Sabbath Queen CLOSE UP w/ dir. Sandi Dubowski

This epic documentary, shot over the span of 21 years, follows Amichai Lau-Lavie, an Israeli descended from an unbroken line of thirty-eight rabbis stretching back a thousand years. Yet as the film opens, Lau-Lavie is newly arrived in New York in the late 1990s, a young gay man declaring “Artists are the new rabbis” and appearing around the city in drag. Lau-Lavie soon embraces a range of creative spiritual endeavors, including his Lab/Shul congregation—until he shocks everyone with his decision to become a rabbi in the Conservative tradition of Judaism. Stimulating and moving, the film ends with Lau-Lavie’s words on Israel and Palestine post-October 7th. (dir. Sandi Dubowski, U.S., 2024, 105 min.)