Trembling Before G-d

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Film Description

Award-winning documentary built around intimately-told personal stories of gay or lesbian Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who face the profound dilemma of how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism and the Divine with the biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality.

Film Information

DVD Extras

New Yorker Films trailers; "Trembling On The Road" featurette ? a look at the life-changing movement of the film around the world; Sandi Simcha DuBowski's first short film, the award-winning "Tomboychik"; interview with director Sandi Simcha DuBowski; conversation with editor/creative collaborator, Susan Korda; "More With The Rabbis" ? excerpts from interviews with a number of Orthodox rabbis on the issue of homosexuality; "More With Rabbi Steve Greenberg" ? the first openly gay Orthodox Rabbi shares his inspiring life story; Petach Lev: The Trembling Israeli Education Project; Behind The Silhouettes; What Is The Atonement Ceremony For Sexual Sins?; theatrical trailer; "Mark; The Musical".

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Reviews & Articles

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Review by Howard Schumann on 16th February 2004

Directed by a gay Conservative Jew, Sandi Simcha Dubowski, Trembling Before G-d examines the beliefs of gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews struggling to bridge the gap between their way of life and the teachings of their religion. The film has sparked debate between liberals and conservatives, gay rights activists, the media and spokespersons for organized religion. Dubowski interviewed gays and lesbians in New York, London, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem, many coping with rejection from their families, issues of suicide and AIDS, and self-acceptance. One of the interviewees is David from Los Angeles, a bright and articulate man in his late 30s who, following the advice of a rabbi, tried for many years to change his orientation through therapy. He talks without bitterness about the advice given to him by various rabbis to eat figs, snap a rubber band on his wrist or bite his tongue whenever he feels the temptation to have sex with another man. Now twenty years later, David confronts the rabbi who ordered him into therapy and tells him that his advice did not work.

One of the angriest is Israel, a 58-year-old man from New York who rejected his family after they forced him to undergo electro-shock therapy. Trembling Before G_d is about being gay, but is also about the need to belong -- to parents, to community, to a set of rules. In an odd way, the documentary celebrates Judaism even while pointing out its flaws and it got me back in touch with the Jewish experience -- the songs, the feeling of community, and the struggle to understand God and His purposes. Trembling Before G_d illuminates the problem and just might become a wake-up call for those still tied to an archaic belief system that long ago ceased to have any relevance or purpose.

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Collections & Lists

This film is part of the following Film Collections

The Best of Gay and Lesbian Cinema

Including: 100 Days Before The Command, 15, All About My Mother, All Over Me, Another Way, Bad Education, Beau Travail, Beautiful Thing, Blue Gate Crossing, Boyfriends.

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