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 

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 .

Charles Grodin:
Rebel With a Cause

Registration Opens 12/3/25

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 .

Art Spiegelman:

Disaster is My Muse  

Registration opens 1/7/26

The life and career of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman are showcased in this biography, examining how his trailblazing graphic novel Maus redefined the medium. Deeply influenced by his Holocaust-survivor parents and personal tragedies, Spiegelman’s work confronts themes of trauma, historical memory, and identity with uncompromising honesty. From his early days co-creating underground comics to his provocative, iconic New Yorker covers, he steadily pushed boundaries, legitimizing comics as a serious art form. Rich illustrations, personal archives, incisive interviews, and sharp analyses illuminate Spiegelman’s artistic process, his enduring influence, and his outspoken fight against censorship and fascism’s resurgence in today’s political landscape. (Description cribbed from Atlanta Jewish Film Festival)

The film runs 98 minutes

To watch the trailer click HERE

Questions?  Email docfilmsnaples@gmail.com .

Diane Warren:

Relentless

Registration opens 2/4/2026