Guess what’s back? The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival!
Once again we can sit in a theater, elbow to elbow with other Jews and Jewish-adjacent friends & family.
This year Building Jewish Bridges is co-presenting Sons of Detroit.
About the Film:
Jeremy Xido is a world-traveled artist who finds he is missing something. When he realizes he’s yearning for his chosen family from his childhood in Detroit, he returns after years of silence. As the only white kid in his old neighborhood, Xido must confront what his absence meant for those who stayed. He delves into his own family’s history: his Marxist parents, their Presbyterian and Jewish roots, and what led them to settle in Detroit. He reconnects with his “cousin” and best friend, Boo, and the two reflect on their bond and explore the broader forces shaping Detroit’s past and present. In Sons of Detroit, genres blur as Xido weaves together documentary, performance art, and storytelling. The film raises important questions: What does home mean? What does it mean to return after walking away? And how are our personal identities shaped by collective history? This Work in Progress screening provides a deeply beautiful exploration of American belonging. Through intimate moments and hard truths, Sons of Detroit invites us to both remember and reckon with the past. —Karina Curry
Director Jeremy Xido expected to attend
Date: Wednesday July 30
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Piedmont Theatre, 5133, 4186 Piedmont Ave, Oakland
Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online here.
I’m always skeptical about what film is assigned to me. The naïve Festival rep always wants to give me a love story between an Israeli Jew and a Muslim. Those stories are so far from the lived experiences of American interfaith couples! This year I told them, just give me a comedy. They didn’t listen to that either. However, in reading about this film, Sons of Detroit, I read this paragraph:
At turns funny and heartbreaking, Sons of Detroit is an urgently contemporary film about how our most intimate sense of self is forged within global patterns of history. By braiding documentary, narrative, and performance, the film looks at how the things we hide, even from ourselves, insist on being seen, spoken, and embraced.
Now this is relatable. You, my couples, are working to forge the identity of your home, your relationship, your children’s identities – and you are doing it all within the storms of political, social and psychological forces. When a piece of an interfaith family’s identity is concealed it only creates grief and anger. So we face our fears and try again. I hope seeing this film will remind you of the universality of human struggle. Give yourself credit for your own strength and honesty.
I’m supposed to receive some complimentary tickets and I’ll be offering them to you as soon as I know how many I’ll get.
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
The world’s largest and longest-running film festival illuminating the diversity of Jewish experience for all is returning to San Francisco and the East Bay with 18 days of fresh and provocative films. Show up at the movies July 17 – August 3 and be a part of the conversation. Discover more at sfjff.org and @sfjewishfilm!