Kinderland and American Birthright Films - Double Feature - Two Screenings

The Tallahassee Jewish Federation is pleased to announce the first film in our 2024 Jewish film series.

We are starting the year with a double feature of Kinderland and American Birthright.

Annually, the Tallahassee Jewish Federation supports summer camp scholarships and our first film, Kinderland is a short documentary film that tells the story of two secular Jewish summer camps in upstate New York.  Both have cultivated social activists for almost a century and are still in existence today. The camps were founded by secular working-class Jews on either side of the leftist political divide. Kinderland was communist; Kinder Ring (The Workmen's Circle) socialist. Despite numerous commonalities, they enjoyed a legendary feud from opposite ends of Sylvan Lake. In response to the recent increase in antisemitism and the accompanying rise in intolerance and inequality, today's campers, a largely secular multi-ethnic group, prioritize shared values over philosophical differences and attempt to join forces in the ongoing fight for equality and justice. What makes Kinderland both exceptional and timely is that it presents a history of political consciousness in America, while highlighting the ongoing reemergence of critical social issues and the ways divisiveness is a primary impediment to establishing real and permanent change.

Our second film has been nominated and received awards at film festivals across the US including Miami, Seattle, San Francisco, Rutgers, Chicago, Las Vegas and many others.  American Birthright is a documentary about having difficult conversations.   The writer and director, Becky Tahel, made her movie to find the answer to two questions: “Should I marry Jewish?” and “Why be Jewish?”  The inspiration behind the documentary came to Tahel when her younger sister Gal became engaged to a non-Jew. Gal and her fiancé Justin agreed to raise their future children Jewish, but also celebrate Christmas and Easter. Their family and community all had varying feelings ranging from joy to disappointment, including Tahel. Both sisters were born in Israel and raised in Philadelphia.    In American Birthright, Tahel initially set out to interview family members and rabbis from all different streams of Judaism to learn their perspective on how important individual Jews are in keeping Judaism alive for generations to come. 

General Admission $11; Tallahassee Film Society Members $9   www.tallahasseefilms.com