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Trembling Before G-d (2001)
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Reviews Counted:61
Fresh:54
Rotten:7
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Trembling Before G-d looks at the effects of religious morality on believers whose sexuality falls outside the accepted norm with intelligence and compassion.
Theatrical Release:Oct 24, 2001 Limited
Synopsis:
Trembling Before G-d is an unprecedented feature documentary that shatters assumptions about faith, sexuality, and religious fundamentalism. Built around intimately-told personal stories of Hasidic...
Trembling Before G-d is an unprecedented feature documentary that shatters assumptions about faith, sexuality, and religious fundamentalism. Built around intimately-told personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian, the film portrays a group of people who face a profound dilemma - how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism and the Divine with the drastic Biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality. As the film unfolds, we meet a range of complex individuals - some hidden, some out - from the world's first openly gay Orthodox rabbi to closeted, married Hasidic gays and lesbians to those abandoned by religious families to Orthodox lesbian high-school sweethearts.
Many have been tragically rejected and their pain is raw, yet with irony, humor, and resilience, they love, care, struggle, and debate with a thousands-year old tradition. Ultimately, they are forced to question how they can pursue truth and faith in their lives. Vividly shot with a courageous few over five years in Brooklyn, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, London, Miami, and San Francisco, Trembling Before G-d is an international project with global implications that strikes at the meaning of religious identity and tradition in a modern world. For the first time, this issue has become a live, public debate in Orthodox circles, and the film is both witness and catalyst to this historic moment. What emerges is a loving and fearless testament to faith and survival and the universal struggle to belong. -- © 2001 Simcha Leib Productions
Starring: Steve Greenberg, Shlomo Ashkinazy
Starring: Steve Greenberg, Shlomo Ashkinazy
Director: Sandi Simcha DuBowski
Director: Sandi Simcha DuBowski
Producer: Marc Smolowitz, Sandi Simcha DuBowski
Composer: John Zorn
Studio: New Yorker Films
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Reviews for Trembling Before G-d
Powerful documentary about the struggle of gay and lesbian orthodox Jews to reconcile their beliefs and their desires
Trembling Before G-d, by no stretch a well constructed documentary film, is an important breakthrough for Jewish orthodoxy because ignoring a consistent problem helps no one.
The film helpfully translates onscreen some of the Hebrew words of the interviewees for the benefit of goyim whose only exposure to the Hasidim has been Yentl.
This insightful documentary simmers with a fury that's passionate enough not to need spelling out.
the human face it puts on the objects of intolerance speaks to discrimination at large in all its ugly forms. Its a moving and important piece of filmmaking
It offers several interesting insights into the seemingly incongruous matters of homosexuality and orthodox religion.
A heavy subject for any filmmaker to broach, and it definitely exceeds the skills of first-time director Sandi Simcha Dubowski.
Moving and, ultimately, hopeful -- a hope that extends further than most documentaries allow.
A unique documentary about the crisis confronting gay and lesbian Jews who wish to remain part of the Orthodox and Hasidic branches of Judaism.
This portrayal never becomes anything more than a typical 'talking heads' doc.
Everyone, including adherents of other faiths which treat gays much the same, should find food for thought in this fine film.
the Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish version of Arthur Dong's superior Family Fundamentals.
Scores points courtesy of its deeply interesting subject matter... [but director] DuBowski doesn’t ask the truly tough psychoanalytical questions of her subjects.
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| 82% 82% | Paranormal Activity |
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