ESTHER BRONER: A WEAVE OF WOMEN / 2013

Prolific writer, passionate activist, dedicated scholar and pioneering feminist, Esther Broner indelibly shaped modern Jewish history, and yet, most people have never heard of her. In the mid-1970s, as the women’s rights movement was vastly changing society’s views on gender and equality, Broner created a radical new Haggadah (the book of readings for a Passover seder service) for a new era, one that, while maintaining Jewish culture and rituals, shifted the focus onto women, transforming the traditional Passover service into a powerful reclamation of women’s lives and stories. What followed in 1975 was the first feminist women’s seder, which began as a small gathering to celebrate Passover with Broner as their leader and would blossom into a movement. One of the founding members of the seder, director/producer Lilly Rivlin (Grace Paley: Collected Shorts, SFJFF 2010) documents Broner’s rich and engaged political and spiritual life with archival photos, video footage from the seders themselves and interviews with Broner’s closest friends and original “seder mothers” such as Ms. magazine founder Gloria Steinem and congresswoman Bella Abzug. Woven together with Broner’s own moving words, this documentary is both an inspiring portrait of a feminist trailblazer and a testament to her legacy which has helped empower generations of Jewish women around the world. — Alissa Chadburn

"ESTHER BRONER, A WEAVE OF WOMEN"
WORLD PREMIERE @ THE
SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
AUGUST 8TH, 1:50 @ CALIFORNIA THEATER
Director Lilly Rivlin in person.

The Woodstock Film Festival 2010
Audience Award for Feature Documentary:
GRACE PALEY: COLLECTED SHORTS
directed by Lilly Rivlin

In the opening moments of “Grace Paley: Collected Shorts”, Paley rhetorically asks an audience, “What is the responsibility of a poet?” We soon learn that Grace Paley answered that question emphatically throughout her entire life.

Lilly Rivlin’s inspiring film brings to life the momentous times in which this author and activist lived and worked as she reads from her short stories, poems and essays. Paley was a firebrand on the front line of protest. She opposed war and nuclear proliferation, and fought for the rights of women, which often landed her in jail. As a teacher she influences generations of writers. Grace Paley is a New York icon whose life attests to the possibility that one person can combine public responsibility with individual creativity. Paley not only broke the mold, she created a new approach to her life’s work that combined equal parts writer, activist, woman and mother.

In “Grace Paley: Collected Shorts” we learn the story of this child of Russian-Jewish immigrants, raised in New York City in the 1930s. We hear from her daughter, granddaughter and a wide range of fellow writers and activists. We also hear many of Grace Paley’s own words, the greatest joy of Rivlin’s revealing film. (David Becker)