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Audience Competition 2024

Sabbath Queen

Sandi DuBowski
“Only transgression will bring salvation!” Amichat Lau is a rabbi, drag queen, father and revolutionary. The long-term portrait of a man to whom his faith is as important as his freedom.
Filmstill Sabbath Queen
Filmstill Sabbath Queen

Sabbath Queen

Sabbath Queen
Sandi DuBowski
Audience Competition 2024
Documentary Film
USA
2024
105 minutes
English,
Hebrew,
Yiddish
Subtitles: 
English
“Who are you to change anything!?” Yisrael Meir Lau, once Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, rages against non-orthodox movements in Judaism. His nephew, queer activist Amichai Lau-Lavie, has an answer that packs a punch: born in 1961 on Israel’s Independence Day, 38 generations of rabbis in his family tree, son of a Holocaust survivor, drag queen, today also an ordained rabbi and spiritual leader of an interdenominational Jewish congregation in New York. Amichai wants to be a “virus inside the system” to break patriarchal traditions and make Judaism more humane, more open. His drag alter ego urges: “Redemption will only come through transgression!”
Director Sandi DuBowski followed his protagonist over more than twenty years. The long production period enabled him to document different phases in Amichai’s life, to show him celebrating, crying, doubting and triumphant. Supporters and critics comment on every decision and life change. The result is a complex portrait that sensitively introduces not only Amichai but also his family and congregation. An inspiring story that gives us hope.
Daria Janke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Sandi DuBowski
Script
Francisco Bello, Jeremy Stulberg, Sandi DuBowski
Cinematographer
Kirsten Johnson, Wolfgang Held, Dan Gold, Laela Kilbourn, Dror Lebendiger, Sandi DuBowski, Nadia Hallgren
Editor
Jeremy Stulberg, Francisco Bello, Jeremy Stulberg, Kyle Crichton, Philip Shane
Producer
Sandi DuBowski
Co-Producer
Simon Mendes, Ben Lowy
Sound
Judy Karp, Sean O'Neil
Sound Design
Tom Paul
Score
Joel Goodman
Animation
Yaron Shin
Nominated for: Leipziger Ring
Hommage: Isabel Herguera 2024

Sailor’s Grave

Vuk Jevremović, Juan Camilo González, Cecilia Traslaviña, Isabel Herguera, José Belmonte, Carlos Santa, Richard Reeves, Kemei Cheng, Liming Wang, Koldo Almandoz
A shipwreck, the fog bells of a lighthouse, the changing tides. A film as the result of an inter-oceanic workshop: an intuitive narrative, generated by a collective act of creation.
Filmstill Sailor’s Grave
Filmstill Sailor’s Grave

Sailor’s Grave

La tumba del marinero
Vuk Jevremović, Juan Camilo González, Cecilia Traslaviña, Isabel Herguera, José Belmonte, Carlos Santa, Richard Reeves, Kemei Cheng, Liming Wang, Koldo Almandoz
Hommage: Isabel Herguera 2024
Animated Film
Spain,
Colombia,
China,
Oman,
USA,
Singapore
2013
6 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None
Tattooed skin, harbour music, the horror of a shipwreck, the fog bells of a lighthouse, the changing of the tides. This film about the glorious and deadly ocean, which pulls you down into the depths of the sea, is the result of an interoceanic workshop that uses the creative mechanisms of the cadavre exquis technique. An intuitive tale arises from a collective act of creation.
Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Vuk Jevremović, Juan Camilo González, Cecilia Traslaviña, Isabel Herguera, José Belmonte, Carlos Santa, Richard Reeves, Kemei Cheng, Liming Wang, Koldo Almandoz
Editor
Koldo Almandoz
Producer
Isabel Herguera
Sound
Xavier Erkizia, Gianmarco Serra