Shorts WJFF
256,000 MILES FROM HOME
Melissa Hacker, USA, 2025, 15 min
In the months leading up to World War II, approximately 10.000 Jewish children were evacuated from the Third Reich to Great Britain as part of the Kindertransport operation. Four of those former child refugees - now aged 83 to 91 - are embarking on a two-week journey, tracing the route they took many decades earlier. Back then, they left their parents, homes, and everything they had known, unaware that their escape was saving their lives. One of them was the director's mother.
08.11, Saturday | 14:00 | Muzeum POLIN
BOLLER STREET
Cuyler Ballenger, USA, 2025, 14 min
Boller Street is a fictionalized autobiography tracing the journey of my fifth great-grandmother, Yetta Ballenberg, the only member of her family to leave the German village of Jebenhausen for the United States in the early 19th century. The film blends camcorder footage with speculative narration to reflect on absence and fragmentation in Ashkenazi Jewish memory. Inspired by works such as Shoah, Occupied City, and Summer in Baden-Baden, it shifts from archival tone to personal voice, merging present observation with familial research. Boller Street becomes a meditation on time, diaspora, and the labor required to reconstruct a history scattered by distance and erasure.
09.11, Sunday | 14:30 | Muzeum POLIN
CHOOSING YOU
Naama Oliven, Israel, 2024, 12 min
Two years have passed since Shosho, who is secular, and Naama, who is religious, got divorced. Their four-year-old daughter has become dependent on her pacifier, and Shosho and Naama are trying to wean her off it. But Naama understands dependence. She herself cannot wean herself from the old dream of life with Shosho.
Director Naama Oliven was born and raised in Jerusalem, and first studied media and communications at her religious girls' high school. After school she completed two years voluntary national Service in both Israel an ... read more
08.11, Saturday | 14:00 | Muzeum POLIN
HOW TO MAKE CHALLAH
Sarah Rosen, USA, 2024, 12 min
In 1975, my aunt Jane filmed her 97-year-old immigrant grandmother baking challah, the traditional Jewish bread. In 2022, I filmed my aunt Jane (now 80) baking challah herself for the very first time. A short documentary about what we pass on to the next generation and what we leave behind.
08.11, Saturday | 14:00 | Muzeum POLIN
KULTUR DOCS FEATURING MIKOŁAJ TRZASKA
Michael Rubenfeld, Poland, 2024, 21 min
This film follows avant-garde Polish Jewish jazz legend Mikolaj Trzaska as he delves into his journey of discovering his Jewish heritage during the communist era—a journey that shaped his distinctive approach to life and music. Directed by Michael Rubenfeld, the film takes Trzaska to the town of Słupsk, where he marks the anniversary of the wartime deportation of the town’s Jewish community. Through an improvised concert at the historic site where they were detained before being sent to Auschwitz, Trzaska offers a unique perspective on history, identity, and creativity.
08.11, Saturday | 14:00 | Muzeum POLIN
SHORTS WJFF: DOCUMENTARY
Simcha Shtull, Melissa Hacker, Cuyler Ballenger, Sarah Rosen, USA, Canada, Israel, 2024, 2025, 101 min
A screening of short documentary films competing for the festival's award for BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY.
- The Windows on Rue Saint Dominique, dir. Simcha Shtull, USA, Canada 2025, 27 min
- 256.000 miles from home, dir. Melissa Hacker, USA 2025, 15 min
- Boller Str., dir. Cuyler Ballenger, USA 2025, 14 min
- How to make Challah, dir. Sarah Rosen, USA, 2024, 12 min
- Kultur Docs Featuring Mikołaj Trzaska, dir. Michael Rubenfeld, Poland, 2024, 21 min
- Choosing y ... read more
08.11, Saturday | 14:00 | Muzeum POLIN
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