Sandi DuBowski Film Retrospective
Over the course of his two landmark feature films (and a handful of shorts), Sandi DuBowski has become one of the leading documentarians examining the intersections of Jewish and queer communities. Sandi will be present at both movies for a Q+A following the screening.
Co-hosted by the Wexner Center for the Arts, this retrospective covers the highlights of DuBowski's career. Tickets are $8 -$10 for members, $12-$18 for the general public. Find tickets here.
September 3, 7:00 p.m.
Tomboychik (1993) and Trembling Before G-d (2001)
Celebrate the 25th anniversary of this landmark documentary that explores the spiritual lives and struggles of queer Orthodox Jews. Sandi DuBowski’s groundbreaking debut film Trembling Before G-d is an unprecedented documentary that shatters assumptions about faith, sexuality, and religious fundamentalism through intimately told personal stories of LGBTQ+ Hasidic and Orthodox Jews. The film follows a group of people who face a profound dilemma: how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism and the divine with the drastic biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality. After the screening, DuBowski will discuss the film and its remarkable afterlife as it traveled the globe and changed the lives of countless individuals, their families, religious leaders, and communities. In English, Hebrew, and Yiddish with English subtitles. (94 mins., DCP)
DuBowski’s early short Tomboychik is an intimate portrait of 22-year-old DuBowski’s relationship with his 88-year-old grandmother. Their playful friendship shows a struggle with gender and sexuality across three generations. (15 mins., DCP)
Find tickets here.
September 4, 7:00 p.m.
Sabbath Queen (2024)
This epic documentary follows a man’s provocative journey from radical drag queen to influential rabbi of a God-optional, artist-driven New York synagogue. Two decades after his groundbreaking Trembling Before G-d, Sandi DuBowski has released his second feature documentary, the equally charged and exhilarating Sabbath Queen. Amichai Lau-Lavie is Israeli, descended from an unbroken line of 38 rabbis stretching back 1,000 years. The film opens in the late 1990s as Lau-Lavie has just arrived in New York. As a deeply curious and wildly creative young gay man, he begins using drag to challenge patriarchal orthodoxy. He embraces a wide range of creative spiritual endeavors over the years until he shocks everyone with his decision to become a rabbi and challenge the canon from within. The powerful film follows Lau-Lavie for decades as he courageously and gracefully grapples with the key questions of who we are and who we will be. Stimulating and moving, DuBowski’s film ends with Lau-Lavie’s words on Israel and Palestine after October 7th, evoking the challenge of our lifetime: “How do we reimagine our sacred traditions to achieve peace?” In English, Hebrew, and Yiddish with English subtitles. (105 mins., DCP)
Find tickets here.
Co-hosted by the Melton Center for Jewish Studies, Wexner Center for the Arts and the Columbus Jewish Film Festival. Supported by the Dianne Cummins Community Education Fund.
Wexner Center for the Arts
Wexner Center Film/Video Theater
1871 N. High Street
Columbus, OH 43210
The nearest parking is in the Ohio Union North Garage, 1780 College Road Columbus, Ohio 43210
