Reboot Studios: Providing Funding and Creative Support for Fresh and Imaginative Film, Multimedia and Arts Projects.

Update: In the documentary Sabbath Queen, director and producer Sandi DuBowski follows Rabbi Amichai Lau Lavie’s epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis who rejects his traditional destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer father, and the founder of Lab/Shul. The feature documentary, filmed over 20+ years and supported with funding from Reboot Studios and executive produced by Reboot Network member Adrian Salpeter, was included as an Official Selection of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival!

The Anne Frank Gift Shop, the first film project funded and produced by Reboot Studios was shortlisted this year for an Oscar in the Live Action Short Film category. The film is a dark comedy from author and journalist Mickey Rapkin about antisemitism that sparks a debate about collective trauma, the Holocaust—and tote bags.

Alex Edelman’s Just For Us had an acclaimed Broadway run last summer in a production co-produced and funded by Reboot Studios as a part of our inaugural round of studio investments. Filmed at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre last August, HBO released the comedy special in April. Learn more about the New York Times Critic’s Pick on our site and watch the special on HBO and Max.

Reboot Studios’ current and upcoming slate from celebrated Jewish artists includes: 

We Should Eat, written and directed by Shaina Feinberg and executive produced by Alysia Reiner with Reboot Studios, humorously explores the age-old familial irritations with Jewish mothers, the intricacies of raising pre-teen daughters, existential dread, and the perpetual struggle to figure out what to order for dinner. The film features a stellar cast including Alysia Reiner (Orange Is the New Black), Tovah Feldshuh (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Jackie Hoffman (Only Murders in the Building), Joel de la Fuente (Walking Dead), Bob Ari (Law and Order SVU), and Lexi Perkel (Sack Lunch Bunch).

Israel Therapy – From Libby Lenkinski (VP for Public Engagement, New Israel Fund) and produced by The Forward and Reboot, this podcast helps guests sort through their complicated feelings about Israel/Palestine. Read the Israel Therapy column from Lenkinski in The Forward here.

We’ve Been Here Before is a short documentary film by filmmaker Jacob Kornbluth and civil rights strategist Eric K. Ward, produced with Reboot Studios. The film connects mass shootings, rising antisemitism, and hate violence in America through the lens of Ward’s experiences in the punk rock subculture of the 1980s and 90s, highlighting the subculture’s fight against White Nationalists and neo-Nazis.

The 700 Year Gap, a documentary by Marval Rex, chronicles his journey from Catholicism to embracing his identity as a transmasculine Sephardic Jew. The film explores themes of identity, resilience, and the impact of historical persecutions on contemporary Jewish life.

Untitled Jewish Bollywood Project – Set in Bollywood’s golden age, this project delves into the Jewish influence on Indian cinema through the life of Nadira, a trailblazing actress who challenged patriarchal norms. From producer Naz Haider, the series highlights the contributions of Jewish talents in India and their impact on the cultural mosaic of Bollywood.

The first round of project funding in 2022 included:

The Anne Frank Gift Shop is a dark comedic short from author and journalist Mickey Rapkin (Pitch Perfect, Theater Geek) about a Gen Z design firm pitching their new take on the gift shop at The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, sparks a darkly comic debate about collective trauma, the Holocaust and tote bags. The film was named to the Oscar shortlist for the Best Live Action Short category.

The Amtlai Tapes – From artist, activist and award-winning creator Joey Soloway (Transparent), this podcast explores the mysterious story of Amtlai, mother to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, who was written out of history.

Kitchen Radio is hosted by Regine Basha (Tuning Baghdad) and Nathalie Basha (The Travel Muse). The podcast explores the Jewish culture of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for intergenerational stories of community life and ritual practices with guests who are part of a rising renaissance of creative food projects exploring their oft-overlooked Jewish history and heritage. Listen to the first season here.

Just The Tip by Jessie Kahnweiler humorously examines male circumcision, touching on religion, identity, masculinity, and bodily consent. The film was inspired by Kahnweiler’s relationship with her non-Jewish boyfriend and their discussions on the topic.

The Borscht Belt Pop Up Museum & Arts Festival – From New York Times reporter and filmmaker Andrew Jacobs, The Borscht Belt Pop Up Museum is a dynamic, multimedia project that will illuminate and explore the golden age of the Jewish Catskills era and its outsize impact on mainstream American culture. Find out more here and learn about the 2024 Borscht Belt Festival here.

Boom – From #1 New York Times best-selling author (Go The Fuck To Sleep), cultural critic and humorist Adam Mansbach, this feature screenplay (based on his memoir in verse, I Had A Brother Once), tells the story of a rapper’s evolving relationship to his Judaism on the first anniversary of his brother’s suicide.

Sammy Cohen’s Big Day – From Black/biracial Jewish queer non-binary playwright and screenwriter Benji Kahn, who grew up as a total outsider in an all-white family, this YA novel in journal form relays the innermost thoughts, feelings, and adventures of Sammy Cohen, a young Jewish, biracial, non-binary queer kid.

Tribe – From Emmy Award®-winning writer/producer Noam Dromi (Dolphin Tale 1 & 2, The Walking Dead: Red Machete) and Toronto Metropolitan University filmmaking professor and screenwriter Lia Langworthy, this is a scripted TV series inspired by true events about an HBCU in Jim Crow-era Baltimore that sponsors a Jewish professor on the verge of being deported back to Nazi Germany and the relationship he forges with the college’s female African American President as they transform the school and its students.

Untitled Lacey Schwartz Delgado Project – From award-winning writer, director, producer, Lacey Schwartz Delgado (Little White Lie), this project takes a comprehensive look at how the Jewish and Black communities each came to be such iconic American communities and how anti-semitism and racism have intersected in America and beyond.

Miss Flamingo (Working Title) – From Emmy®-nominated producer and creative director Melissa Eccles, this scripted series explores the beginnings of Las Vegas, the Jewish mafia families building an oasis in the desert and the juxtaposition of Jewish life and organized crime under the same roof. All through the lens of her then sixteen year-old grandmother.

Untitled B-Mitzvah Project – From Grammy and Emmy-winning Broadway actor and producer Adam Kantor, and co-produced by Charly Jaffe, this laugh-out-loud podcast features our favorite Jewish celebrities reliving the high-pressure, hotbox of a pubescent dumpster-fire known as their B Mitzvah.

Jews Without Money – From Davy Rothbart, bestselling author, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, creator of Found Magazine and journalist, this narrative series is sparked by storylines and uniquely indelible figures from Michael Gold’s acclaimed, bestselling 1930 autobiographical novel, which documents life in the tenement ghettos of New York’s Lower East Side, where immigrant Jews landed upon arriving from Eastern Europe.

Fania in the Forest – From award-winning LA-based screenwriter, playwright, and producer Lisa Kenner Grissom, this fictional, limited TV series inspired by true events explores the story of Fania, an outspoken Jewish tomboy with big dreams who narrowly escapes the Vilna ghetto and joins a partisan brigade of male resistance fighters in the surrounding forest. Her commitment to disrupt the Nazi war machine and seek revenge is complicated by her personal mission to find and rescue members of her dispersed family.

Origin Story – From TV, film and stage actor and writer William DeMeritt, this one man play explores the themes of multiculturalism, belonging (or the lack thereof), and grief and loss through the lens of a young(ish) Blewish (Black & Jewish) man growing up in NYC.

Shanda –  From New York Times bestselling author Jillian Lauren this historical crime drama series set in 1919, Buenos Aires, is about a young girl from a Russian shtetl who’ discovers a new life in the Jewish criminal underworld with a network of gangs and corrupt officials trafficking a steady stream of girls, guns, and narcotics through streets equal parts grit and glitter.

Zamosc: A Love Story of Memory and Migration – From Los Angeles-based journalist and professor Daniela Gerson, this book is about Ukrainian Refugees, famly, and romance as Gerson and her partner explore a shared past that went back generations to a Polish town called Zamosc. This reported memoir—part gripping historical narrative, part travelogue investigation— traces the origins of their love story through eight countries, mass and very personal murders, fabricated identities, and transforming social norms.

Heimish: Jewish Wisdom for Happy, Hearty, and Resilient Living – From community builder Lauren Hoffman, this pop-anthropology non-fiction book, with Jewish rituals, traditions and aesthetics will have broad application for designing a happy and meaningful life and community. The book posits that Heimish is the next Hygge: a set of lifestyle and aesthetic choices that account for the unusual resiliency and connectedness of Jewish communities all over the world.