Charlotte Jewish Film Festival Feb 4-26

The 19th Annual Charlotte Jewish Festival takes place February 4th to 26th, 2023, with two bonus films in January. The film festival includes opening and closing receptions. Some of the events include Q&As with filmmakers or other presentations.

The Jewish Film Festival features 16 films (including the two bonus films) that will be shown at various venues, including:

Temple Israel, 4901 Providence Road, Charlotte
The Independent Picture House, 4237 Raleigh Street, Charlotte
Sam Lerner Center for Cultural Arts at Shalom Park, 5007 Providence Road, Charlotte
Charlotte Country Day School, 1440 Carmel Road, Charlotte
Temple Beth El, 5101 Providence Road, Charlotte

The festival started as a 2-film event in 2005 and has grown into a major cultural event in Charlotte.

Tickets to Charlotte Jewish Film Festival

Individual tickets to most films are $15. An All Festival pass is $172, but if you purchase by January 15th it’s only $154. The two films in January are free to attend, but you still need tickets.

Purchase here.

Charlotte Jewish Film Festival Films

Reckonings
Wednesday, January 18th, 2023
7 p.m.
Sam Lerner Center
Bonus Film — Free

Could the perpetrators face their crimes? Could any compensation deliver justice to the survivors? Under the threat of violence, 6 years after the Holocaust, a group of German and Jewish leaders pushed for reparations as a step towards healing.

The Accusation
Saturday, January 28th, 2023
7 p.m.
The Independent Picture House
$12

Alexandre, a bright 22-year-old student, is accused of raping Mila, the daughter of his mother’s boyfriend. Alexandre is determined to prove his innocence, but Mila fights to be heard – a case of his truth against hers. The conflict between Alexandre’s sense of being treated unfairly and Mila’s complex feelings about sex, influenced by her Orthodox Jewish upbringing, makes it near impossible to reach a clear verdict. Based on a best-selling novel of the same name, The Accusation is an engrossing #MeToo drama, exploring the murky side of human behavior.

Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen, including opening night reception and Q&A
Saturday, February 4th, 2023
7 p.m.
Temple Israel
$25

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim puts us in the director’s chair and in Norman Jewison’s heart and mind, drawing on behind-the-scenes footage, never-before-seen stills, and interviews with many of the actors to show us how the experience of making the film Fiddler on the Roof deepened Jewison as an artist and revived his soul. Following the film, Neva Small, who played Tevye’s daughter Chava, will share her presentation “Becoming Chava” and conduct a Q & A/Meet and Greet.

June Zero
Sunday, February 5th, 2023
7 p.m.
Temple Israel
$15

This thrilling yet, at its core, empathetic and humanist film, looks at the infamous trial of Adolph Eichmann, the architect of the mass extermination of Jews during the Second World War. Depicting the events preceding Eichmann’s execution, it approaches the important and much publicized Nazi criminal through the eyes of three participants in these events.

The Jews of Monticello
Wednesday, February 8th, 2023
7 p.m.
Temple Israel
$15

When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he left behind a mountain of personal debt, which forced his heirs to sell his beloved Monticello home and all of its possessions. The Levys of Monticello is a documentary film that tells the little-known story of the Levy family, which owned and carefully preserved Monticello for nearly a century – far longer than Jefferson or his descendants. The remarkable story of the Levy family also intersects with the rise of antisemitism that runs throughout the course of American history. Includes Q&A with filmmaker Steven Pressman.

Repairing the World
Thursday, February 9th, 2023
7 p.m.
Temple Israel
$15

This film documents Pittsburgh’s powerful community response to hate in the aftermath of the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history. Through the voices of survivors, family members, diverse Pittsburgh residents and leaders, the film shows unity in a moment of crisis, the resilience of a vibrant city, and a community working together to understand what it means to be “stronger than hate.” Includes Q&A with filmmaker Patrice O’Neill.

Paris Boutique
Saturday, February 11th, 2023
7 p.m.
Sam Lerner Center
$15

Louise, a Jewish lawyer, arrives in Jerusalem from Paris to finalize an important real estate deal, using Neta, a chance driver and the cunning hero of Mahane Yehuda, who immediately finds the economic opportunity and decides to stick with Louise at any cost. When the two visit the Old City, they discover a secret connection between an ultra-Orthodox woman and a Christian man who communicate through messages left in the crevices of the Western Wall. In an attempt to solve the mystery, they follow the couple through the narrow alleyways of the city. A comedy of mistakes in the heart of magical Jerusalem ensues, and a story about friendship between two women at a critical time in their lives emerges.

Rose
Sunday, February 12th, 2023
2 p.m.
Sam Lerner Center
$15

Rose, 78, has just lost her most beloved husband. When her grief gives way to a powerful impulse of life that makes her realize that she can still redefine herself as a woman, the whole balance of the family is upset.

Exodus 91
Wednesday, February 15th, 2023
7 p.m.
Sam Lerner Center
$15

Exodus 91 tells the incredible story of Operation Solomon, Israel’s airlift of the Ethiopian Jewish community. Using documentary footage and reenactments, this film follows the Israeli ambassador, Asher Naim, to Ethiopia as he navigates the treacherous world of bureaucracy and politics in a region wracked by civil war. This film explores challenging questions surrounding cultural identity, the politics of immigration, and the hardships that remain for these immigrants, and the others that followed. Includes Q&A via Skype with filmmaker Micah Smith

Farewell, Mr. Haffmann
Saturday, February 18th, 2023
7 p.m.
Charlotte Country Day School
$15

In occupied Paris in 1941, all Jews are instructed to come forward and identify themselves to authorities. Dedicated jeweler, Joseph Haffmann, arranges for his family to flee the city and offers his employee the chance to take over the store until the conflict subsides. But his attempts to escape are thwarted, and Haffmann is forced to seek his assistant’s protection. As he and his wife move into the Haffmann home, the agreement turns into a Faustian bargain, one that will forever change the fate of all.

Barren
Sunday, February 19th, 2023
2 p.m.
Charlotte Country Day School
$15

A childless young ultra-orthodox couple in Tzfat faces a crisis after a traumatic treatment for barrenness. When the difference between good and bad is unclear, the family must deal with unresolved secrets that raise fundamental questions about religion and faith.

Shttl
Sunday, February 19th, 2023
7 p.m.
Charlotte Country Day School
$15

Shttl beautifully captures the life and loves of a Yiddish-speaking village on the eve of the Nazi invasion of Soviet Ukraine. Mendele, who is living a modern, secular life in Kyiv finds himself drawn back to the familiar and comforting world of the shtetl. Unraveling the simmering tensions between tradition and modernity, this film recreates a world on the precipice of disaster.

The Man in the Basement
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023
7 p.m.
Charlotte Country Day School
$15

In this psychological thriller, a Parisian architect sells his flat’s unused cellar to a well-mannered and seemingly normal former history teacher. But after he takes up residence, the stranger’s secret life as an antisemitic conspiracy theorist emerges, turning the family’s idyllic world upside down, as he aligns himself with their naive teenage daughter. Provocative and superbly acted, this nightmare scenario based on a true story will keep audiences guessing from one unsettling moment to the next.

America
Saturday, February 25th, 2023
7 p.m.
Temple Beth El
$15

An Israeli swimming tutor living in Chicago returns to Israel after 10 years of absence to bury his father. An encounter with a beloved childhood friend and his newly engaged girlfriend will set a series of events in motion that will affect everyone’s lives. A story set between a flower shop and an ancient monastery, between a swimming pool in Chicago and the Mediterranean, between life and death – and somewhere in the middle.

Carol of the Bells
Sunday, February 26th, 2023
2 p.m.
Sam Lerner Center
$15

The peaceful and neighborly existence of three families, Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish, sharing a large house, musical evenings, and merriment in the city of Stanislaviv in the years preceding and post-war is shattered. First in the Soviet occupation and the persecution of the Polish family, and then, by the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, and the decimation of the Jewish family. Sacrificing their lives, the Ukrainian family manages to save their neighbor’s children and their own daughter. This Christmas song was adapted from a popular and beloved Ukrainian folk melody which came to represent the spirit of brotherhood and unity all over the world.

My Neighbor Adolf, including Closing Night Reception
Sunday February 26th, 2023
7 p.m.
Temple Beth El
$20

After the abduction of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann by Mossad agents in Argentina in 1960, Polsky, a lonely and grumpy Holocaust survivor, lives in the remote Colombian countryside. He spends his days playing chess and tending his beloved rose bushes. One day, when a mysterious old German man moves in next-door, he suspects that his new neighbor is… Adolf Hitler. Since nobody believes him, he embarks on a detective mission to find the evidence. But, in order to gather evidence, he will need to be closer to his neighbor than he would like. So close that the two could almost become friends.