2025 Boston Jewish Film Festival – Guests
Rav Tiferet Berenbaum, Moderator, All God’s Children
Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum is the director of congregational learning and programming at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, MA. She received rabbinic ordination and a MA in Jewish Education from Hebrew College in Boston. She has served as rabbi to congregations in Milwaukee, WI and Mt. Holly, NJ.
Ondi Timoner, Director/Producer, All God’s Children
Ondi Timoner is an internationally-acclaimed filmmaker whose work focuses on “impossible visionaries”. She has the rare distinction of winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance twice, for DIG! (2004) about the collision of art and commerce and WE LIVE IN PUBLIC (2009) about the loss of privacy online as predicted in a bunker in NY over the turn of the millennium. Both films were acquired by MoMA NY for its permanent collection. Since then, Ondi’s created award-winning films / series such as JOIN US about mind control, COOL IT about climate change, BRAND: A Second Coming about the transformation of Russell Brand, JUNGLETOWN about an intentional community in remote Panama, COMING CLEAN about the opioid crisis, and MAPPLETHORPE a film she also wrote and produced about Robert Mapplethorpe starring Matt Smith. She’s currently directing a feature about the disruption and decentralization of finance.
Rabbi Rachel Timoner, Film Subject, All God’s Children
Rabbi Rachel Timoner serves as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Her initiatives in recent years include a rabbinic conversation on antisemitism, a study series on systemic racism in America, a sukkah about the refugee experience, a Dismantling Racism Team which was part of the successful campaigns to Raise the Age of criminal responsibility and to win bail reform in the State of New York, and a partnership with Antioch Baptist Church to address racism and antisemitism in Brooklyn, which is the subject of the feature documentary ALL GOD’S CHILDREN.
Reverend Robert Waterman, Film Subject, All God’s Children
Reverend Dr. Robert M. Waterman is a dynamic pastor with over 21 years at the helm of Antioch Baptist Church in Brooklyn. Known as “The Preacher of Thunder,” he is a powerful voice for both spiritual and social change. With a deep commitment to restoring lives, Dr. Waterman leads Antioch in addressing community needs and building a stronger, more connected community.
Beyond his pastoral duties, Dr. Waterman is an accomplished educator and advocate, having served in various influential roles at Medgar Evers College and as a teacher in Brooklyn. His visionary approach extends to founding Canticles, a sober lounge that serves as a vibrant community hub for cultural and social events.
A staunch activist, Dr. Waterman holds leadership positions in several organizations, including the African American Clergy and Elected Officials Organization (A.A.C.E.O.). In this role, he is crucial in sparking essential conversations and fostering collaboration between clergy and policymakers, addressing the most pressing challenges facing his community. His authorship of books like “God has left the Building” and “From Scattered to Unstoppable Dreams” showcases his dedication to reimagining the church’s role in modern outreach and providing hope in uncertain times. Dr. Waterman embodies the power of faith-driven leadership to inspire change and uplift communities.
Ty Burr, Guest Speaker, Charles Grodin: Rebel With a Cause
Ty Burr is a movie critic of 40 years standing (Entertainment Weekly, The Boston Globe) and the author of the movie recommendation newsletter Ty Burr’s Watch List (tyburrswatchlist.com). He is a member of the National Society of Film Critics and the author of “Gods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame” (2012), “The Best Old Movies for Families” (2007) and the e-book “The 50-Movie Starter Kit: What to Know if You Want to Know What You’re Talking About” (2013). In 2017 he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism.
Professor Zinaida Miller, Moderator, Coexistence, My Ass!
Professor Zinaida Miller holds a joint appointment in the School of Law and the International Affairs Program of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities. She teaches courses in human rights law and in criminal justice. Along with Professor Martha Davis, she is a founding faculty co-director of the Center for Global Law & Justice.
An expert in transitional justice and international human rights, Miller’s research focuses on inequality, structural violence, and critical approaches to international law, including in Palestine/Israel, South Africa, and Rwanda. Her scholarship has been published in journals including the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, International Journal of Transitional Justice, Transnational Legal Theory, Cornell International Law Journal, and International Criminal Law Review and in edited collections including the forthcoming Race and Transitional Justice (Oxford Univ. Press) and The Oxford Handbook of Transitional Justice (Oxford Univ. Press, 2025). She is co-editor of Anti-Impunity and the Human Rights Agenda (Cambridge University Press, 2016), which explores the emphasis on punishment and prosecution in the human rights movement, particularly in states emerging from conflict. Her current scholarship investigates the relationships among temporality, rights, and justice, including the uses of the past in legal and political struggles over racial and economic inequalities.
Libby Lenkinski, Executive Producer, Coexistence, My Ass!
Libby Lenkinski is the founding President of Albi and serves as Vice President for Public Engagement at the New Israel Fund, where she has led all aspects of NIF’s public efforts in the United States for the last decade – including communications, digital, programs, events, leadership, community partnerships and engagement, New Generations and fellowships. Prior to joining NIF, Libby lived and worked in the Israeli non-profit field for almost a decade. Libby currently serves on the board of American Friends of the Batsheva Dance Company and Heeb Magazine, and is on the Advisory Committee for the Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues, Ayin Press, Schlepp Labs, and Diaspora Alliance. Libby is based in NYC and travels to Israel-Palestine frequently.
Dr. Hannah Zaves-Greene, Moderator, Disposable Humanity
Hannah Zaves-Greene received her PhD in American Jewish history from NYU. Her book project, Able to Be American: Disability in U.S. Immigration Law and the American Jewish Response, explores how American Jews addressed federal law’s discrimination against immigrants premised on health, disability, and gender, and is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the New York Public Library.
Hannah sits on the Academic Advisory Council for the Jewish Women’s Archive, and advises the National Museum of Immigration, at Ellis Island, regarding the role of health and disability in immigration history. She has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Cooper Union, and the New School for Social Research, presented her research at national and international conferences, and delivered guest lectures for academic and activist groups. Her public history writing appears online at the Jewniverse, the Activist History Review, and the Jewish Women’s Archive, and her academic work has been published in American Jewish History, the Journal of Transnational American Studies, and AJS Perspectives, and appears in the edited volume Forged in America: How Irish-Jewish Encounters Shaped a Nation from NYU Press.
Cameron Mitchell, Director, Disposable Humanity
Cameron S. Mitchell is an award-winning Director, Producer, DP, Writer, and moving camera specialist. He is the Director/Writer/DP of Elsa (PBS American Masters), The Co-Op (Slamdance Channel), and Kryptonite (highlighted on CNN). His work “Elsa” highlights Deafblind fencer and author Elsa Sjunneson and has been named an official selection of several OSCAR qualifying festivals. He is an alumni of the 2022 Respectability Lab, a jury member for Doc NYC’s #MyJustice award, a juror/programmer of Slamdance Film Festival since 2021, and is a Slamdance Filmmaker of the Week. In their review of Cameron’s debut narrative short the Co-op, Go Indie Now described Cameron Mitchell as a filmmaker “born to tell stories”.
Cameron is the owner and founder of CSM Productions (est. 2013) and his work focuses on how outlier individuals break the mold, particularly as it pertains to disabled individuals.
David T. Mithcell, Film Subject, Disposable Humanity
David T. Mitchell is professor of English & Cultural Studies at George Washington University. He has published six (6) scholarly books in Disability Studies and is widely recognized as an international scholar of importance in the field. His co-edited collection (with Sharon Snyder), The Body and Physical Difference: Discourses of Disability (1997), was the first humanities-based collection of academic essays in the field. In 2001, he co-authored, Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the Dependencies of Discourse, which forwarded a field-defining theory of disability representation that remains one of the most cited concepts in Disability Studies. At the center of his work are questions of disability embodiment as providing alternative ethical maps of living. He is currently completing a new feature-length film with his son, Cameron S. Mitchell, on Nazi mass murders in psychiatric institutions titled, Disposable Humanity.
Matthew Shear, Director/Writer/Actor, Fantasy Life
Matthew Shear is a filmmaker and actor based in New York. He starred in Noah Baumbach’s ‘Mistress America’ and the limited series ‘The Alienist’. His other credits include Baumbach’s ‘The Meyerowitz Stories’, M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Old’, and ‘Between the Temples’. ‘Fantasy Life’ is Matthew’s debut feature as a writer/director.
Phil Keefe, Producer, Fantasy Life
Philip Keefe is a dynamic film producer and co-founder of AC3 Media, based in Boston, Massachusetts. With over six years of experience at Burn Later Productions, a media company that creates, develops, produces, and finances original content for film and television.
As Director of Development at Burn Later Productions, Philip managed a diverse slate of 20 projects, including the SXSW award-winning comedy I LOVE MY DAD (Magnolia Pictures), featuring talents such as Patton Oswalt and Lil Rel Howery. He also served as an Executive Producer on gripping thrillers like MOTHER, MAY I (acquired by Dark Sky MPI) starring Holland Roden, Kyle Gallner, and Chris Mulkey. Along with GREEDY PEOPLE (starring Lily James and Joseph-Gordon Levitt), showcasing his versatility across genres.
Philip has a Bachelor’s degree in English from Fordham University, and a Master’s degree in Education from Boston College’s Lynch School. His journey into film demonstrates his adaptability and passion for storytelling across different platforms. With a keen eye for talent and a knack for project management, Philip continues to push boundaries in the cinematic landscape.
Tim Roper, Co-Director, For the Living
Tim Roper is an award-winning Writer-Director with a diverse mix of experience in both filmmaking and brand building. After graduating with a Film degree from The University of Texas at Austin with a minor in History, Tim began a 25-year career writing and directing short form branded content and crafting screenplays.
In 2016, Tim founded F. Yeah & Associates LLC—a live action “branded content engine” that specializes in short form comedic content. Tim’s writing & directing work has been honored at Cannes, The Museum of Modern Art, The Emmys, The One Club, The London International Film Festival to name a few and has appeared on the Super Bowl and profiled on 60 Minutes.
In 2019–in a sharp departure from his comedic roots–Tim joined co-director Marc Bennett and producer Lisa Effress to begin writing, co-directing and narrating the feature documentary FOR THE LIVING as a cautionary tale for a society grappling with the two extremes of human nature: Dehumanization and Empathy.
Lisa Effress, Producer, For the Living
A highly-awarded and accomplished Producer, Lisa Effress has spent three decades shaping scores of productions. Her vast experience and resourcefulness allow her to serve as Head of Production and/or Producer on film projects and ad campaigns alike. and has brought her to her current position as Managing Partner of the full-service, award-winning postproduction facility, 11 Dollar Bill, with offices in Boulder, Chicago, and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.
Lisa produced The Tattooed Torah, an animated short film based on a renowned children’s book that has been teaching children about the Holocaust for generations. Her current project is the feature length documentary, For the Living. When not producing, she spends every available minute with her husband and thirteen-year-old daughter skiing, hiking, antiquing, traveling, watching movies, and listening to music. They also bring their dogs, Archie and Teddy, along with them whenever possible.
Matt Sienkiewicz, Moderator, From Darkness to Light
Matt Sienkiewicz is Chair of the Boston College Communication Department and Professor of Communication and International Studies. He is also the Director of the Boston College Jewish Studies Program and the Faculty Advisor to Boston College Hillel.
He teaches courses in global media cultures, Jewish culture and civilization, comedy studies.
He is the author of That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them (University of California Press, 2022), The Other Air Force: U.S. Efforts to Reshape Middle Eastern Media Since 9/11 (Rutgers University Press, 2016) and the co-editor of The Comedy Studies Reader (University of Texas Press, 2018) and Saturday Night Live and American TV (Indiana University Press, 2013).
His publications include articles in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Media, Culture & Society, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, The International Journal of Cultural Studies, Popular Communication, The Journal of Film and Video, The Velvet Light Trap, The Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, Jewish History, Columbia Journalism Review and The Atlantic.
In addition to his work as a scholar, Matt is also an Emmy-nominated media maker and screenwriter. His credits include Vermont Public Television’s Windy Acres, and the documentaries Live From Bethlehem and The Ragged Edge.
Robert Edwards, Executive Producer, From Darkness to Light
Robert Edwards is a writer and filmmaker based in New York City. Edwards graduated with a BA in history magna cum laude from Lafayette College, where he won the Gilbert Prize in English and the MacKnight Black Poetry Prize. He then served for six and a half years as an infantry and military intelligence officer in the US Army, and was a captain in the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq during the Persian Gulf War.
After leaving the Army, Edwards earned an MA from the Graduate Program in Documentary Film and Video at Stanford. As a filmmaker, he wrote and directed the feature films Land of the Blind (2006) and When I Live My Life Over Again (aka One More Time) (2016), starring Christopher Walken and Amber Heard. As a screenwriter, Edwards won a Nicholl Fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Land of the Blind, and a Sloan Foundation / Sundance Grant for his adaptation of American Prometheus. His other screenwriting work includes Black Mass, Olympus Has Fallen, One Minute to Midnight, Blackwater, Hello to All That, and House of War.
As a documentarian, Edwards works with his wife and partner, director/ cinematographer Ferne Pearlstein. Edwards co-wrote, co-produced, and co-edited Pearlstein’s feature documentary Sumo East and West (2003), and co-wrote and co-produced her new film The Last Laugh (2016), starring Mel Brooks and Sarah Silverman. Both films had their world premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS’s Independent Lens series. Edwards’s own documentary short The Voice of the Prophet (2001), was shown at Sundance, Toronto, Human Rights Watch and numerous other festivals.
Edwards lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their daughter.
Jacob Geller, Guest Speaker, Jacob Geller Live! “What Even is a Jewish Video Game?”
Jacob Geller is an American video essayist, critic, and writer known for his analysis of video games and popular culture. Geller’s YouTube channel has over 1.2 million subscribers, with videos covering topics like horror, art, frigophobia, thalassophobia, and social justice. He published an annotated print collection of his essays in 2024. Geller’s career has included writing for Polygon, which named his 2019 video essay “Games, Schools, and Worlds Designed for Violence” as one of the best in YouTube’s history. He is the host of the podcast Something Rotten.
Betsy More, Moderator, Maintenance Artist
Betsy More is JWA’s Director of Programs. She earned her Ph.D. in history in 2012 from Harvard University, where her research focused on the history of work and motherhood in the United States. She has taught widely in American history, American studies, and women’s and gender studies. She is a recipient of fellowships including the Mellon/ACLS Early Career Research Fellowship and the Women and Public Policy Fellowship from the Harvard Kennedy School. Most recently, she served as the Director of Open Circle Jewish Learning at Hebrew College. She lives in Belmont, MA with her husband and daughter.
Toby Perl Freilich, Director, Maintenance Artist
Toby Perl Freilich produced and directed MAINTENANCE ARTIST about pioneering artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles. MAINTENANCE ARTIST premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival and had a special screening at the National Gallery of Art for DC/DOX. She co-produced and co-directed MOYNIHAN, released theatrically in 2018 and broadcast on PBS’ American Masters series in March 2024. Freilich wrote, directed, and produced INVENTING OUR LIFE: The Kibbutz Experiment, released theatrically in 2012. The NY Times hailed it as “fascinating,” and NPR as “excellent.” She co-produced and wrote the documentary film, SECRET LIVES: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers, selected by Andrew Sarris as one of the ten best non-fiction films of 2003, and winner of numerous festival awards. For SECRET LIVES, Freilich was nominated for a news and documentary Emmy for Writing, and the film was nominated in the category of Outstanding Historical Programming.
Freilich was also co-producer of the Emmy-nominated RESISTANCE: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans, an independent documentary that was broadcast nationally on PBS. She is a 2025 Jewish Film Institute resident and a contributing writer to the magazines Tablet, Sh’ma, the Jewish Review
Larry “Cha-Chi” Loprete, Guest Speaker, Midas Man
Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Larry “Cha-Chi” Loprete’s love for music began on February 9th, 1964, the day The Beatles performed for the first time in the U.S. on The Ed Sullivan Show. For many who witnessed it, The Beatles stirred up a passion for creativity and possibility and for ChaChi, it soon evolved into a lifelong love of radio.
His expansive knowledge and love for The Beatles became clearly evident to his radio peers and this passion paid off in the mid 1980’s when Cha-Chi was granted the extraordinary opportunity to have an air shift on WBCN as the host of a new program called Get Back To The Beatles.
In 2005 ChaChi became host of Breakfast With The Beatles on WZLX.
Through the years, Cha-Chi has interviewed Paul, George and Ringo on multiple occasions as well as many other significant ‘Beatle People’ in the close knit Beatles circle George Martin, Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon, Cynthia Lennon, Patti Boyd-Harrison and Pete Best among them.
Cha-Chi Loprete resides south of Boston with his beautiful wife Stephanie and family of rescue cats and chickens. They both share a passion to help animals and support many organizations including multiple animal rescue shelters and 4H.
David Bieber, Guest Speaker, Midas Man
David Bieber and his archives represent 50-plus years of collecting and preserving the popular culture, music and media of the 20th and 21st centuries. David has acquired more than one million artifacts, building a collection ranging from vintage vinyl to antique radios, movie memorabilia to original Andy Warhol art, posters to press kits, baseball cards to bottle caps, always believing that the transitory creations of today are the treasures of the future.
Following business studies at Miami University and public relations at Kent State, he received a Masters degree in journalism from Boston University. While in college, he reported for Billboard magazine, interviewing dozens of entertainers, from Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong to Frankie Valli and the Four Season and Johnny Carson.
A Boston music and media veteran, David’s career spans four decades, including positions as Creative Services Director at the groundbreaking WBCN-FM for 16 years, Director of Special Projects at the Boston Phoenix/WFNX-FM for 19 years, as well as Music Director at WBUR-FM and freelance contributor and consultant to the Smithsonian Museum, Rolling Stone’s Illustrated History of Rock and Roll and the Boston Globe.
Dominique Blanc, Actress, The Most Precious of Cargoes
With 21 films and over a dozen plays to her name, Dominique Blanc has led a double career in film and theatre. Her first informal acting classes where in Paris with François Florent. While working on a Chekhov play, Pierre Romans, who directed the students’ final project, instantly offered her the role of the General in A Country Scandal. In 1981, Patrice Chereau cast her in his version of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt and launched her career. She has most notably acted in Terre Etrangère (1984) directed for the theatre by Luc Bondy, The Marriage of Figaro (1987) directed by Jean-Pierre Vincent and The Misanthrope (1987) directed by Antoine Vitez (1987/88).
She made her debut in film as an extra in Jean-Luc Godard’s Passion, but it wasn’t until 1986 when she received a more important role in Régis Wargnier’s film La femme de ma vie. She then took on a wide variety of roles and went on to work with Claude Sautet, Claude Chabrol, Yannick Bellon, Louis Malle and others.
She was nominated at the Césars for Most Promising Female Actress for the films La Femme de ma vie (César 1987) and Je suis le seigneur du château (César 1990), and awarded Best Supporting Actress for La Reine Margot (César 1995). In 1991 and 1993 she was awarded the César for Best Supporting Actress in Milou en Mai by Louis Malle and Indochine by Régis Wargnier. In 1997 she acted in Alors voila, Michel Piccoli’s first feature film (the two of them went on an international tour with “Readings from René Char’s Poetry” in 1995/96); in James Ivory’s A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, and once again with Chereau in Ceux qui m’aiment prendront le train. Between two film productions she took on the role of Nora in Ibsen’s The Doll House, directed by Deborah Warner. In 1998 she acted in the film Choc en retour directed by Roch Stéphanik. At the 1999 César ceremony she received the Best Supporting Actress Award for Ceux qui m’aiment prendront le train.
Roberta Grossman, Moderator, The Stamp Thief
An award-winning filmmaker, Roberta Grossman co-founded the non-profit production company Katahdin Productions and is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Writers Guild of America. She has written, directed, and produced more than 40 hours of film and television. Grossman released Who Will Write Our History in 2018. Also in 2018, Grossman co-directed and produced the Netflix Original Documentary Seeing Allred, about women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred. Seeing Allred premiered in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In 2014, Grossman directed Above and Beyond for producer Nancy Spielberg. Grossman’s 2012 Hava Nagila (The Movie) was the opening or closing night film at more than 30 film festivals. Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, Grossman’s 2008 film, was shortlisted for an Academy Award, aired on PBS/Independent Lens and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy. Grossman produced the soon-to-be released Vishniac (2023), Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning, which aired on PBS/American Masters in 2014, and was the series producer and co-writer of 500 Nations, the eight-hour CBS series on Native Americans hosted by Kevin Costner. Her film Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action aired on PBS in 2005.
Grossman received the Taube Jewish Peoplehood Award in 2020. The award honors Jewish men and women who have worked to foster pride in Jewish identity and heritage for new generations, making a uniquely Jewish contribution to global culture. Grossman is currently writing, producing, and directing a series of films for the new Lost Shtetl Museum in Lithuania.
Gary Gilbert, Moderator, The Stamp Thief
Originally from New York, Gary has been writing and producing television series in Los Angeles for ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox for over two decades. He has written episodes for a dozen situation comedies and is a co-creator of the show “Sister, Sister” as well as the executive producer and a writer on the pilots of “Seinfeld” and other series. He currently teaches creative writing to incarcerated youth in Los Angeles.
Jonah Feingold, Director/Writer/Actor, 31 Candles
Jonah Feingold was born and raised in New York City. His directorial work online has accumulated over 100 million views and can be seen on: BuzzFeed, Funny or Die, CNN, and HuffPost and more. Jonah’s directorial work on the musical/reality pilot, THE WESTSIDE, sold to Netflix, and an original musical project “Relationships The Musical” to Disney’s Maker Studios.
As a writer, he wrote REALITY QUEST, a short film for Sony’s JUMANJI marketing campaign starring THE ROCK. He also wrote a feature for the BAZELEVS COMPANY (Searching) a screen reality story in the vein of E.T.
Feingold’s spec HOT DUDES READING (based off the popular instagram) was voted a best spec of 2017 on The Tracking Board HIT LIST the project is currently under development with REFINERY29.
In post, Feingold wrapped a documentary on Iliza Schlesinger on her upcoming Netflix special to be released on iTunes Spring 2019. He also EP’d, and directed a five-part digital series for Facebook Watch called STARS WITH CARS.
In development is WENDY, a romantic comedy about Wendy after Peter Pan – starring BRITTANY SNOW (Pitch Perfect). Peter Segal is EP (Tommy Boy, 50 First Dates)
Jonah is currently in post his short “…what are we?” a romantic comedy set in New York City which he is developing as a feature – and an episode of Sofia Vergara Facebook Watch Series – a romantic comedy in line with You’ve Got Mail, but set on a phone screen. The project releases March 19th.
He is also the co-host and creator of the dating podcast “Los AngelSHIPS”, notable guests include Jerry Ferrara, Isabelle Fuhrman, and Arden Rose.
Jonah Weinstein, Producer, 31 Candles
Jonah Weinstein is a filmmaker, actor and producer based in L.A. He currently works at Sony Pictures and was previously an associate producer on Awkwafina is Nora from Queens. He is a producer of the Jewish romantic comedy 31 Candles.
Dalia Wassner, Moderator, Torah Tropical
Dalia Wassner, PhD, is the director of Jews of the Americas, an initiative of Brandeis University at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. Dr. Wassner is a historian whose research and teaching is dedicated to providing more inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches to the Jewish Diaspora and broadening the academic fields of Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies and Diaspora Studies.
Ezra Axelrod, Co-Director, Torah Tropical
Ezra Axelrod is a Colombian-British music composer for film, dance and theatre based in Cali, Colombia.
He specialises in film scoring, contemporary electronic and acoustic production, string arrangement, and songwriting.
Recent feature film projects include the Macondo Award-nominated soundtrack for Pepe Cáceres, the soundtrack for the feature documentaries Torah Tropical (2024) and Nocaut (2022); Ezra composed the original soundtrack for Acervoz (2021), a 13-episode docs-series for Telepacífico; he produced the contemporary dance short Panóptica (2020) for Colombian choreographer Eduard Mar, as well as creating the music and sound design for the film, which premiered in 2020 at the Brújula al Sur Festival; other recent short film soundtracks include Drunk of Sun, directed by Story Chen; Luc Mollinger’s The Mermaid of Mevagissey, starring Joe Absolom and Jessica Gunning, official selection at the Austin Film Festival; and HéCTOR, premiered at the D’A Festival in Barcelona; he also made music for Saila Huusko’s documentary Arctic Books, aired on Al Jazeera English.
He received his Masters in Composition for Screen from the Royal College of Music and his BA in Music from Middlebury College, in Vermont.
Heidi Paster Harf, Guest Speaker, Torah Tropical
Heidi Paster Harf is a photographer from Eastern Long Island, who spent the last 15 years photographing daily life in Cali, Colombia, where she lived for two decades. Her work focuses on culturally significant, yet overlooked communities, and her photo essay about the lives of the emerging Jews of Cali was published in the Washington Post Magazine (April 2021). The photo series was exhibited at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU and is now part of their permanent collection. She currently resides in Brooklyn.
Josie Andrews, Writer/Director, Miriam (FreshFlix)
New Jersey native Josie Andrews began performing professionally at the age of eight, touring with Broadway musicals and appearing in countless Off-Broadway/regional productions before going on to write and record her own music. By thirteen, she was opening for Radio Disney acts including Raven Symone and the Naked Brothers Band. A double Trojan, Josie graduated as the Salutatorian of USC’s class of 2018, continuing on at USC to pursue her M.F.A. and eventually assuming her current role as an adjunct professor of production. As both a director and producer, Josie’s narrative shorts have swept the globe with wins and nominations including Oscar/BAFTA qualifying Nashville, LA Shorts, Santa Fe, Cordillera, Soho and many more. Her award winning debut documentary tracking live theatre’s comeback amidst the pandemic titled WAITING IN THE WINGS can be seen on the PBS app. In the episodic space, Josie has directed several of the vertical drama app’s top shows earning shows, garnering millions of views worldwide. She’s slated to make her directorial feature debut with MIRIAM, one of five projects selected for this year’s Sundance/WIF finance intensive as well as the AWD Rising Director Fellowship.
Serena Dykman, Writer/Director, Babka (FreshFlix)
Serena Dykman is a New York-based filmmaker and culture-clasher who uses storytelling to
connect people through humor, heart, and humanity. A proud “third-culture” kid, Serena was born in Paris and raised across Brussels, the French Antilles, London, and New York. Her global upbringing has been fueling her passion for exploring identity and cross-cultural connections. With her films, Serena challenges prejudice and stereotypes, often turning them on their heads with levity, because laughter is one of the greatest human connectors.
Yale Fried, Writer/Director, Unraveled (FreshFlix)
Yale Fried is a Pennsylvania based filmmaker who creates viral content for politicians, celebrities and brands like Crooked Media, Lionsgate, American Idol, GQ, Vanity Fair, and Google.
While the films he writes and directs tend to receive less than the billions of views his clients have received, he still likes them quite a bit. An Emerson college grad, Yale spends his free time crawling on the floor with his infant son, reading novels, and screaming from the couch as the Buffalo Bills play football.
A Buffalo, New York native, Yale now lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with his wife, son, parents, grandfather, two siblings, two dogs, and an army of deer.
Daisy Friedman, Writer/Director, Unholy (FreshFlix)
Daisy Friedman is a writer and director based out of New York City. Her history as a multi-organ transplant recipient has drawn her to create work that centers on the intersections of tradition, intimacy, embodiment, and disability. Her short film, Unholy (2024) had its world premiere at Sundance 2025 and went on to screen at South by Southwest 2025. The film received an Audience Award at the 2025 National Film Festival for Talented Youth.
Her previous short film, As You Are (2023), has screened at prestigious film festivals such as Frameline, Inside Out, Outfest, The Chicago International Film Festival, and The National Film Festival For Talented Youth. The film has received numerous awards, including the U.S. Narrative Short Grand Jury Prize Special Mention at Outfest 2023 and the NewFest35 Emerging Filmmaker Award.
Her work has been featured in Deadline, IndieWire Variety, Advocate, and Out Magazine. She received the 2023 Colin Higgins Foundation Youth Filmmaker Grant and is currently a UFO 2025-2026 Short Film Lab Fellow.
Daisy received a 2020 National Scholastic Gold Medal and American Voices Award for her poetry. She is a graduate of Barnard College’s Film Studies program.
Alex Salsberg, Director/Animator, Of the Heart (Animated Shorts Program)
Alex Salsberg is a Boston-based animator and writer. A graduate of RIT’s Film/Animation department, Alex has directed and animated cartoons for many clients including Billy Ray Cyrus, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Dell, Children’s Hospital, WGBH, Nickelodeon and more. In addition to client animation, Alex writes and directs original shorts and pilots, including the award-winning “Class of 84,” starring Jonathan Katz, and “The Hub,” starring Samm Levine. Alex is also the host of “I Loved This Conversation,” a podcast featuring creative people from all over the world.
Benny Zelkowicz, Director/Animator, The Sacred Society (Animated Shorts Program)
Ottawa born Benny Zelkowicz is a stop-motion animator, novelist, lyricist, and playwright. He worked as lead/supervising animator on Robot Chicken, Supermansion, and Moral Orel, contributed animation to special sequences for The LEGO Movie, The Simpsons, and Marvel’s MODOK, and directed (as well as voiced the title character)for the BBC-CBC preschool show Lunar Jim. His sand-animated film, “The ErlKing” premiered at Lincoln Center as part of the New York Film Festival, went on to screen at more than forty festivals including Sundance, Annecy, Hiroshima, and Zagreb, and was a finalist for the Student Academy Awards. A graduate of CalArts, he studied with Jules Engel, Raimund Krumme, and Suzan Pitt.
He co-wrote a trilogy of fantasy novels, The Books of Ore, published by Disney-Hyperion, and wrote the book and lyrics for a new musical, The Golem’s Gift, premiering in Portland, OR in 2026. He currently lives in Columbus, OH and teaches animation at The Ohio State University.
