One of Us

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Based on an autobiographical novella by Ivan Olbracht, the film tells the story of Hanele Safarová, who grows up just after the First World War in a little Ruthenian schtetl which, in true Hassidic fashion, awaits the arrival of the Messiah. But Hanele decides to follow the Zionists instead. She moves to the city to prepare for her departure to the Promised Land, where she meets a successful businessman named Ivo Karadzic, who has renounced Judaism to become a free-thinker. Their love for each other doesn’t only drive Hanele’s parents to distraction, it also threatens to destroy the entire community in the schetl.

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.

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.

Restricted by her lifelong agoraphobia, Kaye has spent most of her life within the four walls of her parents’ house. Finding relief from her fears in the faces and lives of old film stars, she pastes their images alongside those of her deceased family on the walls of her house, creating a kaleidoscopic collage that mixes personal history with Hollywood fantasy. Told first-hand via freewheeling monologues, Portrait of Kaye is a bittersweet portrait of a woman forming her own unique identity while navigating the conflicting influences of her mother’s bawdy humour and her father’s anxieties. Now 74 and recently widowed, her infatuation with a younger neighbour gives her an opportunity to explore personal and sexual freedoms that have always been hidden away. Shot over two years, former next-door neighbour and music video director Ben Reed has assembled a unique and touching meditation on family, film and the meaning of freedom.

Humans hunt for baby apes. But things are not always done properly when chimpanzees and orangutans are acquired for zoos or shows. And even the endangered bonobos are no exception.

Over 640,000 tons of fishing gear are left or abandoned in the seas and oceans each year. It is a major environmental problem that requires immediate attention. The Healthy Seas initiative works with volunteer divers to remove the plastic nets from the seas and makes sure they are regenerated to produce a sustainable new yarn. The film follows the divers on World Oceans Day during a mission in Santorini, Greece as they recover half a ton of ghost nets. During an unprecedented underwater live-stream, Pierre-Yves Cousteau described the mission to inspire the protection of the World’s Seas and Oceans.

It's been a long, tumultuous road for Antonette. Follow her journey from Surrey biker-dad to Downtown Eastside drug-addicted trans* sex worker. Get to know the woman behind the play, as she rises through the words of her poetry.

Explores a variety of underground hazing rituals that are abusive and sometimes deadly. The journey to understand hazing culture reveals a world of toxic masculinity, violence, humiliation, binge drinking, denial, and institutional coverups.

Nearly an hour of amazing footage, pictures, music, and stories about Des Moines' moviegoing past that will surely make you see our town in an entirely new light.

The documentary "Taiwan Alishan Forest Railway Journey" offers a diverse array of content, with every detail highlighting the distinct features of Alishan in Taiwan. It includes many impressive elements. In addition to employing the latest filming techniques, the team captured stunning landscapes and remarkable railway construction methods, such as the figure-eight design, Z-segments, horseshoe bends, and the restoration of a century-old steam locomotive. They even filmed the domestically produced cypress train, named Formosensis, which has yet to enter service. Both Japan’s NHK and Taiwan’s Public Television Service provided their award-winning teams and enlisted the participation of renowned Japanese composer Kiyoshi Yoshida and Golden Horse Award-winning actress Gwei Lun-mei for the Chinese narration, enhancing the documentary’s international appeal.

Buckingham : les princesses malheureuses