Search results may contain past events.

I need Help.

  • MCA Home
  • OLD Brazina Documentary Film Series

Brazina Documentary Film Series

The Brazina Documentary Film Series brings you a curated (&/or juried) selection of award winning movies, free of charge. Each month, from November through April, MCA and WCA members have
the opportunity to enjoy acclaimed, limited distribution film. 

Click on a film title for additional information or to register. 

Registration opens one month prior to the screening date. 

    • November 04, 2025
    • 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
    • Iser Center
    • 27
    Register


    Labors of Love: The Life and Legacy of

    Henrietta Szold




    Registration opens 9/4/25


    Henrietta Szold is among the most influential American Jewish women who ever lived, She founded Hadassah in 1912, becoming a major force in early twentieth century in Palestine: she established its health care system, treating Jews and Arabs equally, shaped its education system and initiated social services that prevail today.  Szold helped organize Youth Aliyah, which successfully rescued thousands of Jewish children from Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe during the 1930s and transported them to Palestine.  

    The oldest daughter of a Baltimore rabbi, Szold devoted her early adulthood to her father and his scholarly research.  Unlike her four younger sisters, she didn’t go to college, marry or have children.  However, her organizational skills were evident from an early age, when she founded the first night school for Russian immigrants devoting her time and energy to making sure they learned English. After her father’s death, she devoted her life to another biblical scholar, Louis Ginzberg.  She was his translator and editor, taught him English, accompanied him on long walks, traded heartfelt letters with him, and fell in love with him.  When he announced his engagement to a 22-year-old German woman he had known for just weeks, Henrietta suffered a stunning, and very public, emotional collapse.

    This heartfelt documentary, is directed by Peabody award-winner, Abby Ginzberg, brings long-overdue recognition to Szold, offering a thought-provoking look at a woman who reshaped history through compassion and an unwavering belief in the power of humanity. An interestingt twist: Louis Ginzberg later married Adele Katzenstein, who became Abby Ginzberg's grandmother.  Abby Ginzberg's family connection to Louis Ginzberg, her grandfather, gives her a unique perspective on this aspect of Szold's life and is incorporated into the film.

    Click HERE to watch trailer

    The film runs 80 minutes 

    Questions?  Email docfilmsnaples@gmail.com .





    • December 02, 2025
    • 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
    • Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center
    • 300
    Registration is closed

     

    Tamara De Lempicka & The Art of Survival

    Registration opens 11/5/25


    With her distinctive high-gloss sensual nudes and cooly elegant portraits of high society during the Jazz Age, Polish-Jewish artist Tamara de Lempicka --  born Tamara Hurwitz -- (1894-1980), helped define Art Deco style and the glamour and transgressive vitality of post WWI Paris.

    A prodigious talent, Lempicka combined cubism, classicism, and surrealism to reinvent the female figure, not as object but as protagonist. Feminist, style icon, working mother and bisexual libertine, Lempicka embodied Art Deco’s spirit and portrayed women in boldly erotic terms that broke the male gaze.

    After stunning the art world in the 1920s with her show-stopping work, Lempicka fled to the United States in 1940 amidst the rise of fascism in Europe. Julie Rubio’s film is a revealing account of a woman who defied the rules—as an artist, mother, and bisexual woman—and gained notoriety for her romantic liaisons with friends and models.

    Beloved by art collectors the world over, including Barbra Streisand, Jack Nicholson and Madonna (who prominently featured Lempicka paintings in her “Vogue” and “Open Your Heart” videos), Tamara de Lempicka is the subject of a new Broadway musical, and a rising star in the art market, where one of her paintings recently sold for more than $21 million, the second highest amount ever paid for an artwork by a female painter. Narrated by Anjelica Huston and featuring newly discovered material including 8mm home movies, this new documentary examines Lempicka’s extraordinary life and the aesthetic power and political impact of her marvelous paintings.

    The film runs 96 minutes

    To watch the trailer, click HERE

    Questions?  Email docfilmsnaples@gmail.com .




    • January 06, 2026
    • 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
    • Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center
    • 300
    Registration is closed

     

    The Road Between Us:

    The Ultimate Rescue  


    Registration opens 12/3/25


    The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue

    Winner of Best Film -- Toronto International Film Festival 2025

    Amir Tibon was home with his family at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, less than a mile from the Gaza border. His father, retired IDF General Noam Tibon, was some 55 miles away in Tel Aviv.  Amir and his family heard Hamas attackers approaching, and reached out to his father. The retired general, sensing that nobody was attempting to protect the beseiged citizens, set out to save his family.  The Road Between Us is a moving account of his self-appointed mission. The story makes us contemplate what we would do if our loved ones faced immediate danger.

    Using original footage from the cell-phones of victims, the body-cams of invaders and a variety of drones, the film shows General Tibon's strict military ethic. He selflessly tends to others on the road who were injured by the Oct. 7 attacks. The general and his wife interrupt their direct drive to save a couple that had escaped the music festival massacre by hiding on the side of the road in a pile of leaves. Tibon also assists a group of very young soldiers who had been injured in an ambush. The general pulls together a pick-up squad of soldiers along the way, reaches the kibbutz, and goes house to house - methodically clearing out Hamas militants and ultimately liberating his family.

    The film runs 93 minutes

    To watch the trailer click HERE 

    Questions?  Email docfilmsnaples@gmail.com .







    • February 03, 2026
    • 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
    • Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center
    • 300
    Registration is closed



    Charles Grodin:
    Rebel With a Cause





    Registration Opens 1/7/26


    Raised in a Jewish household in Pittsburgh, Charles Grodin’s life embodied the concept of Tikkun Olam. The film not only celebrates Charles Grodin’s hilarious acting career, but also his remarkable, decades-long, successful fight to get wrongly convicted people – most of whom were mothers of color with young children – out of prison. The film includes interviews with Robert De Niro, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Elaine May, Carol Burnett, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Alan Arkin, Ellen Burstyn, Marc Maron, Lewis Black, Marlo Thomas, Jon Lovitz, plus several of the women Chuck got released from prison.

    To watch the trailer, click HERE

    The film runs 93 minutes


    Questions?  Email docfilmsnaples@gmail.com .




    • March 03, 2026
    • 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
    • Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center
    • 300
    Registration is closed


    Diane Warren:

    Relentless

    Registration opens 2/4/2026

    Diane Warren’s extraordinary path to becoming one of the most prolific and celebrated songwriters of all time takes center stage in this heartfelt ode to an unmatched artistic legacy. Born into a modest Jewish family in Van Nuys, she leveraged her rebellious, outsider spirit into a passion-fueled career, defying the odds for success in a male-dominated industry. With countless Oscar nods and every conceivable industry award, Warren has written mega-hits for superstars Cher, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, and Beyoncé. Melding her candid reflections and signature humor with insights from collaborators and behind-the-scenes moments, this intimate portrait reveals Warren’s unconventional creative process, personal challenges, and famous fortitude that propelled her to iconic status

    The Film runs 92 Minutes

    To watch the trailer click HERE

    Questions?  Email docfilmsnaples@gmail.com .




Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software