Films about Sephardic/Hispanic Jews
Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America and beyond
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- DirectorShmuel ImbermanStarsYehoram Gaon
- DirectorDavid PerlovStarsItamar GovRena MolhoYael PerlovThis unique cinematic piece about language, memory and identity follows Ladino speakers-their culture, their memories and their hopes for the future of their mother tongue. In Search of Ladino is a forgotten landmark of Holocaust cinematography, one of the first films to show Ladino speaking Holocaust survivors in Israel and to document their testimonies and songs. The film was meant to be part of a trilogy about languages - Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino - but David Perlov never managed to make the other two. Perlov avoids being didactic. Focusing his gaze on the faces of his subjects and listening carefully to their stories and songs, he creates a film that brings the richness and diversity of Ladino culture back to life. The film screened is a restoration of the original.
- DirectorYigal BursztynA journey in the path of the Jewish philosopher - Moses Maimonides.
- DirectorLuis IsmaelStarsRodrigo SantosPedro GalizaAna VargasIn 1496, King D. Manuel prohibited Judaism. 400 years later, Barros Basto, a Portuguese army captain converted to Judaism, and about twenty Jewish merchants founded the Jewish Community of Oporto, in the north of Portugal.
- DirectorOmer SarikayaStarsRobert MailletBill Oberst Jr.Kabir BediOn March 31, 1492, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Isabella and Ferdinand, issued the Alhambra Decree, an edict requiring the expulsion or conversion of all Jews from the Crowns of Castile and Aragon by July 31 of that year. The edict was issued shortly after Ferdinand and Isabella had won the Battle of Granada, completing the Catholic Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula from Islamic forces. As noted in the decree itself, it was issued to stop Jews from trying "to subvert the holy Catholic faith" by attempting to "draw faithful Christians away from their beliefs." Unfortunately, persecution by Catholics against the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula was not a new phenomenon in 1492. One hundred one years earlier, violence against the Jews of Castile erupted in what is known as the Massacre of 1391. After 4,000 Jews were murdered in Seville, the violence spread to more than 70 cities throughout Castile, resulting in the death of thousands of Jews while thousands others converted to Catholicism so their lives might be spared.Violence, persecution, and forced conversion continued against the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula into the 1400s. Because of that persecution, by 1415 more than half of the Jews of the crowns of Castile and Aragon had converted to Catholicism. But, because of the Spanish Inquisition, conversion did not guarantee the safety of former Jews in the region. Out of distrust by "Old Christians", popular revolts against the conversos broke out in 1449 and 1474. Jews who chose exile had to sell nearly all their possessions, taking only what they could carry. Whole communities packed up and left, their homes and sacred areas quickly reclaimed by the Catholic communities that remained. The expulsion led to mass migration of Jews from Spain to Italy, Greece, Turkey, North Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin. As a result of the Alhambra Decree, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism, and between 40,000 and 100,000 were expelled.
- DirectorGuita SchyfterStarsClaudette MailléMaya MishalskaAngélica AragónTwo Mexican Jewish girls of come of age in Mexico City during the 1960s.
- DirectorEliran MalkaStarsShuli RandYaacov CohenYoav LeviThe year is 1983 and Yaakov Cohen, the owner of a Jerusalem printing press, is tired from being pushed around. It seems that he was born on the wrong side, with the wrong family name and in a moment's decision he decides to establish a Sephardic-ultra-Orthodox list that will run to the Jerusalem municipality. He gathers two friends, and together they improvise a campaign - no means, no connections, no money, but with much rage, passion and a sense of justice.
- DirectorLisa AzuelosStarsMichèle LaroqueAure AtikaValérie BenguiguiLove stories, a beauty parlor,a Moroccan nanny, children to educate and family feasts are what Isa,Alice,Léa and Nina share together because they are united by their Sephardi families and their friendship.
- DirectorDavid SereroStarsDavid SereroRon BarbaJoe TallutoThis Merchant of Venice production was done in a Sephardi style featuring some Jewish Ladinos songs. French Actor and Baritone David Serero gives a stunning performance as Shylock and signs the staging and the adaptation of this William Shakespeare play. This is the Live recording at the Center for Jewish History in New York on the sold out opening night of June 14th 2015.
- DirectorMoshé MizrahiStarsMichal Bat-AdamAmos LaviBoris AhnovLove, family expectations, and religion mix in 19th century Jerusalem. Jacob and Rebecca marry; he's a rabbi, she's dutiful and loving. But she has no children. Months become years. Although Jacob is content, his mother reminds everyone she is waiting for a grandson. After 15 years, Rebecca determines that Jacob must take an additional wife, the young and beautiful Sultana. Rebecca fasts and prays, and in a state of near ecstasy, persuades everyone involved and then arranges an elaborate wedding. However, Sultana does not conceive, and Rebecca watches helplessly as Jacob's affection shifts to Sultana. She's near madness and the household is in turmoil. What can Rebecca do now?
- DirectorSimcha JacoboviciRoger PykeShot on location in Spain, Portugal, Israel, Canada, and the United States, this documentary traces the descendants of Spanish Jews who were forced to either flee or convert to Catholicism after Queen Isabella's edict of 1492. Many of these Jews had to practice their religion in secret, passing their furtively-recalled customs down through the generations. Exploring the history and culture of these "conversos," the film celebrates an enduring spiritual legacy which has survived centuries of persecution. Through interviews with the children of secret believers, the film captures the modern resurrection of something ethereal: the ghost of a people. The film features a Spanish/Sephardic soundtrack by some of the world's leading artists, including Placido Domingo.
- DirectorIsaac ArtensteinMexican-Jewish director Isaac Artenstein repeatedly experienced reactions of surprise, even disbelief, from many people north of the border: they had no idea there were Jews in Mexico, and especially in Tijuana. Tijuana Jews is an authentic and living testimony set against conceptions and misconceptions of this near-mythic border city. Throughout the early 20th century, thousands of European Jews sailed to America to escape persecution and look for new opportunities. Some arrived in Mexico, and a small group made their way north to Tijuana. The Tijuana Jewish community was established by immigrants and their descendants from Eastern Europe-Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews from countries like Poland, Russia, Lithuania, and Rumania. And also by Sephardic Jews from Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans and by Arabic Jews from Syria and Lebanon. Tijuana Jews illuminates the experiences of local pioneers who established the first Jewish temple in Tijuana and subsequent congregations, including Maguen David, The Hatikvah, and the Centro Social Israelita de Tijuana. For the film's director, Tijuana was also a place for weddings and bar mitzvahs and helping out at his father's store on Revolution Avenue. The first-person narration takes the audience on an intimate journey that builds to a dynamic present that includes the transformation of Tijuana into the busiest border crossing in the world, and the migration of many Tijuana Jewish families to America. Tijuana Jews is a personal exploration of this unique community, which blended Jewish and Mexican cultures and customs in an unlikely place and time.
- DirectorGregori ViensStarsRebecca Amato LevyThis film visits the Los Angeles community of "Rhodeslis"--Jews who lived on the Mediterranean island of Rhodes from 1492 to World War II--who have passed down their traditions, food, songs, rituals, and their medieval Ladino Spanish dialect to their American-born descendants.
- DirectorVivian ImarMarcelo TrottaDocumentary about the Jewish colonization in Argentina.
- DirectorPatricia SnyderDocuments Jewish daily life in Girona, a city in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia, from its "golden age" in the middle ages through the expulsion of Spanish Jewry in 1492 and up to the present day.
- DirectorBryan KirschenSusanna ZarayskyStarsMoris AlbahariEster Kaveson DebevecJacob FinciCan a language save your life? Yes it can, even an ancient one from the 15th century. Saved by Language tells the story of Moris Albahari, a Sephardic Jew from Sarajevo (born 1930), who spoke Ladino/Judeo-Spanish, his mother tongue, to survive the Holocaust. Moris used Ladino to communicate with an Italian Colonel who helped him escape to a Partizan refuge after he ran away from the train taking Yugoslavian Jews to Nazi death camps. By speaking in Ladino to a Spanish-speaking US pilot in 1944 he was able to survive and lead the pilot, along with his American and British colleagues, to a safe Partizan airport.
- DirectorDaniel Goldberg LernerStarsMoisés AmkieZelig SchnadowerSusana SevillaIn exploring the history of Jewish immigration to Mexico, A Kiss To This Land presents fragments of memories and oral histories together with vivid depiction of Jews in Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s.
- DirectorAbraham HayonStarsMar AbascalSandro ArmentiAntonio Duque
- DirectorIzza GéniniIn south Marrakesh, Morocco, amidst the olive groves lies the village of Oulad Moumen where Habiba and Yossef Edery began their family in the 1920s. Genini, the youngest of the nine Edery children, organized a family reunion in 1992.
- DirectorRuth BeharStarsRuth BeharElizabeth PeñaA personal journey about the search for identity and memory among Sephardic Jews with roots in Cuba.
- DirectorMischa LivingstoneAnkica PetrovicStarsFlory JagodaAcclaimed Sephardic folksinger, Flory Jagoda, tells the story of her life. She sings the songs of her ancestors and contributes melodies and lyrics of her own. She celebrates life itself, delighting with her songs and personal story.
- DirectorGabriela Bohm
- DirectorMark FreemanStarsEli WallachAt the end of the 19th century, some East European Jews fleeing persecution and pogroms emigrated to Argentina. There, many became ranchers and farmers, adapting to life on the pampas alongside the tough Argentine cowboys, the gauchos.
- 1998–200122mTV EpisodeDirectorDonald WinklerStarsSolly LévyA documentary portrait of Solly Lévy, teacher and man of the theater, and his contribution to Canada since emigrating from Morocco in the 1960s.