Woodstock Film Festival Presents: Sabbath Queen

Part of Woodstock Film Festival’s 25th anniversary program.

“Redemption will only come through transgression,” so says Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie twice in Sabbath Queen. To be a spiritual leader in Judaism, a religion full of laws, and actively encourage breaking the law – redeeming oneself through rebellion – is unusual, to say the least. Yet this is just one of a few controversial opinions Rabbi Lau-Lavie holds as a gender-bending, drag-performing, intermarriage-facilitating, Radical Faerie-identified rabbi. New York City’s own experimental congregation Lab/Shul is shown behind the scenes in this documentary filmed over 21 years, tracing Amichai’s fascinating life and career between Israel and the US. Sabbath Queen weaves together an imaginative, complex, and rousing story, including such historical events as 1980s Orthodox Jewish feminist movements, 1990s queer nightlife, HIV/AIDS, Occupy Wall Street, the 2014 assault on Gaza, and more, never shying from the personal and communal transformations at the heart of religious practice.

A Q&A with director Sandi DuBowski will follow the screening. DuBowski’s award-winning work has screened at Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca and Toronto and was theatrically released in over 150 cities.