Jewish Story Partners Nonprofit Selects 26 Documentary Grantees to Receive $545,000
The new grantees for JSP, which was launched in 2021 with the support of Kate Upshaw and Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation, have crafted narratives that explore the current state of U.S. democracy, antisemitism, the mission to help build a more peaceful society and the conversations that are taking place following the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
Among the titles are 'The Day After,' 'Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny,' 'The Paradox' and 'White Rose.' There were more than 220 applications submitted by filmmakers. The funding round was curated by filmmaker Amy Berg, Impact Partners' Geralyn Dreyfous and Michael Renov, a USC professor of critical studies and Vice Dean for Academic Affairs.
'With its capacity to humanize the 'other' through storytelling, cinema is unparalleled in its ability to build empathy and understanding across divides and counteract ignorance and hate,' JSP Executive Director Roberta Grossman and Head of Granting and Programs Caroline Libresco said in a statement. 'With public funding for the arts and humanities under threat, we are proud to support such an extraordinary group of new documentary films that will stimulate crucial conversations and allow complex truths to emerge.'
In addition, JSP shares that it is collaborating with the Jewish Film Institute (JFI) to choose one participant in the JFI Filmmaker in Residence program to receive additional support for documentary film as part of the annual JFI-JSP Momentum Award.
'It was meaningful for us to delve into this powerful slate of documentaries that strike at the core of discussions most relevant to Jewish life and culture today,' the jury said in a statement. 'These artful and moving films weave strong threads of reconciliation, unpacking the past— whether within families or collective history—and wrestling with the complex present so we can envision a brighter, more just future.'
JSP currently accepts submissions via one open call per year, with applications opening in November and juried decisions made in May. The Fall 2025 Reprise Grant cycle is now open to current JSP grantees only, with a deadline on Aug. 8.
Here's a complete list of the 2025 grantees:
'All That We Are' — Directed by Ondi Timoner. Produced by Morgan Doctor, Sigrid Dyekjær and Lauren Heimer.
'Alpha and Omega' — Directed and produced by Ron Frank. Produced by Glenn Kirschbaum.
'The Day After' — Directed and produced by Yuval Orr, and directed by Aziz Abu Sarah. Produced by Liel Maghen, Margaux Missika and Chris Patterson.
'Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls: Another Side of Woody Guthrie' — Directed and produced by Steven Pressman.
'The Grandfather Puzzle' — Directed by Ora DeKornfeld. Produced by Noémi Veronika Szakonyi and Máté Artur Vincze.
'Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny' — Directed and produced by Jeff Bieber and Chana Gazit. Produced by Salme M. López Sabina.
'Leonard Cohen: Behind the Iron Curtain' — Directed by Eric Bednarski. Produced by Birgit Gernböck, Christine Guenther, Amanda Handy, Mark Johnston and Stanisław Zaborowski.
'The Lonely Child' — Directed and produced by Marc Smolowitz. Produced by Alix Wall.
'Offcuts' — Directed and produced by Jacob Fertig. Produced by Jaydn Ray Gosselin.
'The Paradox' — Directed and produced by Shimon Dotan. Produced by Dikla Barkai.
'The Sandman' — Directed by Esti Almo Wexler. Produced by Dr. Elad Wexler.
'Sapiro v. Ford' — Directed and produced by Gaylen Ross. Produced by Carol King.
'Shirley Clarke Film Untitled' — Directed and produced by Immy Humes.
'Walking Under Palms' — Directed by Adam Weingrod. Produced by Alexis Bloom and Kobi Mizrahi.
'White Rose' — Directed and produced by Julie Cohen.
'Wilder' — Directed by Kate Novack. Produced by Joanne Nerenberg.
The post Jewish Story Partners Nonprofit Selects 26 Documentary Grantees to Receive $545,000 | Exclusive appeared first on TheWrap.
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- CNET
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11 hours ago
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It definitely didn't connect right, and certain things were absolutely broken. And so then I got my 70 pages; it's time to actually roll up my sleeves and use my brain and fix it. So the first pass is definitely like a really subconscious kind of transcendental state. And then the second pass is like, 'Okay, time to get brainy here and make it function.' And that was like a three-week [process]. I went to my manager's house in the woods on the East Coast, and I didn't do anything for three weeks. All I did all day was just work on it. And I got it in shape. io9: You also mentioned in the press notes that when you sat down to write the script, you had the idea of the missing kids but didn't know the why of it yet. Cregger: Right. io9: That's obviously the whole point of the movie, and we're not going to spoil it, but I'm curious, what was the process of figuring it out? Did you get to the point in the script and you're like, 'Now I need to have this answer?' Did you make a list? Was the process of settling on what you were going to do? Cregger: No, I hadn't gotten to that moment of truth yet. I hadn't hit that point of no return. So I was kind of just like hoping it was going to come to me, and it did. Like, about 50 pages in, I got the answer, and it was a really joyful moment. I was like, 'This will work. Like this is a satisfying reason.' And, and then I was able to kind of like bend the story toward that. So yeah, it worked. io9: By the end of the movie, it's very clear why it's called Weapons, but I'm wondering, were there ever any other titles, and when did you come up with Weapons as the title? Cregger: I don't remember when. I might've come up with Weapons when I started writing. It's very possible. I think it was like always there, but I'm not sure. I should go on my computer and see if there are earlier documents that have a different title. I doubt it, though. You know, it just felt right. It was just one of those things. I really try not to think about anything when I'm writing. I don't want to intellectualize anything. So it's just kind of like, 'Bleh, that's it.' io9: Similar to Barbarian, there are a lot of surprises in this movie. How involved are you with the marketing to say, 'We can show this, we can't show that?' Because as a young filmmaker, usually you wouldn't have a lot of say in that, but this seems like it's got your fingerprints on it a little bit. Cregger: Yeah, [Warner Bros.] was definitely very collaborative, and they were interested in keeping the mystery intact. And so there was never any roll up your sleeves and duke it out things. There were a couple of moments where they showed me cuts. I was like, 'Can we lose that shot and that shot?' And they're like, 'No problem.' So they're wonderful. And I think they did an amazing job. io9: Next up you're making Resident Evil. And after doing two movies that you conceived of yourself, was there any trepidation about doing not just a movie that's a major IP, but one that has so many other movies and games and stories that fans are used to? Cregger: Yeah. I mean, you, you have to respect the IP, and you have to take it seriously. I'm a natural, huge fan of the games. I've played them all. I love them deeply. So I feel like I know how to tell a story in that world. It's an original story. I'm not telling a story that's been told in the games, but it's a story that lives in the world of the games and obeys the rules. And so, look, as long as you're telling a really good story, then I think you're going to be okay. I'm not breaking the rules. I don't think people are going to come crucify me for this. io9: Since it's in the trailer, I feel safe asking about this, but the eyes. Those unblinking eyes. Those bloodshot eyes. How did you go about doing that practically? Or was it… Cregger: It was VFX. We researched Graves' disease. And so we had a lot of reference material from that. And then, you know, it was an iterative process in post of like, how big is too big? And you want that thing where it looks wrong, but it's not immediately obvious. And so yeah, we dialed it in slowly. It's pretty wild. io9: This is a horror movie for sure, but it's got detective stuff, family drama, and mystery too. How did this mishmash of genres come to be, or was that sort of a result of you just kind of like throwing this whole story out there? Cregger: It was that. This is just kind of what came [out], you know? I knew I had all these different characters that were all going to kind of dive headlong into this mystery, but all from different places. So you got a cop; you're going to get a cop way in. You've got a drug addict, you're going to get this like seedy way in, and you've got the teacher, and she's going to get preyed upon. So I was able to kind of do like five different horror movies, or seven, as it were, in one. It was really fun. io9: We're at a place now where this movie is coming out, and I think it's going to be a real big hit, but it's been a great summer for horror overall. Horror has really seen a resurgence in the last couple of years. Do you feel like you're carrying the torch at all, now having two movies as part of that? Do you feel like an ambassador in any way? Cregger: I don't know. I don't think that way, of like, my place in the broader framework of horror. I'm more than happy that there seem to be people excited to see the movie, and that's enough for me. io9: The movie allows us to see scenes from multiple points of view. How'd you go about that? Did you shoot them all at the same time? Cregger: You got to shoot it all together because of the limitations of time and money, and it's such a big machine making a movie. So it's like when you're at the gas station, you're going to shoot all the gas station stuff. I'm not coming back to the gas station for that person's chapter. We're going to do it all together. And it's confusing, but if you're really organized and you've shot it out, like you storyboarded it and you have a plan, it's not so bad. io9: And my last thing here is when the movie was first announced, Pedro Pascal was playing the Josh Brolin role. Ultimately he had to leave, and now it's Josh Brolin. How would the movie have been different with Pedro than with Josh, and why was Josh ultimately the right person for it? Cregger: I have no idea because I didn't make the movie with Pedro. I can't really answer that. I can just only say that I adore Josh's performance in this movie, and I'm so glad he's in it. He's amazing. Weapons is amazing too. Check it out on August 8, and come back next week for more from Cregger about a few spoilers in the film. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Boston Globe
Rose Leiman Goldemberg, 97, dies; her ‘Burning Bed' was a TV benchmark
Ms. Goldemberg was working as a playwright in the mid-1970s when she sent a few story outlines to an unusually receptive television producer. One of them, a drama about immigrants set on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1910, caught his interest. It became a television movie, 'The Land of Hope' (a title Ms. Goldemberg hated), which aired on CBS in 1976. It centered on a Jewish family and their Irish and Italian neighbors. There were labor organizers, gangsters, and musicians, and a rich uncle who wanted to adopt a child to say Kaddish for him when the time came. Such an ethnic stew was a stretch for the network, and critics loved it. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'A thoroughly charming surprise,' John O'Connor wrote in his review for The New York Times. Advertisement As a pilot for a series, 'The Land of Hope' went nowhere, but it made Ms. Goldemberg's reputation, and she began receiving stories to be turned into scripts. 'Where did you spring from?' one network executive asked her, she recalled in a 2011 interview for the nonprofit organization New York Women in Film & Television. 'As though I were a mushroom.' It was Arnold Shapiro, the veteran producer, writer and director behind 'Scared Straight!,' a well-received TV documentary about teenage delinquents being brought into contact with prison inmates, who sent Ms. Goldemberg 'The Burning Bed,' a 1980 book by The New Yorker writer Faith McNulty about the case of Francine Hughes. Advertisement Hughes's story was horrific. For 13 years, she had been terrorized by her alcoholic husband. One day in March 1977, after a brutal beating, she called the police in their Michigan town. Two officers responded and then left, saying there was nothing they could do because they hadn't witnessed the attacks. That night, the beating resumed, and Hughes's husband raped her. When he fell asleep, she doused the bed with gasoline, lit a match, and set the bed on fire. Then she put her children in the car and drove to the county jail to report what she had done. Her husband died that night, and Francine Hughes was charged with first-degree murder. Nine months later, a jury pronounced her not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. The verdict made national headlines. Fawcett, the pinup star of 'Charlie's Angels,' the frothy crime series, was already attached to the project; she had shown her dramatic chops in 'Extremities,' an off-Broadway production about a woman who exacts revenge on her rapist, and wanted to continue working in that vein. Yet the project was initially turned down by all three networks. When it was resurrected, by NBC, in one of those complicated scenarios particular to Hollywood, Shapiro was somehow left out of the production. The movie aired in October 1984, to mostly critical acclaim. (Paul Le Mat played the husband.) It was seen by tens of millions of viewers, and NBC's ratings soared, pulling the network out of third place and putting it on top for the first time in a decade. Fawcett, Ms. Goldemberg, the producers, and even the makeup artist were nominated for Emmy Awards, and the movie set off a national conversation about domestic abuse. Women's shelters, a rarity in those days, began opening all over the country; the film was shown in men's prisons; and Ms. Goldemberg was often asked to speak to women's groups. Advertisement Inevitably, as she recalled in 2011, 'someone would say, 'I couldn't talk about my own abuse until I saw the film.'' She added: 'It wasn't because of me. It was a wonderful performance by Farrah, and the timing was right. It was just a remarkable confluence of the right things happening at the right time.' Still, Ms. Goldemberg began fielding entreaties from other actresses who wanted her to write star vehicles for them, projects akin to 'The Burning Bed.' She did so for one of Fawcett's fellow angels, Jaclyn Smith, cowriting the TV movie 'Florence Nightingale' for her. Broadcast in April 1985, it did not have the same impact as 'The Burning Bed'; most critics found it soapy and forgettable. A Lucille Ball vehicle fared much better. Ball wanted a script about homelessness, and when she and Ms. Goldemberg met at her Beverly Hills house, Ball laid out her terms: She wanted to play a character with some of the personality traits of her grandmother, and named for her. Ms. Goldemberg came up with 'Stone Pillow,' a television film about a homeless woman named Florabelle. In his Times review, under the headline 'Lucille Ball Plays a Bag Lady on CBS,' O'Connor called the movie 'a carefully contrived concoction' but praised Ball 'as wily and irresistible as ever.' Advertisement Rose Marion Leiman was born on May 17, 1928, on Staten Island, N.Y. Her mother, Esther (Friedman) Leiman, oversaw the home until World War II, when she became an executive secretary at Bank of America; her father, Louis Leiman, owned a chain of dry-cleaning stores in New Jersey. Rose earned a bachelor's degree in 1949 from Brooklyn College, where she had enrolled at 16, and a Master of Arts in English from Ohio State University. She married Raymond Schiller, a composer who followed her from Brooklyn College to Ohio State, in 1949; he later became a computer systems designer. They divorced in 1968. Her marriage, in 1969, to Robert Goldemberg, a cosmetic chemist, ended in divorce in 1989. Her first television-related job was at TV Guide in the 1950s, writing reviews of shows airing on what was then a new medium. She eventually began writing plays. Ms. Goldemberg is survived by a son, Leiman Schiller, and three stepchildren, David Goldemberg, Kathy Holmes, and Sharanne Goldemberg. This article originally appeared in
