New Media Initiative
About SFJFF's New Media Resources
SFJFF’s new media initiative is an innovative project designed to expand the festival’s successful historic model of curation, exhibition, informal education and community-building beyond the theater and into the realm of online media.
On June 23, 2009, SFJFF launched the first phase of these digital resources at www.sfjff.org. Resources available at project launch include everything from a searchable archive of Jewish film with downloadable videos of Festival panels and Q&As, a program of online festival shorts, educator curricula, user reviews and social networking tools for teen filmmakers. The June 23rd site launch efforts were focused on creating a lasting infrastructure to sustain an ongoing, expandable resource. In the coming weeks and months, we will continue to fill out the archive with additional content and links, so keep checking back for more!
Press Releases
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival to Launch Innovative Online Jewish Film Website
Frequently Asked Questions
How will the new media initiative change my experience at the Festival?
SFJFF is experimenting with various interactive tools at the Festival, to enhance the in-theatre experience. Some features we are experimenting with this year include text-on-demand information about the over 70 films screening in the Festival; and text-to screen mobile sessions. What do you want to see us use in the theatre? Please let us know.
How do I search the archive?
To search the archive, visit our Films & Events page. Upcoming films will be displayed. To include archive films in your search, go to the left-hand side of the page under 'In Category' and check 'Archive Films.' Your results will include both current films and films from 1981-present. If you only want to see archive films, remove checks from the categories '2009 Festival Films' and '2009 Festival Events.' You can then search our archive by director, country, title, year or tag.
Can I watch SFJFF curated media online now?
During the Festival, we present select Festival videos and shorts online. During the 29th SFJFF, we showcased two fantastic short films, Escapism and With a Little Patience. Beginning August 1, 2009, we extended opportunities to experience quality Jewish film throughout the year with one new short film every month at www.sfjff.org, so keeping checking back for more!
Also available to watch at www.sfjff.org, are select films created by teens as part of SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project (NJFP). Closely guided by a team of professional filmmakers, talented young storytellers present their own resonant visions of American Jewish life. NJFP, a year-round program of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, is produced by Citizen Film.
Can I purchase, download and watch SFJFF archival films online?
The purpose of SFJFF’s expanded online archive is to enable hundreds of rare, independent, international and archival Jewish-themed films to find new audiences online. While we do not currently possess the rights to distribute the films in our archive (and thus cannot stream them online) we do want to offer as much information about the films and contextual materials as possible. We now have links to purchase up for over 50 archive titles, and over time we will add links to where other titles are available for purchase. When you browse the archive now, you will find a growing selection of related film content, including videos of filmmaker Q&As and festival panels, as well as external links to curricula, review, and purchase. We will be working over the coming weeks and months to fill the archives out with as much content and contextual materials as possible. Do you have a link that you feel is missing from one of our film pages? Let us know.
Who else was involved in this project?
SFJFF’s June 23, 2009 website launch was made possible by significant initial funding and enthusiastic support from the Righteous Persons Foundation, established by Steven Spielberg, and the Charles H. Revson Foundation. Additional support was provided by Koret Foundation. Partners include the Jewish Heritage Video Collection and SFJFF’s own New Jewish Filmmaking Project. Handheld mobile text technology is being provided during the Festival by Mobile Commons.
I’m a teacher. What sort of educational resources can I find on www.sfjff.org?
Sfjff.org now offers curricular materials for educators, created in partnership with the Jewish Heritage Video Collection. While curricular guides are available to download straight from www.sfjff.org, we also provide pathways to the educational platform Moodle, a free, open-source learning management system that allows teachers to participate in developing and improving educational materials, to pull elements from the curricula to place in their own courses, and to collaborate across institutions and geography. A full list of available curriculum and instructions for accessing Moodle resources are available on the Educator Resources page of the website.
