Shorts: Peacocks, Pops & Pepchook

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Featuring narrative, documentary, and animated films from Israel, the UK, and the USA, this year’s program of 7 shorts curated by Judith Dack and the Shorts Committee will surely leave you smiling.

The Peacock That Passed Over  4 min  British Documentary. Directed by Max Goldberg. An unlikely whimsical creature takes up long-term residence at a Leeds synagogue where the film explores the responses of a diverse section of the Yorkshire community who are all in delighted agreement over this charming state of affairs.

Pops   19 min British Narrative. Directed by Lewis Rose. A comedic drama about a battle that breaks out between two siblings over their late Jewish father’s eccentric last request. Will it be Elli or Roz who will determine Pop’s final journey?

No Flowers   10 min Israel. In Hebrew w/subtitles. From the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem. The florist’s delivery woman has to call forth previously unused counseling skills when she becomes embroiled in a couple’s dispute where the recipient refuses the flowers her lover has sent just before Shabbat.

Pepchook   9 min Israeli Animation in English. By student filmmaker Tamar Chetzroni from the School of Audio & Visual Arts at Sapir College in Sderot, Israel, located less than two miles from the Gaza border. Sometimes intercultural romances are wonderful in one setting but don’t translate well outside of that context. See what happens when an Israeli woman visits her post-cruise ship boyfriend in his home country of Samoa, where they never even heard of the Holoc.

Heritage Day 19 min English. Written and Directed by award-winning Lara Everly, starring Rachel Bloom. In this dark comedy, eight-year-old Evie becomes obsessed with playing Holocaust after dressing up as her estranged grandmother, a holocaust survivor, for Heritage Day at school. Inspired by a true event, this film explores the comedic irony that Evie is re-creating a world where everyone else is trying to forget. Evie is at the age where her truth drives her actions more than social norms do. Her behavior makes her mother Sarah, question herself as a parent and ultimately sympathize more with her mom. The holocaust is a complex and tender topic that this film tackles through the lens of subsequent generations and heartfelt humor.

The Anne Frank Gift Shop  15 min English. Written and directed by Mickey Rapkin. Shortlisted for the 2024 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short.

When a high-end design firm presents its plans to reimagine the gift shop at The Anne Frank House, the company’s overt appeal to Generation Z sparks a debate about inter-generational trauma, the Holocaust, and tote bags. 

MERV 21 min English. Directed by Sam Roebling, starring Renee Taylor, Willie Orbison, and Hal Linden. Following his latest romantic humiliation, Simon is unexpectedly summoned to his grandmother’s house to meet her new boyfriend, Merv. What happens next was previously unimaginable and quite hilarious.