Lost Cause | East Coast Premiere

Directed by Adam Kritzer
Allegorical Musical | USA | 2025 | 84 min | English

Talkback to follow.
Director/ writer/ producer/ star Adam Kritzer expected to attend.

Adam has written an allegorical and fictional new musical about a Yom Kippur service that goes off the rails and transforms into an attempted therapy session for a powerful and controversial unelected bureaucrat. The work extensively quotes the renowned writer Rebecca Garten whose permission Adam must attain before proceeding. Skeptical from the start, Rebecca agrees to attend a reading of the play before deciding whether or not to support it. Lost Cause is a meta-narrative art-pop musical that explores the unanswerable questions facing our country today. “Not everything that is faced can be changed,” wrote James Baldwin, “but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Official Selection

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, World Premiere

“A singular work of art…a clear artistic exploration of the unanswerable questions facing our country today.” – San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Director’s Bio

Adam is a filmmaker, musician, writer, and educator whose work spans narrative film and interdisciplinary arts. He began his career collaborating with mentor Peter Sellars on a film adaptation of Toni Morrison’s Desdemona. After moving to New York in 2014, Adam produced Chocolate Heart (SXSW 2015) and Lace Crater (TIFF 2016), while also writing and directing his own debut feature, Good Funk (CPH PIX 2017). He later produced Froth & Bubble (US-in-Progress 2019). Adam is also the founder of a virtual arts program supporting neurodiverse artists with personalized, interdisciplinary curricula. He lives in New York City with his partner and their schnauzer, Upton Sinclair.

This event is presented by Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media. Please contact info@phillyjfm.org with any questions.