San Francisco Closing Night

Director Sandi DuBowski and participant Amichai Lau-Lavie expected to attend

In the queer 90s, Sandi DuBowski filmed gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews in silhouette who were trying to reconcile their sexuality and their faith for his groundbreaking film Trembling Before G-d. Fast forward and DuBowski fixes his gaze on Radical Faerie Amichai Lau-Lavie, the “Sabbath Queen,” who emerges from her bathtub sipping Slivovitz on ice to greet the Shabbos. Amichai is Hadassah Gross, the ageless widow of six Hasidic rabbis, and the star of raunchy performance art cabaret shows. Sandi follows the epic cinematic journey of Amichai, the heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis who is torn between rejecting and embracing his ancestral destiny. We follow along as he becomes a queer bio-dad, a prince of peace, and the founder of Lab/Shul, an everybody friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation. Can Judaism reinvent itself in a rapidly changing 21st century? Can Rebbetzin Hadassah have it all?

Recipient of a 2023 JFI Completion Grant

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West Coast Premiere

Film also screens at the Piedmont Theater on July 31, 1 pm.