WEEKEND OF MAY 30 – JUNE 1ST • SCREENING DATES AND TIMES TBA • MIDTOWN CINEMA 

SABBATH QUEEN

USA, 2024/Documentary, 105 minutes/English/Written by Francisco Bello, Sandi DuBowski, Jeremy Stulberg/Directed by Sandi DuBowski

A remarkable feature documentary 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. Torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and honoring his own identity as a Jew and a gay man, Amichai 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.