All the LGBTQ+ highlights of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
02/19/25
trudestress
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival offers a robust LGBTQ+ slate
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, has a large and diverse lineup, including a robust slate of LGBTQ+ films. Among these are a documentary about lesbian singer-songwriter Janis Ian, a biopic of gay Beatles manager Brian Epstein, a doc on an Orthodox rabbi who's also a drag queen, and another doc about the first transgender referee in pro soccer.
“This year’s festival will present 50 feature films — 22 documentaries and 28 narrative works — that celebrate the diversity of Jewish experiences around the globe,” says a press release on the festival’s website.
“Highlighting themes such as LGBTQIA+ stories, women’s empowerment, global conflicts, and intersectionality, the festival explores the global Jewish experience and its connections to the world’s diverse communities, welcoming audiences from all backgrounds without a political or religious advocacy agenda,” the release continues.
“Our 25th anniversary represents a quarter-century of fostering connections and understanding through the transformative power of cinema,” Kenny Blank, executive and artistic director of the festival, said in the release. “This year’s lineup not only highlights stories that resonate deeply with Jewish life but also redefines what it means to be a ‘Jewish’ film. It’s about the intersection of Jewish experiences with the broader world, creating space for meaningful dialogue and connection between communities. We’re proud to offer a Festival that is inclusive, welcoming, and reflective of our shared humanity. We look forward to uniting film lovers from all walks of life to celebrate this milestone year.”
The festival opens Wednesday, and in-person screenings continue through March 6. From March 7 through 16, certain films will be available to stream throughout Georgia. Beyond the LGBTQ+ films, there are many other highlights. The opening night film will be Bad Shabbos, a comedy of culture clash that won the Tribeca Audience Award. A young Jewish man and his fiancée, who is converting to Judaism, invite her Midwestern Catholic parents to meet his New York family for the first time. Cast members Kyra Sedgwick, Jon Bass, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Milana Vayntrub, Meghan Leathers, and Theo Taplitz, writer-director Daniel Robbins, and producer Adam Mitchell will be on a panel with journalist Holly Firfer at the screening.
Other non-LGBTQ+ high points include several documentaries: a field trip screening, welcoming students from across metro Atlanta, of Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire, about the noted author and concentration camp survivor, which will include a conversation with director and writer Oren Rudavsky; From Darkness to Light, about comedian Jerry Lewis's uncompleted film The Day the Clown Cried, in which he played a clown in a concentration camp who led Jewish children to the gas chambers; The Bibi Files, investigating corruption allegations against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Ain't No Back to a Merry-go-Round,on an alliance between Blacks and Jews to protest segregation in Maryland in 1960; and Charles Grodin: Rebel With a Cause, chronicling the life of the actor and social justice activist. There's much, much more.
Watch a preview of the LGBTQ+ films below and scroll down for more information on each of them. Find the full festival schedule here.
Sabbath Queen
Film still: Sabbath Queen
Courtesy Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
Orthodox Judaism is the least accepting branch of the faith for LGBTQ+ people. Hence the dilemma of Amichai Lau-Lavie, a queer man born into a family with a long line of Orthodox rabbis who eventually becomes a rabbi too. The documentary Sabbath Queen tracks his life over 20 years as he moves from Israel to New York City, joins the Radical Faeries, performs as a drag queen, and founds a progressive synagogue. Directed by Sandi Simcha Dubowski (Trembling Before G-d), it was a Best Documentary nominee at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival. The screening will include a Q&A session with Lau-Lavie, Dubowski, and Rabbi Michael Rothbaum of Atlanta’s Congregation Bet Haverim, affiliated with Judaism’s LGBTQ-welcoming Reconstructionist branch. February 23, 4:45 p.m., Plaza Theatre. Tickets here.
Janis Ian: Breaking Silence
Janis Ian 1977 tour photograph
Peter Cunningham via Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
Janis Ian first came to fame with her hit debut single, “Society’s Child,” a song about interracial love, released in 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement. She was only 14. Later, she explored the oppressive beauty standards placed on women with “At Seventeen” and came out as a lesbian (she was an Advocate columnist for a time). Janis Ian: Breaking Silence, a documentary from director Varda Bar-Kar, traces Ian’s life and career while featuring many other show business luminaries, including Joan Baez, Lily Tomlin, Jean Smart, and Arlo Guthrie. The Atlanta screening will have a Q&A session with Ian and music producer Tena Clark. February 26, 7 p.m., Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center. Tickets here.
Midas Man
Jacob Fortune-Lloyd in Midas Man
Courtesy Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
This biopic stars Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ manager and a closeted gay man — life in the swinging ’60s wasn’t that easy if you were queer and Jewish. Transgender actor Eddie Izzard appears as Allan Williams, who preceded Epstein as the Fab Four’s manager, while Emily Watson and Eddie Marsan play Epstein’s parents. Jonah Lees, Blake Richardson, Leo Harvey-Elledge, and Campbell Wallace are John, Paul, George, and Ringo, respectively, and Darci Shaw portrays another ’60s pop star, Cilla Black. Plus you’ll recognize talk show host Jay Leno as variety show host Ed Sullivan, who introduced the Beatles to America. Written by Brigit Grant and directed by Joe Stephenson; a prerecorded Q&A shown at all screenings will feature Grant, Fortune-Lloyd, and Shaw in conversation with Atlanta journalist Richard Eldredge. March 1, 1 p.m., Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center; March 3, noon, Tara Theatre; available to stream throughout Georgia March 7-16. Tickets here.
Sapir
Film Still: Sapir
Courtesy Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
Sapir Berman made history as the first transgender referee in pro soccer (football to those outside the U.S.). Originally a player and then a referee in Israel’s Premier League, Berman eventually came out as a trans woman. The documentary from writer-director Liran Atzmor offers an intimate look at her life on and off the pitch, including her transition process. March 6, 2:30 p.m., Tara Theatre, with guest speaker Rebecca Stapel-Wax, executive director of Sojourn: The Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender and Sexual Diversity. Tickets here.
Come Closer
Film still: Come Closer
Shai Peleg via Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
Israel’s official Oscar submission stars Lia Elalouf as Eden, a young woman grieving the death of her beloved brother, Nati. In this haunting story of love and loss, Eden discovers Nati had a secret girlfriend, Maya (Noa Koler); Eden first stalks Maya, then becomes her friend — and then something more. It’s the first feature-length film from writer-director Tom Nesher, daughter of influential filmmaker Avi Nesher, and won Best Film and Best Director at the Israeli Academy Awards. February 22, 1 p.m., Plaza Theatre, with Tom Nesher in conversation with film critic Sammie Purcell; February 22, 8 p.m., Springs Cinema & Taphouse, with Nesher in conversation with Justice Obiaya, executive director, Out on Film Festival; streaming March 7-16 throughout Georgia. Tickets here.
Cheers to Life
Film still: Cheers to Life
Courtesy Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
The festival’s closing night feature is a dramedy from Brazil, starring Thati Lopes as Jessica, a put-upon young woman whose life changes when she finds a locket identical to one left by her late mother. She teams up with the enigmatic Gabriel (Rodrigo Simas), who might be her cousin, and they journey to Israel in search of the locket’s origins. In addition to meeting long-lost relatives, they discover things about themselves. Directed by Cris D’Amato, who’ll be in a Q&A with producer Júlio Uchoa, actors Lopes, Simas, and Diego Martins, and Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul. March 5, 7 p.m., Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center, with a dessert reception and jury awards. Tickets here.
Full Support
Film still: Full Support
Courtesy Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
The documentary Full Support offers a look at a diverse group of customers at a bra shop in Jaffa, Israel, and in the process explores women’s fraught relationship with their bodies. The film from Michal Cohen was nominated for Best Documentary at the Israeli Academy Awards. February 23, 11 a.m., Springs Cinema & Taphouse, with guest speaker Judy Marx, operations manager at the Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta; streaming throughout Georgia March 7-16. Tickets here.
Bliss
Promotional photo: Bliss
Vered Adir via Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
Bliss, from director Shemi Zarhin, stars Israeli actors Sasson Gabai and Asi Levy as Sassi and Effi, an older couple whose lives are shaken up by the arrival of two young men, a grandson returning from Europe and a former student of Effi’s. February 23, 7:15 p.m., Georgia Theatre Company Merchants Walk; February 25, 2:30 p.m., Springs Cinema & Taphouse; February 27, 7 p.m., Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center; streaming throughout Georgia March 7-16. All screenings will include a prerecorded Q&A with Gabai and Matthew Bernstein, Goodrich C. White Professor of Film and Media at Emory University. Tickets here.
Pink Lady
Film still: Pink Lady
Eyal Efrati via Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
Pink Lady follows an ultra-Orthodox couple in Jerusalem whose marriage is shaken when it turns out the husband is being blackmailed with pictures of him in an intimate situation with another man. Uri Blufarb and Nur Fibak star as husband and wife Lazer and Bati. Written by Mindi Ehrlich and directed by Nir Bergman. February 23, 2:10 p.m., Springs Cinema & Taphouse; March 6, 4:30 p.m., Tara Theatre, with guest speaker Rabbi Joshua Lesser, leader of the LGBTQ-inclusive Congregation Bet Haverim and founder of Sojourn: The Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender and Sexual Diversity; streaming throughout Georgia March 7-16. Tickets here.
When Do We Eat?
Film still: When Do We Eat?
Courtesy Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
When Do We Eat?, first released in 2005, chronicles a Passover Seder like no other. Husband and wife Ira and Peggy (Michael Lerner and Lesley Ann Warren) host their newly religious son, their lesbian daughter, a wise but curmudgeonly elder (Jack Klugman, a standout), a secretive, one-eyed Israeli man, and others, and when Ira accidentally takes psychedelic drugs, hilarity ensures. Directed by Salvador Litvak and co-written with his wife, Nina Litvak. February 22, 8 p.m., Plaza Theatre, as part of Young Professionals Night, including drinks and hors d’oeuvres, and a panel with the Litvaks and local Jewish leaders. Tickets here.
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