San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Sets Premieres Including ‘www.rachelormont.com,’ ‘Torah Tropical’ (EXCLUSIVE)

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has slated two world premieres and one international premiere for its 2024 edition, which runs July 18-Aug. 4. This year’s full lineup, which will be announced June 18, will highlight the diversity of Jewish experience across the globe.

One of the films getting its world premiere at this year’s SF Jewish Film Festival is “www.rachelormont.com” from writer-director Peter Vack. Starring Betsey Brown, Jane Brown, Ron Brown, Chloe Cherry and Dasha Nekrasova, the film follows Rachel, a woman who doesn’t realize she has grown up in captivity working for an advertising agency where her job is to assess Mommy 6.0 – her favorite pop star. The film will screen as part of the SFJFF Next Wave program at the Roxie Theater.

“Torah Tropical” will also receive its world premiere at SFJFF. Directed by Jimmy Ferguson, Ezra Axelrod and Gloria Nancy Monsalve, the documentary follows a Colombian family of Orthodox Jews trying to make aliyah to Israel as the war on drugs rages around them.

Getting its international premiere at SFJFF is “Nobody Wants To Talk About Jacob Applebaum” from director Jamie Kastner. The documentary feature follows Jacob Appelbaum, “the most dangerous man in cyberspace,” who now lives in exile.

“As we put the final touches on our slate of films for this year’s festival, we’re excited to host the world premieres of these exciting films that put forward surprising and unexpected representations of Jewish identity on screen — at a time when mainstream depictions too often fail to reflect Jewishness in all its diversity and complexity,” said Lexi Leban, executive director of the Jewish Film Institute.

Guest festival director Ash Hoyle, Sundance features programmer, will take over for former program director Jay Rosenblatt, who has stepped down to focus on his film career. Hoyle joins programmer Dominique Oneil (formerly of Frameline) and Leban.

Early bird passes are available at the festival’s website.