Sabbath Queen with director in person

Featuring a post-film discussion with director Sandi Dubowski!

Sandi DuBowski’s epic documentary SABBATH QUEEN—shot over the span of twenty-one years—follows Amichai Lau-Lavie, an Israeli descended from an unbroken line of thirty-eight rabbis stretching back a thousand years. Yet as SABBATH QUEEN opens, Lau-Lavie is newly arrived in New York in the late 1990s, a young gay man declaring “Artists are the new rabbis” and appearing around the city in drag as Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross, the widow of six Hasidic rabbis (all from the same extended family).

As the years pass, Lau-Lavie embraces a range of creative spiritual endeavors, including Storahtelling and Lab/Shul—until he shocks everyone with his decision to become a rabbi himself, studying in the Conservative tradition of Judaism. SABBATH QUEEN is witness to Lau-Lavie’s unfailing courage and grace, as he grapples with 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 post-October 7th as he evokes the challenge of our lifetime: “How do we reimagine our sacred traditions to achieve peace?”

You may also like the following events from Coolidge Corner Theatre:

• This Sunday, 22nd June, 11:00 am, Two to One in Brookline
• Next Monday, 23rd June, 06:15 pm, Visible Mysteries: Queer Cinema Class in Brookline
• Next Wednesday, 25th June, 08:00 pm, Blade Runner: The Final Cut in 35mm (Free Screening at the Rose Kennedy Greenway) in Boston

Also check out other Entertainment events in Brookline, Arts events in Brookline.