconsidered

Golda Meir is known as Israel's "Iron Lady": gruff, chain-smoking, and fiercely ambitious. In the eyes of many, she was also responsible for the Yom Kippur War, which cost thousands of lives. But Golda's story is far more complex.

In this episode of Can We Talk?, as we approach 50 years since the Yom Kippur War, we go beyond the caricatures and talk about aspects of Golda's career that are often overlooked: the ways she helped build the fledgling state of Israel, her relationship with Israel’s Mizrahim, and her complicated attitude toward feminism. We speak with Guy Nattiv, director of the new film Golda, starring Helen Mirren, and with author Francine Klagsbrun, whose biography of Golda, Lioness, came out in 2017. 

Film Poster of two teenage girls with faces close together

Q & A with Sarah Meital Benjamin about Her New Film, 'Arava'

Jen Richler

JWA chats with Sarah Meital Benjamin about her new short film Arava, which tells the story of two teenage best friends traveling through small-town Israel in search of redemption.

Topics: Film, Israel
Collage of Jewish queer movie characters on pink background of movie tickets

The Future of Jewish Queer Cinema

Judy Ruden

Like all kinds of media that seek to portray underrepresented perspectives, there is good representation and bad representation.

Topics: Film, LGBTQIA Rights
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret film still: girl with hands clasped in prayer,

A Coming-Of-Age Story for Every Generation

Sarah Jae Leiber

The film, like the book on which it’s based, acknowledges that sixth-grade feelings are among the realest we ever feel.

Topics: Film, Fiction, Children
Judith and Ma'ayan Rosenbaum sitting on a stage with microphones, red curtain behind them

Celebrating and Challenging Margaret in Book and Film

Judith Rosenbaum

JWA's CEO Judith Rosenbaum reflects on a recent screening of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, the film adaptation of Judy Blume's groundbreaking novel. 

Topics: Feminism, Film, Fiction
Actresses from early 2000s films on blue patterned background

The Makeover of the Media

Leila Nuri

These fun movies from the early 2000s are still watched frequently as they are thought to be timeless classics, but the awkward and problematic comments have yet to be addressed.

Topics: Film, Comedy, Media

Ellida Geyra

Ellida Geyra was Israel’s first woman film director. She was a choreographer, dancer, and cultural figure best known for the groundbreaking feature Before Tomorrow (1969). Geyra challenged the hegemonic view in Israeli cinema and depicted woman’s passion as a political event

Collage of Lily James in The Exception on purple patterned background

The Exception's Antisemitism Is, Unfortunately, Not An Exception

Olivia Gnad

Between using atrocities as a way to create romantic drama and its rush to excuse antisemitism, The Exception is a movie that never should have left the writer's room.

Collage of Milla Jovavitch in The Fifth Element on a blue sparkling background

Finding Tzniut in The Fifth Element's Futurist Costumes

Noa Karidi

The film The Fifth Element creates an aspirational society in which a woman does not feel exposed or sexualized because of what she wears. I want that for all of us. 

Cartoon roll of film with a menorah on light pink background

Spiritual Jewish Representation on Film: Next Year’s Hanukkah Gift?

Samantha Berk

Watching the Hallmark movie Eight Gifts of Hanukkah, I felt like I could relate spiritually to a Jewish character portrayed in mainstream media for the first time. 

Black line drawing of cursor clicking YouTube logo on a white background

I Love LeftTube. But Where Are The Jews?

Miriam Stodolsky

Leftist videos on YouTube were key ingredients in developing my political outlook, but there is a palpable lack of any Jewish voices.

Topics: Socialism, Film, Activism

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