The Melton Center for Jewish Studies has presented and produced films representing many genres over the last 30 years.
2023 - Monument
The Melton Center for Jewish Studies presented the Columbus premiere of Monument, a documentary which is a powerful and poetic story of two relatives meeting through time and space to carry their family memory forward. Filmmaker Michael Turner documents his first visit to a Holocaust memorial created by his grandmother Lici, a Hungarian Jew whose parents and sister were killed in Auschwitz.
2022 - Where is Anne Frank?
The Melton Center and Wexner Center for the Arts presented the Columbus premiere of Where is Anne Frank, (2021), a contemporary reimagining of Frank’s story and legacy. The film follows Kitty, the imaginary friend to whom Frank’s diary is addressed, who comes to life from the pages of the diary in contemporary Amsterdam in the house, now a museum, where the Frank family hid from the Nazis.
2020 - Thomas and Diann Mann Film Study Series
The Melton Center offered a virtual 4-part film study series to the public with Ohio State Jewish studies professors. The films included The Debt, a 2010 British remake of the 2007 Israeli thriller film Ha-Hov, Footnote, a 2011 Israeli drama about a troubled relationship between a father and son who teach in the Talmud department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Dancing Arabs, a 2014 Israeli drama film directed by Eran Riklis. It is based on Sayed Kashua's book Dancing Arabs (2002), and Dirty Dancing, a 1987 film that takes place at Catskills resort. With her family, Frances "Baby" Houseman falls in love with the camp's dance instructor, Johnny Castle.
2014 - The Other Men in Black: The Hasidic Movement, Past and Present
A film presented by the Melton Center for Jewish Studies, The Other Men in Black: the Hasidic Movement, Past and Present. While the story of the Hasidim is taught in modern Jewish history courses around the world, this film brings that story to life with a narrative plot line, historical re-creations, and animation. The Other Men In Black will command the attention of high-school, university, and adult learners. Matt Goldish, Professor of History at Ohio State, is the writer and executive producer of the film.
Click on the image below to watch the film.
Melton Matinees, 1993 - 2016
2016
Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz
Colliding Dreams
2009
The Last Jews of Libya
2006
The Treatment
2005
Raging Dove
Channels of Rage
Love Inventory
Hiding and Seeking
2004
Forget Baghdad: Jews and Arabs – The Iraqi Connection
Divan
Chazz’n: A Cantor’s Tale
The Golem
2003
Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House
God is Great and I’m Not
Shanghai Ghetto
The Last Letter
2002
Devarim
Total Love
Time of Favor
Obsessed with Jews
2001
Kippur
Voyages
From Swastika to Jim Crow
Cours Toujours
2000
My Knees Were Jumping: Remembering the Kinder Transport
Expulsion and Memory: Decedents of the Hidden Jews
Happy Birthday Mr. Mograbi
Kodosh
1999
Mendel
Chants of Sand and Stars
In Our Own Hands
1998
A Tickle in the Heart
A Life Apart: Hasidism in America
Nothing to be Written Here
Song of Galilee
1997
Carpati: 50 miles, 50 years
Like a Bride
St. Clara
Arguing the World
1996
Sh’chur
Shurooo
Under the Domim Tree
1995
Everything is Fine
Because of that War
Zohar: Mediterranean Blues
The Last Klezmer
1994
Get Thee Out!
Transport from Paradise
Berlin-Jerusalem
One-Way Street
1993
The Summer of Aviya
Amazing Grace
Fictitious Marriage
Black to the Promise Land