One of Us

A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, is the first in-depth documentary about a distinctive, traditional Eastern European religious community. In an historic migration after World War II, Hasidism found it's most vital center in America. Both challenging and embracing American values, Hasidim seek those things which many Americans find most precious: family, community, and a close relationship to God. Integrating critical and analytical scholarship with a portrait of the daily life, beliefs, and history of contemporary Hasidic Jews in New York City, the film focuses on the conflicts, burdens, and rewards of the Hasidic way of life.

Everyday life in the Waks household is a logistical challenge of monumental proportions. There are two minibuses to move the family around and the kitchen in its suburban Melbourne home has five ovens for kosher cooking. The family follows an orthodox form of Judaism. School, work, synagogue and socialising all take place within a tight-knit Jewish community.

Conservative Rabbi Marc Soloway invites us on his personal journey to modern day Ukraine to visit the graves of the Hasidic Masters as he tries to establish a connection with the famous names that have so long occupied a place in his imagination.

Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (1698-1760), known as the Ba'al Shem Tov ("Master of the Good Name"), is one of the most beloved and celebrated, yet elusive, figures in Jewish history. Today, Jews worldwide – and even non-Jews – revere him as the founder of the Hasidic movement, a 18th-century offshoot of Judaism that promotes a mystical interpretation of the Bible, and as a model of piety and spirituality. The documentary A FIRE IN THE FOREST explores the life and legacy of the Ba'al Shem Tov through interviews with religious leaders and scholars, and on-location footage. The title derives from a tale about rabbis finding a hidden fire in the forest where they could appeal to God for help and have their prayers answered.

Stamford Hill in North London is home to a community of 30,000 Hasidic Jews. Aiming to preserve a way of life they had in eighteenth century Poland and living strictly according to over 600 Biblical commandments brings them into conflict with modern life. They have embraced one aspect fully though, the Volvo Estate car.

Set in the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park, Brooklyn, "93Queen" follows a group of tenacious Hasidic women who are smashing the patriarchy in their community by creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in New York City. With unprecedented-and insider-access, "93Queen" offers up a unique portrayal of a group of religious women who are taking matters into their own hands to change their own community from within.

"City of Joel" is documentary - with unprecedented access - to a 1.1 square mile shtetl in the suburbs that is home to 22,000 members of an one of the most insular and orthodox Hasidic sects. We follow the battles they are waging to survive. Just 50 miles north of New York City, the Satmar sect has built Kiryas Joel as a religious haven where they can be fruitful, multiply and follow the 613 rules of the Talmud. But with some of the highest rates of marriage, birth and religious observance in the country, they have been almost too successful. Developers have come up with a plan to double the size of the village to keep up with this growth, but their neighbors fight back because they believe it will harm the environment and tilt the balance of political power.

Mendy is a young Brookyln Hasid who leaves the strict rules of his insular and repressive community to join his childhood friend, Yankel, who is living securlary in Manhattan. Mendy's struggle to integrate his faith and traditions with the modern world are influenced by his growing friendship with Bianca, Yankel's free spirited Brazilian roommate.

Shmuel, a Hasidic cantor in Upstate New York and distraught at the untimely death of his wife, struggles to find religious solace, while secretly obsessing over how her body will decay. As a clandestine partnership develops with Albert, a local community college biology professor, the two embark on a darkly comic and increasingly literal undertaking into the underworld.

After impulsively shaving off his beard and sidelocks, a young Hasidic man experiences a nightmarish transformation that leads him right back to where he started. Over the course of one painful night, Eli Eisenstein will come to realize that it’s much easier to shave your beard than to shed who you are.

When their high school drama department falls victim to budget cuts, two teachers from the Bronx find an unlikely solution to their money problems: yaniv, a little-known card game with a thriving underground gambling scene in the Hasidic Jewish community.

A young pair from Stuttgart fly to Shanghai to hop aboard the textile business of his father while she prepares for the birth of their son. A story about the ever more common movement of Germans into the East for professional gain.

This documentary provides a glimpse into the making of Jane Campion's 1990 film.

This is the definitive Documentary on Alien Abduction. A careful fact based study of the most credible cases, hoaxes, military historical involvement and expert interviews.

World famous Grizzly 399 attempts to raise four cubs, making choices amidst a warming climate, human encroachment and disputes over her Endangered Species protections.

In the following excerpt from an interview originally recorded for Swedish television in 1966, PERSONA’s director and lead actors discuss the evolution of the film and their individual interpretations of it.

A look into the history and tradition of Queen's Football in it's golden era, featuring never before seen footage of the university in the 1960s.

A look at the modern phenomenon of school and work shootings. It looks at the cases of Michael Carneal (1997), Joseph Wesbecker (1989), Charles Andrew Williams (2001, Neal Higdon (2008, and Steven Kazmierczak (2008) all of whom snapped and went postal. Based on the excellent book by Mark Ames ("Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagana's Workplaces to Clintona's Columbine and Beyond", 2005) who features in the film.

Facing Adversity: Choosing Earth, Choosing Life is a 70-minute documentary that explores the speed, depth and magnitude of our growing planetary crisis, and the opportunity we have to meet this crisis consciously - with eyes and hearts wide open. Through a broad, whole-systems perspective, the film examines key challenges (climate change, inequities, species extinction, overconsumption, and more) and explores the deeper transformation being called forth from humanity. Woven throughout are stories from around the world illustrating both heart-breaking impacts and inspiring resilience. Engaging with this paradox — an unfolding global crisis paired with the opportunity to awaken to and serve the well-being of all of life — is the work of our lifetimes. The film features Duane Elgin, Victoria Santos, Jack Kornfield, Joanna Macy, Nate Hagens, Beena Sharma, Lynne Twist, and other contributors who are grappling with this paradox and offering guidance for navigating the times ahead.

They were told to get their heads out of the clouds, but they didn’t listen. This documentary tells the story of entrepreneurs who never gave up on their dreams despite obstacles and setbacks and the world telling them ‘it can’t be done.’ These men and women never stopped dreaming and they are now changing the world.