GPJFF 2022 Season Films


1618

Based on a true story, 1618 chronicles the devastating events and the subsequent escape plans from the town of Oporto, Portugal, a city where a large portion of the population had Jewish roots. 
Arizona Only

200 METERS

A 200-meter distance becomes a 200-kilometer odyssey when a Palestinian man, desperate to see his young son after an accident, attempts to smuggle himself over the Israeli border wall.

A CRIME ON THE BAYOU

In this true story, a Black teenager bravely challenges the most powerful white supremacist in 1960’s Louisiana with the help of a young Jewish attorney.

A TREE OF LIFE

A Tree of Life creates a deeply personal portrait of the victims and survivors of the Pittsburgh Synagogue attack of Saturday October 27th, 2018 by a radicalized white supremacist.

Arizona Only

THE ADVENTURES OF SAUL BELLOW

The first major documentary on one of America's greatest writers, this film examines Bellow's influence on American literature and how, as a public figure, he dealt with key issues of his time, including the Jewish American immigrant experience.

ANTISEMITISM

This substantive film traces the origins of antisemitism in France and traces how the depiction of "the Jew" in society established an ideology of hate that eventually led to the Holocaust and the current wave of anti-Jewish sentiment.

THE ART DEALER

The Art Dealer follows a Jewish woman who embarks on a journey to recover family paintings stolen by the Nazis. During her investigation, she discovers that some family secrets are best kept hidden.

Arizona Only

BETRAYED

Betrayed, a true story, shows that the Holocaust wasn’t just perpetrated by the Nazis, but by hundreds of willing collaborators and citizens by shining a light on Norway’s relatively unknown dark past. 


Arizona Only

CARL LAEMMLE

Carl Laemmle is the extraordinary life story of the German-American immigrant, an early cinema pioneer who founded Universal Pictures. By the time of his death in 1939, he saved over 300 Jewish refugee families from Nazi Germany.

THE GOOD TRAITOR

The Good Traitor is a period drama centering on the life of diplomat Henrik Kauffmann, the Danish ambassador posted to Washington in 1939. When the Nazi's occupied Denmark in April 1940, Kauffmann declared himself to be the only true representative of the free Danish people in opposition to the Nazis. 
Arizona Only

LABYRINTH OF PEACE (TV Series)

In 1945, Europe is reduced to rubble with thirty million displaced and uprooted people. At the heart of this ravaged continent lies Switzerland, which has been all but spared by the war. It becomes a hub for Nazi war criminals, Allied Secret Services and Holocaust survivors.


Arizona Only

LANSKY

When aging gangster Meyer Lansky is investigated one last time by the Feds, who suspect he has stashed away millions of dollars, Lansky spins a dizzying tale, revealing the untold truth about his life as the notorious boss of Murder Inc. and the National Crime Syndicate.

LEAVING PARADISE

Cleo fulfilled his dream to leave the big city with his wife and fifteen children to establish a family commune on a farm in Brazil. Exploring their family roots leads the children to discover their surprising Jewish heritage, and how that discovery impacts future plans. 
Arizona Only

LOVE & MAZEL TOV

A warm-hearted love story, Love and Mazel Tov follows the romance between Anne, a Jewish bookstore owner and Daniel, who pretends to be Jewish to attract her. After becoming a couple, their friends have an inkling that his web of lies will be discovered. 

Arizona Only

LOVE IT WAS NOT

The impossible and tragic love story between Helena Citron, a young Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz, and the Austrian SS officer Franz Wunsch. Thirty years later, a letter arrives from his wife, forcing Helena to make an impossible decision. 



Arizona Only

MY DEAREST ENEMY

A friendship between Alice, a Muslim woman and Maya, a Jewish woman becomes impossible when Alice’s old lover returns to her life, bringing with him the reality of the conflict between their people.

NEIGHBOURS

With a keen sense of humor and satire, a six-year old Kurdish boy, Sero, faces his first year in an Arab school in a little village on the Syrian-Turkish border. Sero loves his family, as well as his Jewish neighbors, but his little world is about to be radically changed by absurd nationalism.>
Arizona Only

THE NEW JEW (Parts 1 & 2)

This episodic documentary about “new” Jews presented by Guri Alfi, Israel’s popular comedian, will likely enlighten, entertain and annoy viewers in different ways, but it presents a varied and interesting portrait of American-Jewish life. 
Arizona Only

PAUL NEWMAN: BEHIND BLUE EYES

Paul Newman, Behind Blue Eyes, takes audiences through his films, his passions, his political views and civic battles, to discover the life and personality of the actor, the family man and the philanthropist hiding behind those blue eyes.

PERSIAN LESSONS

A Jewish man in a German concentration camp pretends to have a mother from Belgium and a father from Iran. To stay alive, he convinces a Nazi, who wants to learn Persian, that he speaks the language fluently but one false move could expose his deception. 
Arizona Only

THE PIANIST FROM RAMALLAH

Based on a true story, Misha Alsheikh is a sixteen-year old pianist with extraordinary talent and persistence. The son of a Palestinian father and Russian mother, he works with an Israeli-Jewish teacher in his quest to fulfill his dreams. 
Arizona Only

PLAN A

In 1945, to exact revenge, a group of Jewish Holocaust survivors planned to poison the water system in Germany. This true story tells the dangerous and bold secret operation which was called Plan A.



Arizona Only

THE RAFT

Due to travel restrictions, four devoted youths decide to secretly build a raft and sail to the soccer championship final in Cyprus. Their journey will prove to be an adventure of a lifetime. 


Arizona Only

SHALOM TAIWAN

The severe financial problems of a Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires forces their enterprising rabbi to embark on a humorous and heartwarming journey to the Far East on a quest to secure donations.

STILL A REVOLUTIONARY: ALBERT EINSTEIN

Albert Einstein was a world-renowned celebrity and greeted like a rock star. He was also an outspoken activist regarding a wide range of issues. Using rarely-seen archival footage and illuminating interviews, the film goes beyond the legend to tell the true story of our most famous savant.

TANGO SHALOM

A tango dancer asks a rabbi to enter a dance competition, but there's one big problem -- he's not allowed to touch her due to his Orthodox beliefs. However, since the prize money will save his school from bankruptcy, they work together to develop a plan to enter the competition without sacrificing his faith.

TIGER WITHIN

Ed Asner stars in this tender story about the unlikely friendship between a Holocaust survivor and a homeless teen runaway sparking larger questions of fear, forgiveness and healing.



Arizona Only

WE WERE THE OTHERS

A story of six Gay men who were born in the days of the establishment of the State of Israel. Their stories serve as the film’s background for the depiction of the clandestine and undocumented lives of homosexuals in Israel during the 1960-70s when homosexuality was considered illegal and a mental illness. 
Arizona Only

WET DOG

Based on a provocative autobiography, this film set in a largely Muslim neighborhood in Berlin, tells the story of 16-year old Iranian, Solheil, a hoodlum, who was caught between hiding his Jewish identity and saving his friendships.

Arizona Only

XUETA ISLAND

Explore the fascinating legacy of the Xuetas who are believed to be descendants of the island’s Inquisition-era Jewish population. Forced to renounce their Judaism by the Catholic Church, this group has reawakened their complex Jewish ties.
Arizona Only