THREE ATTEMPTS AT GOYIFICATION

A Jewish woman living in Berlin has had enough. In three attempts, she sets out to discover whether – and how – she can stop being Jewish. In her documentary, Michaela Kobsa-Mark follows her own humorous, honest and increasingly contradictory attempt to become a “goy” – a non-Jewish woman. Along the way, she encounters Jews and non-Jews alike and comes up against questions larger than her experiment: Who does Jewishness belong to? Who defines it – Germans or Jews? And what happens if the attempt to leave Judaism behind ultimately makes her perhaps more Jewish than ever before? With wit, intimacy and great openness, the film looks at diasporic identities in Germany, belonging to a minority, being German and the longing to relocate one’s sense of self. The screening is followed by a conversation with the director.

Michaela Kobsa-Mark is an American-German-Austrian documentary filmmaker whose work combines ethnographic practice, participatory methods, humour and intimacy.

Direction, production, editing: Michaela Kobsa-Mark

Directors of photography: Markus Ott, Amnon “Nono” Bikovsky

Location sound: Skye Macdonald

Sound design: Perschya Chehrazi

Colour grading: Markus Ott

Production assistants: Wal Solon, Leyzer Ber, Lara Gottschalk

Dramaturgical feedback: Revan Sarikaya

Created as part of LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture Residency.

The screening is followed by a conversation with the director.