Sabbath Queen Film Screening and Q&A
Tuesday, October 6, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Filmed over 21 years, Sabbath Queen 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. The film interrogates what Jewish survival means in a difficult rapidly changing 21st century.
Sandi DuBowski is the director/producer of Sabbath Queen, Trembling before G-D, Tomboychik, Producer of A Jihad for Love and co-producer of Budrus. His award-winning work has screened at Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca and Toronto Film Festivals. In 2020, he was invited to become a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Brett Krutzsch, a scholar of religion and LGBTQ politics in the United States, is the associate director of the Center for Religion and Media at NYU and editor of its award-winning online magazine, The Revealer.
