Friday, Nov 21, 2025
Digital Chutzpah Shorts Showcase | Film + Media Festival Screening
12 PM Film Screening
$10 Students with ID | $13 Seniors | $15 General Admission
Live at The Weitzman
DIGITAL CHUTZPAH SHORTS SHOWCASE
Talkback with a selection of the featured filmmakers to follow.
This diverse collection of compelling short films each tell unabashedly Jewish stories in ways that are unafraid to experiment with genre, style, and medium. Comprised of stories blending documentary, narrative, meta-theatre, dance, and more, these films feature boundary-pushing artists that bring new layers to Jewish expression.
GOODBYE, DOLLY
Director Becca-Willow Moss
Short | Canada | 36 min | English
World Premiere
As a stylized documentary, Goodbye, Dolly uses tropes of the 1964 Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! It hybridizes theatrical elements within the context of everyday life, based on Becca-Willow Moss’s growing up as – and growing into – a Jewish woman. Goodbye, Dolly is an autobiographical work, dealing with themes of grief, food, and fear.
HOLDING ON
Director Maya Bitan and Daniel Pakes
Short | Israel | 13 min | Hebrew and Spanish with English Subtitles
A successful choreographer based in Spain returns to his birthplace, Israel, to create a new dance piece. On his way, he encounters scenes of war and occupation. The reality gradually seeps into the rehearsal room.
MATZAH BALL SOUP w/ KETCHUP
Director Jacob Perdue
Short | USA | 24 min | English
World Premiere
Matzah Ball Soup w/ Ketchup is an intimate documentary that captures the warmth, humor, and complexity of Jewish-American identity through one woman’s kitchen. As a mother-in-law, Beth Arager, prepares for the Passover Seder, the film invites viewers into a world where tradition simmers on the stove and memory flavors every dish. Told from a first-person perspective, this culinary portrait unfolds with candor and care, blending family history with contemporary reflections on what it means to be Jewish in America today.
THE ROAD
Director Miryam Sas
Short | USA/Ukraine | 14 min | English
World Premiere
Shot in the tranquil streets of Berkeley, with shared footage from a living room in today’s war-torn Ukraine, this film reflects on what is hidden beneath our everyday lives across time and space. With voice-over by scholars Naomi Seidman and John Efron, this short experimental documentary describes the uses of Jewish headstones in Eastern Europe as building materials for roads during and after World War II, even as a little girl in today’s war-torn Ukraine, living in above those same roads, creates art out of clay and connects to the creatures of the earth.
This event is presented by Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media. Please contact info@phillyjfm.org with any questions.
