Q&A with directors Danielle Durchslag, Pearl Gluck, and Yulia Ruditskaya

The Waltz
Yulia Ruditskaya
USA, 2022, 5 min.
Yiddish with English subtitles

Employing beautiful, autumnal animation, this short by Yulia Ruditskaya, an immigrant artist from Belarus who lives in New York, is inspired by a poem by the Ukraine-born Yiddish poet A. Lutsky and uses nonlinear narration and phantasmagoric imagery.

Shirey Mara
Nata Korneyeva
Belarus, 2021, 10 min.
Russian with English subtitles
N.Y. Premiere

This gorgeously animated fairy tale from Belarus tells the story of reconciling with the loss of a loved one. Using an evocative collage style, Nata Korneyeva depicts the possibility of renewal and the healing magic of music that transcends death.

My Parent, Neal
Hannah Saidiner
USA, 2021, 9 min.
English

Hannah Saidiner uses vivid, colorful animation to reflect on her parent, with whom she shares a birthday, coming out as transgender and how their relationship evolved. My Parent, Neal evokes its emotional landscape through the depiction of domestic spaces and meaningful intimate objects.

Anatevka
Danielle Durchslag
USA, 2022, 4 min.
English
U.S. Premiere

The new film from artist and filmmaker Danielle Durchslag playfully interrogates the cultural prevalence of Fiddler on the Roof, showing a group of schoolchildren singing a darkly comedic, lyrically updated version of the show’s most mournful tune, “Anatevka.”

Castles in the Sky
Pearl Gluck
USA, 2022, 33 min.
English and Yiddish with English subtitles
World Premiere

Filmmaker and professor Pearl Gluck’s provocative latest dramatic short film centers on Malke, a Holocaust survivor and sex-ed teacher who has been leading a secret life for decades: performing slam poetry on the Lower East Side. Castles in the Sky features commanding performances from actor Lynn Cohen, who died in 2020, and poet Venus Thrash, who died in 2021.

 Closed captions are available with our capti-view devices.

Make Me a King
Sofia Olins
United Kingdom, 2021, 16 min.
English and Yiddish with English subtitles

Award-winning British filmmaker Sofia Olins directed this delightful queer narrative about a young Jewish drag king performer. Though shunned by their parents, the nonbinary Ari continues to pursue their dream, while honoring the legacy of real-life Yiddish vaudeville drag king legend Pepi Litman.