Student’s short film ‘The Golem’ premieres at Austin Jewish Film Festival
Bothered by the lack of Hanukkah films in modern media, radio-television-film junior Ethan Rubenstein decided to make his own. His short film, "The Golem," premiered at the Austin Jewish Film Festival on Nov. 2.
"There's a lot of great Christmas films. ... There's not really a lot of good Hanukkah content out there," Rubenstein said. "I wanted to make something that was unapologetically Jewish."
"The Golem" follows a trio of friends, a rabbi and the awakening of a clay monster of Jewish folklore. Rubenstein originally created "The Golem" to air on TSTV's surrealist film series "The Hourglass" as a holiday piece. He ended up submitting the short film to different festivals, including the Austin Jewish Film Festival. Given the Israel-Hamas War that began in October of last year, Rubenstein said he wanted to address miscommunication and discourse in his own way.
"In these politically complicated times, I wanted to make a film that is essentially about the danger of rhetoric and using abundant caution with words," Rubenstein said. "Words are so powerful."
Rubenstein said he wanted to write a script specific to his cultural and religious experiences, so he decided to have the clay monster speak Yiddish. Radio-television-film sophomore Lucas Miller, who played the Golem — a role that involved sitting with dry clay on his face for 12 hours of shooting — said the end product felt extremely rewarding.
"It's very cool to be able to venture out from just regular lines. I played some other monster roles in the past ... but nothing really like this. The lines were short and concise, but with each one, there is purpose in what (the Golem) said," Miller said. "It was cool to learn the background of that, and the overarching background of the story in general."
Rubenstein asked his former rabbi at Jewish student center Texas Hillel, Rabbi Will Hall, to act in his film. Hall enthusiastically agreed.
"All of the other people on set were like, 'Wow, that's a cool rabbi,'" Rubenstein said.
Hall (Jewish and religious studies, '14) said films that reflect specific cultural and religious backgrounds pose a positive learning opportunity for those who watch them.
"We live in such a complicated world at times. We're often introduced to each other ... when conflicts happen," Hall said. "It's nice when people get to know a community ... when it doesn't relate to conflict or war."
Rubenstein said while he felt honored to premiere his film at the Austin Jewish Film Festival, he holds complicated feelings given the current disagreements around and within Jewish communities.
"Being in any Jewish space right now is, unfortunately, still difficult for me," Rubenstein said. "But that's why I try to push myself to still make Jewish things and be a part of the community, even when we have disagreements."
