Sandi DuBowski’s epic documentary SABBATH QUEEN — shot over the span 
of 21 years—follows Amichai Lau-Lavie, an Israeli descended from an unbroken line of 38 rabbis stretching back a thousand years. Yet as the film opens, Lau-Lavie is newly arrived in New York in the late 1990s, a young gay man declaring “Artists are the new rabbis” and appearing around the city in drag as 
Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross, the widow of six Hasidic rabbis (all from the same extended family). As the years pass, Lau-Lavie embraces a range of creative spiritual endeavors, including Storahtelling and Lab/Shul—until he shocks everyone with his decision to become a rabbi himself, studying in the Conservative tradition of Judaism. Sabbath Queen is witness to Lau-Lavie’s unfailing courage and grace, as he grapples with key questions of 
who we are and who we will be. Stimulating and moving, DuBowski’s film ends with Lau-Lavie’s words on Israel and Palestine post-October 7th as he evokes the challenge of our lifetime: “How do we reimagine our sacred
traditions to achieve peace?” SABBATH QUEEN director Sandi Dubawski joins us to talk about Amichai and his 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.
For more go to: sabbathqueen.com
About the filmmaker – Sandi DuBowski, Director/Producer of Sabbath Queen, Director/Producer of Trembling Before G-d, Producer of A Jihad for Love, and Co-Producer of Budrus. His award-winning work has screened at Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca and Toronto, theatrically released in 150 cities, and broadcast on ZDF/Arte, BBC, Channel 4, PBS. In 2020, he was invited to become a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. DuBowski spearheaded a groundbreaking impact campaign with the award-winning Trembling Before G-d, personally conducting 850 live events, for over 250,000 people, which changed the lives of countless individuals, their families, religious leaders, and communities around the world. Feature stories on the project appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NPR, The Globe and Mail, and BBC News. From 2009-2016, DuBowski worked with over 125 of the world’s best social justice documentaries as the Outreach Director of Doc Society’s Good Pitch. He is Co-Founder of The Creative Resistance, a collective of media makers who create award-winning political ads and design. In the mid-1990’s he began his media and activism work at Planned Parenthood Federation of America focused on the Christian right and the anti-abortion movement. Three generations of DuBowski’s family made chocolate syrup in Deep Coastal Brooklyn.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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“The director delicately contextualizes his subject’s desired legacy by threading Lau-Lavie’s harrowing familial history into the narrative.” – Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter
“That’s all well and good, but something special happens in the film’s last quarter that makes it required viewing not just for queer people, not just for Jews, but for everyone.” – Dan Bayer, Next Best Picture
“DuBowski affords his subject’s spiritual journey the epic quality it deserves where triumph is simply waking up at peace with where you are, recognizing all the places emotionally – and in Lau-Lavie’s case, geographically – you have to go to get there.” – Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest
“This fast-paced, well-shot doc does place its finger on the quickening pulse of an ever-wider gap between liberalizing Western social values and the Orthodox sphere that believes they are antithetical to Judaism.” – Dennis HarveyVariety
“Though some may not agree with all of his opinions or the way he practices his religion, this documentary makes it impossible to deny his startlingly authentic spirituality.” – Abe Friedtanzer, Awards Buzz