FreshFlix and Moral Courage: 2023 BJFF Shorts
I missed it last year due to other commitments, but I was excited to be back covering the Boston Jewish Film Festival this year. Since 2016, I’ve attended the festival to learn more about Jewish life in the U.S., Israel, and abroad, and to bond with my wife, Shauna, who is Jewish. We enjoy watching the movies from the festival together and discussing them, especially their shorts programs since Shauna loves short films. In 2021, we even talked about the festival’s short film lineup in a special bonus episode of my podcast Spoilerpiece Theatre.
This year, the 35th annual Boston Jewish Festival runs from November 1-15, 2023. The first movies Shauna and I watched from the festival were their shorts, so here are my thoughts on their two shorts blocks, the FreshFlix competition and Moral Courage.
13th Annual FreshFlix Shorts Competition
We started with the 13th annual FreshFlix shorts competition, which celebrates the next generation of Jewish filmmakers. We saw 3/6 shorts in this block, which screened Thursday, November 2 at the Brattle Theatre, and will play virtually from November 13-15. We weren’t able to watch Irit Bardugo’s Bar Mitzvah, Suburban Witch, or The Father, The Son and The Rav Kalmenson.
My Parent, Neal
My Parent, Neal is an animated documentary where Hannah Saidiner interviews her parent about his gender transition and the evolution of their relationship. Short but very sweet, this moving nine-minute film, vividly animated in a crayon and watercolor style, features a thoughtful conversation about the complexities of gender transition and enlightening, deeply personal insights into the day-to-day trans experience for someone who transitioned late in their life.
Moon Blood
Moon Blood is an animated short about an adolescent girl trying to understand her period and her body’s connection to nature and the moon. At just four minutes, the film says a lot about what it’s like to be a young woman grappling with puberty through its eerie music, long patient shots, and textured animation.
New Lives
New Lives is a psychological portrait of a Holocaust survivor navigating the pressures of assimilation in 1950s Brooklyn. Director Joey Schweitzer tells a narrow, yet profoundly poignant story about moving on from trauma and building a new life for yourself in a strange new country. It features lived-in performances and smartly relies on visual and audio cues to evoke the Holocaust without showing it in flashbacks. I was captivated for all 20 minutes.
Short Film Program: Moral Courage
FreshFlix wasn’t the only shorts block we saw from the 35th annual Boston Jewish Film Festival. We also caught their Moral Courage shorts program, which screened on November 5 at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and will screen virtually from November 13–15.
Proof of Concept
We started with Proof of Concept, a comedic short about an aspiring filmmaker (Ellie Sachs) trying to convince her father and uncle (Richard Kind & Will Janowitz) to finance her short film. It’s a humorous meta-commentary on the Hollywood machine and a wonderful excuse to hang out with the delightful Richard Kind. But this light comedy feels out of place in a shorts block titled “Moral Courage.”
Deciding Vote
Next, we saw Deciding Vote, which recounts assemblyman George Michaels’s deciding vote on a New York abortion law that changed the course of American history. The doc shares a fascinating story about a man who made an important stand on a critical issue and paid the price with his political career. According to Shauna, “It’s a short that could have easily been a long” given what a fascinating figure Michaels seemed to be, and how impactful his single vote was in creating a new law that helped shepherd Roe v. Wade to the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s the kind of story I’m surprised I haven’t heard before and doesn’t seem particularly well-known.
Then we watched Dear Ani, a short documentary about an aspiring songwriter named Keith Wasserman who embarked on an obsessive correspondence with music icon Ani DiFranco because he thought she was communicating with him via lyrics in her songs. I was surprised by its thoughtful reflection on mental health, the nature of unexpected friendship, and creative collaboration, especially once it shifts to present DiFranco’s perspective on their relationship. It took moral courage on DiFranco’s part not to write Wasserman off as a deranged fan, and to take a risk by meeting him. She formed a genuine connection with him that blossomed into a beautiful friendship.
Lastly, we saw Nothing Except 34 Paintings, which chronicles Peggy Guggenheim’s relationship with the Director of the Tel Aviv Museum in the 1950s and the story behind the largest art donation she ever made. It seemed interesting on paper, but ultimately I wished the documentary was edited more compellingly and more insightful in exploring how Guggenheim’s Jewish identity may or may not have influenced her donation to the Museum. It feels like a long-winded way to arrive at a joke that inspired the documentary’s title, Guggenheim’s comment about her relationship with the museum director. There was nothing between them except 34 paintings.