An Interview with Karin Kainer, JFI Filmmaker in Residence
The Jewish Film Institute pleased to welcome six independent documentary filmmakers to its 2025 Filmmakers in Residence program. The year-long fellowship provides creative, marketing, and production support for emerging and established filmmakers whose projects explore and expand thoughtful consideration of Jewish history, life, culture, and identity.
Throughout the year, JFI will be diving deep into each Resident’s creative practice here on our blog. This month’s feature highlights Karin Kainer and her film Hot Spot.
Jewish Film Institute: Hi Karin! Thanks so much for taking some time for this interview. To begin, what’s the genesis of this project? Why did you decide to take it on?
Karin Kainer: Sometimes, a stray moment can redirect your life. I never knew there was a secretive boarding school for peace just a few meters from my daughter’s kindergarten — until a basketball bounced toward us, chased by a Palestinian teen named Maher. He and his friend Luka, an American who dreamed of the White House, introduced me to EMIS. I asked, “Why are you here?” Luka said, “There’s no other place for me. This is a hot spot of change — and even a small group of open-minded students can trickle outwards.” I wondered: What does it mean to choose to grow up beside your so-called enemy? That day, something shifted in me. I didn’t plan to follow them for six years, but I did — and it became my own coming-of-age too.
Where are you in the filmmaking process?
We’re wrapping production after six years of filming across Israel, Palestine, the U.S., and Europe. Most of our key interviews and verité footage are complete, and we’re currently planning to capture the final scenes with our characters in their early twenties as they confront adulthood in a fractured world. My next milestone is to begin editing. I’m seeking support to log footage, build an assembly, and shape the film’s narrative arc. The JFI Residency has been instrumental in helping me clarify the structure and emotional journey of the story.
“Luka said, ‘There’s no other place for me. This is a hot spot of change — and even a small group of open-minded students can trickle outwards.’ “
How is the JFI Filmmaker Residency helping you develop your project?
Although we’re still early in the residency, the cohort meetings — thoughtfully guided by [JFI’s Director of Filmmaker Services] Marcia Jarmel — have already had a big impact. Her experience and warmth set the tone for a space that feels both safe and creatively charged. I feel a strong sense of community, and sharing my trailer with the group gave me fresh perspective. Judith Helfand’s workshop helped me reframe the project with viewers in mind — focusing on emotional entry points, what resonates in a festival space, and how a single image can say everything. Through the residency, I also connected with producer Jason Cohen, whose insights are already shaping the next phase. I’m now revising my pitch and preparing a sharper new sample to reflect the film’s evolution.
What will surprise your audience when they see your film? How does this story add to our collective understanding of Jewish life, culture, history or identity?
Audiences may expect just another story about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — but they’ll discover a rare, real-time coming-of-age chronicle of Gen Z shaped by war, humor, ideology, and unexpected friendship. What’s surprising is how personal heartbreak and joy coexist with national trauma. Through both Jewish and Palestinian characters, the film reveals how deeply entangled we are — by history, geography, and even scripture — in a relationship we cannot escape, for better and for worse. But maybe, through this generation, that bond can evolve — from hatred to healing. The future, it turns out, was already inside them. Against all odds, they became who they said they would be.
If you could screen your film as a double feature with any film, what would you choose and why?
If I could pair ‘Hot Spot’ with any film, it would be ‘The Breakfast Club’ of John Hughes. Both stories take place in enclosed spaces where teenagers from wildly different backgrounds are forced to confront their assumptions, strip away their defenses, and truly see one another. Like Hot Spot, it’s about the myth of difference — and the power of connection.
“But maybe, through this generation, that bond can evolve — from hatred to healing.”
I also see echoes of Michael Apted’s 7 Up series, which explores how early values shape adulthood. To quote The Breakfast Club: “You see us as you want to see us… in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.” My story breaks past that — in real time.
Karin Kainer is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and producer whose work has captivated global audiences. Her films have been screened internationally in theaters and on major platforms such as BBC, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, France 1, Al Jazeera, and ARTE. Among her acclaimed projects is ‘Tiberias — under the Red Line’, which won Best Documentary Series at the 2023 Documentary Forum Awards. Kainer’s previous works include ‘Kosher Beach’ (Israeli Oscar nominee 2020, Krakow Film Festival and Beijing Film Festival winner, World Premiere at DOC-NYC 2019), ‘Rinascita’ (Haifa Film Festival winner, 2011), ‘Das iz der valt’ (Docaviv short film winner, 2010), ‘Skate of Mind’ (Sundance 2011, Los Angeles Movie Awards winner), and ‘South Wind on Hilton Beach’ (Haifa Film Festival 2006, HotDocs 2007). Kainer holds an M.F.A. in scriptwriting from The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University and serves as a senior lecturer in Visual Communications at the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT). She is an active member of the boards of The Israeli Film Academy and The Israeli Documentary Forum. Kainer lives in Tel Aviv and is a mother of two.
About the JFI Filmmakers in Residence Program: The JFI Filmmakers in Residence Program is a year-long artist residency that provides creative, marketing, and production support for emerging and established filmmakers whose documentary projects explore and expand thoughtful consideration of Jewish history, life, culture, and identity.
