Short Films: Narrative
A showcase of some of the most exciting, visionary, and breathtaking narrative short films from around the world featuring original stories from established filmmakers and new emerging talent.
BROKEN BIRD
Miami Premiere | Directed by Rachel Harrison Gordon
USA | 9 minutes | 2020
Birdie, a biracial girl raised by her Jewish mom, spends a rare day with her father while preparing for her Bat Mitzvah.
CRUMBS
Florida Premiere | Directed by Daniel Finkelman
USA | 17 minutes | 2020
Based on a true story that took place on April 18, 1943, a small group of surviving Jews gather to celebrate Passover as gunfire and mortars rain down around them.
DANCE OF THE HOUBARA
North American Premiere | Directed by Noa Feldman
Israel | 13 minutes | 2020
After her husband’s passing, Naomi embarks on her annual trip to see the rare houbara bird, which she refuses to miss. Her daughter, Tamar, not a bird enthusiast, must escort her. Their journey together stirs up past grudges and new reconciliations.
DATE. INTERRUPTED
World Premiere | Directed by Noa Osheroff
Israel | 5 minutes | 2020
In the time of COVID, a first date online turns into an unintended threesome in this hilarious Israeli comedy.
DEVEK
World Premiere | Directed by Uriya Hertz
Israel | 14 minutes | 2020
Eliya takes his sick mother Naomi to visit a psychic medium who lives near the Dead Sea. However, the visit does not go as planned, causing the son and his mother to confront their future.
ERWIN
North American Premiere | Directed by Lev Libre Jutsen
Australia | 13 minutes | 2020
A lonely, intellectual Jewish grandfather prepares his home for Shabbat dinner alongside his caretaker as he grapples with his worsening dementia, haunted by nightmares of a traumatic past.
GABRIEL
US Premiere | Directed by Paul Haans
Netherlands | 13 minutes | 2020
At the end of World War II, a wounded German soldier, disguised as a Canadian, ends up in the midst of a Jewish family in hiding.
GENTLE
Florida Premiere | Directed by Josh Green
UK | 9 minutes | 2020
A Jewish matriarch struggles to warm up to her beloved son's new non-Jewish girlfriend over a Shabbat dinner from hell.
HOLY WOMAN
Florida Premiere | Directed by Emily Cheeger
USA | 21 minutes | 2020
After eating from the same fish that kills her rebbe when he chokes on a bone, Neshama (which means soul), suddenly becomes possessed by her deceased rebbe. Watch Q&A with director Emily Cheeger, actress Melissa Weisz, and actor Luzer Twersky.
I WANT TO MAKE A FILM ABOUT WOMEN
South Florida Premiere | Directed by Josh Green
Australia | 12 minutes | 2020
This love letter to Russian Jewish constructivist women asks what the revolutionary women artists of the 1920s said, what they did, and what they might have created had it not been for Stalin's suppression.
IN THE NAME OF THE DAUGHTER
Miami Premiere | Directed by Liran Shitrit
Israel | 40 minutes | 2020
This touching and fascinating thriller reveals the tragic story of Dror Bar-El, a father who lost his daughter in a terrorist attack and embarked on an uncompromising quest to prevent the expected release of her murderer from prison. Watch Q&A with director Liran Shitrit, actor Nati Ravitz, and sales rep Noa Cacharel.
THE LAST CARAVAN
East Coast Premiere | Directed by Lev Brodinsky
Israel | 13 minutes | 2020
The year is 1994. A caravan site, built by the Israeli Government for immigrants from the Soviet Union, is about to be dismantled. When his grandfather refuses to be evacuated, a young Russian boy remains to defend his grandfather.
LONG DISTANCE
Florida Premiere | Directed by Or Sinai
Israel | 20 minutes | 2020
Rachel is losing her sight to the point she can't even manage doing the smallest daily functions, like di
MASEL TOV COCKTAIL
A ferocious, comic take on modern Jewish life and tropes, encompassing the Shoah and anti-Semitism, and culture of guilt, ignorance, and selective memory, as told by a Russian-Jewish teen in Germany. Watch Q&A with with directors Arkadij Khaet & Mickey Paatzsch.
Miami Premiere | Directed by Arkadij Khaet & Mickey Paatzsch
Germany | 30 minutes | 2020
MOUSIE
Florida Premiere | Directed by David Bartlett
UK | 17 minutes | 2020
A little Roma girl is moments away from discovery as she hides from the Nazis in a Weimar club.
MY KIPPAH
Florida Premiere | Directed by Ilan Rosenfeld
Spain | 17 minutes | 2020
In this Spanish comedy, an opportunistic thief wants to steal an invaluable Sefer Torah, but his plan is disturbed by one major problem…he discovers that he is Jewish.
ON THE BEACHES
Florida Premiere | Directed by Luke Rodgers
UK | 18 minutes | 2020
England, 1933. After running away from home, Kitty (MJFF alum & Game of Thrones star Bella Ramsey) and her brother David cheer themselves up by playing soldiers. But their game takes an unexpected turn when they discover a suspicious German hiding in a clifftop hut. The man is a Jewish refugee by the name of Albert Einstein.
PERSISTENCE OF THE PAST
North American Premiere | Directed by Joseph Cassidy
UK | 11 minutes | 2020
An elderly Jewish woman who, after surviving the Nazi regime, knows no accommodation can ever be made to anti-Semitism.
RADZYN
Florida Premiere | Directed by David Cihelna & Michael Weber
USA | 10 minutes | 2020
Set in the fall of 1939, this Jewish folktale follows a British antiquities dealer who travels the Polish countryside before the Nazi invasion.
SHAKTI
Southeat US Premiere | Directed by Martín Rejtman
Argentina-Chile| 19 minutes | 2020
Federico breaks up with his girlfriend on the day his grandmother dies, but his feelings are hurt when he learns that she already has someone new.
SHATTERED
Florida Premiere | Directed by Teresa Moorhead
UK| 13 minutes | 2020
A concentration camp survivor returns home to find out who informed the Nazis of her location and betrayed her.
TAKING STEPS
World Premiere | Directed by Liel Gur
Israel | 22 minutes | 2020
A young couple are preparing for their dream honeymoon through Central Asia, but when she fractures her foot a week before the flight, the two of them embark on an alternative journey that complicates matters even further.
WHITE EYE
Miami Premiere | Directed by Tomer Shushan
Israel | 21 minutes | 2020
In this official entry for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film compellingly depicting the perils of illegal immigration, an Israeli man tries to reclaim a stolen bike while struggling to retain his humanity.
WOMAN OF VALOUR
Florida Premiere | Directed by Dominic Davey
UK| 15 minutes | 2020
Following the loss of his son in childbirth, a religious student longs to restart his family, but in order to reconnect with his distraught wife, he will first have to acknowledge his own hidden pain.
