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A 39th generation ex-Orthodox rabbi embarks on a remarkable 21-year personal journey, also embracing life as a drag queen. (NR, 105 min.)
5:00 PM
3:00 PM 5:30 PM
8:00 PM
4:30 PM
5:30 PM
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.
SABBATH QUEEN joins Amichai on a lifelong quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual, challenge patriarchy and supremacy, champion interfaith love, and stand up for peace, ceasefire, and an end to the Occupation in Israel/Palestine. The film interrogates what Jewish survival means in a difficult rapidly changing 21st century.
SABBATH QUEEN is directed and produced by Sandi DuBowski [https://www.sabbathqueen.com/]
Director: Sandi DuBowski
Genre: Documentary
"[A] fascinating look at the act of questioning yourself and your family, your surroundings and your decisions."
— Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times
"The director delicately contextualizes his subject’s desired legacy by threading Lau-Lavie’s harrowing familial history into the narrative."
— Robyn Bahr, Robyn Bahr The Hollywood Reporter
"Sabbath Queen constantly finds ways to renew our interest throughout its 105 minutes and does so with great intelligence and respect."
— Christophe Bilien, Film Threat
"Filmed over more than 20 years, the film follows this fascinating figure through various changes in his own life, as well as in American Jewish life."
— Stephen Silver, The SS Ben Hecht
"DuBowski affords his subject’s spiritual journey the epic quality it deserves where triumph is simply waking up at peace with where you are, recognizing all the places emotionally - and in Lau-Lavie’s case, geographically - you have to go to get there."
— Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest
"Ultimately, 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."
— Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter
