The Tribeca Film Festival in New York unveiled its 2024 offerings, showcasing the selected movies for its upcoming edition opening on June 5. This year's lineup includes new films featuring Lily Gladstone, Jenna Ortega and Michael Sarah, along with a variety of intriguing documentary works, including a production by LeBron James.
Despite the absence of Israeli films this year due to the current war, there's still an Israeli connection with the documentary "Sabbath Queen," dedicated entirely to Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, a social activist and a cousin of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and former Chief Rabbi Israel Lau. As a Conservative rabbi, he leads the Lab/Shul community in New York, which identifies as LGBT.
American director Sandi DuBowski is entrusted with telling the story he's presenting in the documentary competition, which blends Lau-Lavie's early life as a young Israeli, a yeshiva student, and his social activism within educational organizations and various study halls in Israel, with his later life as a prominent figure in the LGBT Jewish community in New York and his efforts to integrate his heritage with his openness as an openly gay individual.
DuBowski is primarily remembered for his controversial documentary "Trembling Before G-d" from 2001, which depicts the struggles of an Orthodox Jewish man trying to find his place as a gay person in Orthodox society. This time, he returns to the same topic, which could be divisive for many, both in Israel and the United States.
Despite the absence of Israeli films for clear reasons this time, there are quite a few talented individuals identified with the Jewish community who are addressing topics relevant to it. Among them, the festival will also feature the film "Otzar" by Julia von Heinz from Germany, which deals with the journey of a Holocaust survivor (Sebastian Frey) to his homeland of Poland, accompanied by his journalist daughter (Lena Dunham), marking its American debut after its launch in Berlin this year.
The comedy "Between The Temples" by Nate Silver, which premiered at Sundance, will also cater to New York Jews, featuring Jason Schwartzman as a midlife crisis cantor finding solace in the company of an older woman (Carol Kane) who wants to have a belated bat mitzvah. Additionally, Daniel Robin's comedy-drama "Shabbat Bad" will premiere, with its plot unfolding during a Shabbat dinner with diverse guests, including performances by John Bass, Keira Sedgwick, rapper Method Man, and Milena Weintraub.