To be confirmed very soon!

Title: Sabbath Queen

Director: Sandi DuBowski

Year: 2024

Country and language: USA, English

Genre: Documentary

Australian distributor: Direct via filmmakers

Sabbath Queen, a feature documentary filmed over 21 years, follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie's epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis including the Chief Rabbis of Israel. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul: an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation.

From Robyn Bahr’s review: Sabbath Queen isn’t interested in the headline-grabbing macro conflicts that embroil Jews globally, but the internal culture wars within Judaism itself: fascistic fundamentalism versus reformist progressivism; dominant cishet masculinity versus burgeoning feminine and gender nonconforming voices; hallowed bloodlines versus chosen family. It is one of the best films I’ve seen this year. Combining crisp vérité recordings, emotional archival footage and confrontational talking head interviews, Sabbath Queen is a rich and intimate portrait of a person who stands for noble causes but sometimes baffles and even enrages the people closest to him.