Jewish Film Institute Announces 2025 Filmmakers in Residence
San Francisco, CA, February 18, 2024 — The Jewish Film Institute (JFI) is pleased to announce that six award-winning, independent filmmakers and their in-process documentary projects have been selected to participate in the 2025 JFI Filmmaker Residency. The current Residents, who reside primarily in the United States and Israel, present a range of stories and perspectives that expand and evolve the Jewish story. For more information, visit www.jfi.org/filmmakers.
The 2025 JFI Filmmakers in Residence are: Brian Becker (Malls of America); Shaina Feinberg (None of This Matters); Toby Freilich (I Make Maintenance Art); Leah Galant (Landscapes of Memory); Karin Kainer (Hot Spot); and Hilla Medalia (Missing Silver).
The JFI Filmmakers in Residence Program, now in its eleventh year, is the only U.S.-based residency program of its kind for independent media projects focused on Jewish-content stories. The program offers a yearlong, intensive artist development initiative that provides creative, marketing, and production support for emerging and established filmmakers whose projects explore the plurality and complexity of Jewish history, life, culture and identity. The Residents will develop and strengthen their in-progress film projects through collaborative workshops and training, culminating in an online pitch forum in November 2025.
Following a successful 2024 Residency that reflected a broad spectrum of Jewish identity and experiences, the 2025 cohort will be working on projects that add nuance, complexity and depth to the most urgent and sensitive conversations in global Jewish culture today, including October 7th and the war in Israel and Gaza, Holocaust remembrance, and the changing nature of the American experience. The Residency accepts emerging, mid-career, and established filmmakers, with cohorts benefiting from the creative exchange that occurs between the dynamics and differences inherent to different stages of the filmmaking process, different levels of experience, and different types of storytelling.
“Our applicant pool grew exponentially this year, and it was a challenge to choose from such a robust ecosystem of dynamic projects,” said Marcia Jarmel, Director of Filmmaker Services, Jewish Film Institute. “Each project exemplifies the kind of independently visioned, nuanced, and genre-expanding work that JFI seeks to nurture.
Residents participate in monthly cohort meetings, attend capacity-enhancing workshops with industry professionals and experts, consult with JFI staff on industry best practices in marketing, fundraising, production, and exhibition, and refine their project pitches to prepare for a culminating pitch forum. Residents also receive access to all JFI programs and events, support to attend a convening at the annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, visibility through JFI communications, and access to the Ninth Street Independent Film Center’s on-site screening room in San Francisco. Originally an in-person program, since 2020 the Residency has expanded to virtual convenings, opening the doors to filmmakers across the country and around the world.
The 2025 Residents were selected by the Jewish Film Institute’s leadership from a competitive pool of eighty-three projects. Further information about each Filmmaker in Residence and their project is provided below.
2025 Filmmakers in Residence
Project descriptions and bios courtesy of the Residents
Brian Becker
Malls of America
When an Albanian immigrant semi-accidentally purchases a Pennsylvania mall in 2023, he uproots his life and tries his hand at reviving it. Utilizing the aesthetics of 90s Hollywood mall movies and an incredible cache of archival, Malls of America creates a thought-provoking and humorous dialogue between the mall’s uncertain future and its storied past, beginning with its visionary creator Jewish socialist architect Victor Gruen.
Brian Becker is a New York-based filmmaker who directed and produced Time Bomb Y2K (co-directed with Marley McDonald) which premiered on HBO in December, 2023. The film’s lengthy festival run included True/False Film Festival, Hot Docs, Sheffield DocFest, IDFA, Camden International Film Festival, and DocNYC. Brian served as archival producer on Free Chol Soo Lee, MLK/FBI, Spaceship Earth, and The Fourth Estate, and as co-producer on the series Bobby Kennedy for President. Brian is a 2022 Doc NYC 40 Under 40 recipient, Impact Partners Producing Fellow, Points North Fellow, and a FOCAL Jane Mercer Researcher of the Year award nominee. Before turning to production, he worked as a mosquito ecologist.
Shaina Feinberg
None of This Matters
In the midst of a personal crisis, filmmaker Shaina Feinberg seeks out guidance from Joan Darling, an octogenarian director who has retired to Maine. During her first visit, Shaina realizes the impact Joan has had on hundreds of artists over the past 60 years; from Mary Tyler Moore to Steven Spielberg and the Daniels. Shaina also uncovers Joan’s one regret; never having made the book “Tortilla Curtain” into a film. On the cusp of Joan’s 90th birthday, Shaina races against the clock to help Joan fulfill this dream.
Shaina Feinberg is an award-winning American filmmaker and writer. She spent her twenties making a punk sketch show called “The Spew.” She’s been on “This American Life,” her short doc “A Brief History of Hating My Face” (2023) was commissioned by “The New York Times,” her film “Cleo From 8:20 to 2:35” was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts grant (2024). Her column in “The New York Times” ran from 2019–2025. Her third book, Work (2024), has starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and Book Page. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and kids.
Toby Freilich
I Make Maintenance Art
Crashing the boundary between art and action, in 1977 radical feminist Mierle Laderman Ukeles became the first artist-in-residence at NYC’s Department of Sanitation, collaborating with the municipal workers who maintain our urban spaces, and advancing a vision for environmental sustainability. Daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, Ukeles’ work is driven by a deeply humanistic reading of Jewish ritual and text. I Make Maintenance Art is the first feature-length documentary about this visionary artist. With unprecedented access to the artist and never-before-seen archival material from her private collection, the film traces Ukeles’ career through her own creative journey, revealing it within the nexus of 1960s-70s feminism, budding environmental awareness, and the artistic revolution that nurtured it.
Toby Perl Freilich co-produced/co-directed MOYNIHAN, broadcast in 2024 on PBS’ American Masters series, and an L.A. Times Critic’s Pick. Freilich wrote/directed/produced INVENTING OUR LIFE: The Kibbutz Experiment, deemed “fascinating” by the NY Times. She co-produced and wrote the HBO/Cinemax feature documentary, SECRET LIVES: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers, for which she was nominated for a news and documentary Writing Emmy. Freilich was co-producer of the PBS Emmy-nominated RESISTANCE: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans. She is a contributing writer to Tablet, Sh’ma, the Jewish Review of Books and the Forward, where she received a Rackower Award for excellence in Jewish Journalism.
Leah Galant
Landscapes of Memory
Interweaving the stories of a Holocaust-survivor descendant, a Nazi-descendant historian, Palestinian artists in exile, and the filmmaker’s own reckoning with her father’s ALS, Landscapes of Memory explores the complexities of Holocaust remembrance and the uses and abuses of memory culture.
Leah Galant is a Jewish director and Fulbright Scholar based in New York whose storytelling focuses on unexpected narratives that challenge perceptions. In 2022, she was recognized as one of DOC NYC’s 40 under 40. Leah’s directorial debut ON THE DIVIDE premiered at the Tribeca 2021 Film Festival and was broadcast on POV PBS on April 18th 2022. She was a Sundance Ignite and Jacob Burns Fellow where she created DEATH METAL GRANDMA (SXSW 2018) about a 97 year old Holocaust survivor named Inge Ginsberg who sings death metal which won “Best Documentary” at the American Pavilion at Cannes Film Festival, and is a NY Times Op Doc. While at Ithaca College in 2015 she was named one of Variety’s “110 Students to Watch in Film and Media” for her work on THE PROVIDER that follows a traveling abortion doctor in Texas (SXSW 2016, Student Emmy Award) and BEYOND THE WALL about a formerly incarcerated individuals re-entry process. She is currently a member-owner at Meerkat Media cooperative production company and working on her second feature length film on memory culture.
Karin Kainer
Hot Spot
An intimate five-year coming-of-age journey follows Gen Z international students, some from enemy nations, whose paths first cross at a controversial boarding school for peace in conflict-ridden Israel during a global pandemic. As they transition into adulthood, navigating love, war, loss, and national conflict, their fragile friendships face the ultimate test: an uncertain and divided future.
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.
Hilla Medalia
Missing Silver
Vivian Silver was a beloved peace activist from Kibbutz Beeri, near the Gaza border, and one of the founders of “Women Wage Peace”. After the attacks on October 7th, it was assumed she’d been kidnapped to Gaza. In the following weeks, peace activists and friends, Jews and Palestinians, anxiously awaited any shred of information. Silver’s fate symbolized their growing doubts about their beliefs and the possibility of continuing to promote peace. At the heart of the film is the conflict between the intense desire of her fellow peace activists to continue Silver’s humanistic legacy, and the loss and distrust that overwhelm them in the face of the ongoing war.
Hilla Medalia is a Peabody Award-winning director, producer, writer, has received six Emmy award nominations. Her projects have garnered critical acclaim and screened internationally in theaters and on platforms including HBO, MTV, PBS, BBC and ARTE. Her range of titles includes: ‘Mourning in Lod’ 2023 (MTV Documentaries, DocAviv) ‘Innocence’ 2022 (Venice International Film Festival), ‘H2: The Occupation Lab’ 2022 (Hotdocs), ‘ Leftover Women’ 2019 (Tribeca), ‘The Oslo Diaries’ 2018 (Sundance, HBO, ARTE), and ‘Censored Voices’, 2015 (Sundance, Berlinale). Hilla is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the PGA and she holds an M.A. from Southern Illinois University.
The Jewish Film Institute (JFI) is a San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofit organization that champions bold films and filmmakers that expand and evolve the Jewish story for audiences everywhere. Presenter of the annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), the longest-running and most celebrated festival of its kind in the world, JFI is a year-round organization delivering screenings and events to more than 40,000 film lovers annually. SFJFF is known for its provocative, independent programming that has helped to launch the careers of emerging filmmakers and highlighted previously untold stories from Jewish communities around the world. JFI’s free, online programs serve thousands of viewers, educators, and researchers worldwide each year. In addition to its public programs, JFI supports the careers of filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond, from incubation through exhibition, through its grants, residencies, and other creative development services. For more information, visit www.jfi.org.
