This intimately photographed film offers a peak into the lives of a culturally diverse group of young American Jews. Four Short Films explores what draws us toward and pushes us away from the people we love.
Sophia Teper’s moment of reflection in 2009.
This triptych of stories delivers candid, funny observations of do-it-yourself holiday rituals. These teenagers consider the mysterious relevance of ritual in secular, multicultural lives._
In this poetic documentary, teenager Ed “Lalo” Baraona turns the camera on the intersection of Salvadoran and Jewish identity. On his first trip away from home, Lalo journeys to Israel and catches an unexpected glimpse of adulthood.
“As Old As Our Eyes – Gary’s Story”
”Gary’s Story” is part of a collective filmmaking project that looks at relationships between teenagers and their grandparents in families that have recently immigrated to the US from the former Soviet Union. Gary’s family is from Moscow.
“As Old As Our Eyes – Klaira’s Story”
Klaira presents a surprising vision of assimilation and a loving depiction of San Francisco. She and her grandparents explore how the experience of immigration changed their sense of self and altered the fabric of their relationship.
“As Old As Our Eyes – Yelena’s Story”
This Ukrainian-Jewish teenager immigrated to San Francisco as a young child. Now on the brink of adulthood she interviews her grandparents about their new American lives yearning to see her adopted world through their eyes. Yelena understand that life in the US has changed her profoundly in the movie she uncovers at what price.
A quirky chorus of Bay Area teenagers grapples with ambivalent feelings about being Jewish and a sense of uneasiness about participating in mainstream American life. This film presents a candid vision of what it means to grow up Jewish in the Bay Area.
