CLOSE UP: Sabbath Queen with Dir. Sandi Dubowski

Sabbath Queen Close Up w/Sandi Dubowski April 10, 7 pm, Starr,

$14/$10
Free for the first 25 members!

This epic documentary, shot over the span of twenty-one yearss, follows Amichai Lau-Lavie, an Israeli descended from an unbroken line of thirty-eight rabbis stretching back a thousand years. Yet as the film opens, Lau-Lavie is newly arrived in New York in the late 1990s, a young gay man declaring “Artists are the new rabbis” and appearing around the city in drag. Lau-Lavie soon embraces a range of creative spiritual endeavors, including his Lab/Shul congregation—until he shocks everyone with his decision to become a rabbi in the Conservative tradition of Judaism. Stimulating and moving, the film ends with Lau-Lavie’s words on Israel and Palestine post-October 7th.

(dir. Sandi Dubowski, U.S., 2024, 105 min.)

“Overwhelmingly ambitious in its time-spanning, as searching and curious as its primary subject.” Indiewire

Looking forward to seeing you at the Cinema!