Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival: A Celebration of Jewish Stories and Experiences
The Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival, now in its 31st year, is set to begin on October 23 and run through November 2. This annual event promises to bring a diverse range of Jewish stories and experiences to the screen, with 47 films showcasing both fictional and true stories from around the world.
Festival Lineup and Venues
Most screenings will take place at the Minnesota Jewish Community Center’s Sabes Center in St. Louis Park and the Capp Center in St. Paul, with additional screenings scheduled at other venues in Minneapolis, including the Riverview Theater, the Main Cinema, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Tickets and showtimes are available at tcjff.eventive.org. The festival features a wide range of films, including a biopic on gay Jewish Beatles manager Brian Epstein, a modern Hungarian family drama called “All About the Levkoviches,” and “Days Between Rest,” a documentary short focusing on Grammy-nominated Ugandan Jewish singer Rachel Namadosi.
Local Connections and Global Perspectives
Minnesota-born filmmaker Joy Sela’s debut documentary “The Other” is one of the highlights of the festival, exploring the ongoing conflicts in Israel and Palestinian territories. Sela, whose father is Israeli and mother is American, began filming “The Other” in 2017, not expecting it to become a documentary. Through her nonprofit, she was initially doing performance art-style interventions aimed at bringing opposing viewpoints into conversation with one another. However, when she brought the work to Israel, she quickly realized that people were eager to tell stories that went beyond her initial project’s scope.
Sela’s film focuses on personal stories of people like Ahmed Helou from the Gaza Strip and Maoz Inon from Israel, who, despite experiencing trauma, are building bridges across communities. Sela herself notes that it took many years to confront the conditioning that comes from growing up on one side of the conflict and to consider how that shaped her understanding. The people in the film who are doing this courageous work of coming into relationship with each other are often coming from living in occupation or unequal systems, or from having lost a child, or having experienced or enacted violence and chosen nonviolence now.
A Message of Hope and Rehumanization
Sela continued filming through 2024, including following up with all her interviewees amid the current Israel-Hamas war that began on October 7, 2023. Since that day, tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed or displaced, sparking worldwide protests. According to United Nations figures, approximately 67,000 Palestinians and approximately 1,200 Israelis have been killed since October 7. In such a tense environment, asking people, especially Palestinian women, to share vulnerable stories on camera is not easy. Sela has built up deep trust over more than half a decade and has worked with her interview subjects to ensure the documentary portrays them authentically without putting them in additional danger.
Sela hopes that her film will be a way to start rehumanizing the conversation and engaging people in ways that can be constructive together. The Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival offers a platform for local and global voices to bring Jewish stories to the screen, promoting understanding, empathy, and connection. For more information, visit Here
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