Olga Gershenson, "Beyond Hollywood: The Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Film"

About this episode

Olga Gershenson discusses her project on Judaism and film, exploring various narratives and global case studies.

In this episode, film scholar Olga Gershenson (University of Massachusetts Amherst; co-head fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, (University of Michigan) discusses her project, "The Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Film", a 38-chapter Oxford University Press volume available online through library access. She explains why she chose “Judaism and film” over the slippery category “Jewish film,” moving beyond binary in/out definitions to examine production, distribution, reception, interpretation, religion on and off screen, expanded geographies, and non-realist genres like horror. Gershenson contrasts conventional Jews-in-film narratives centered on American Jewish experience and Hollywood with global case studies including Jewish women stars in early Indian cinema, Malayalam films nostalgically reconstructing Kerala’s Jewish past, and the extensive network of Jewish film festivals originating in 1981 San Francisco. She also highlights transnational dybbuk adaptations and Israeli religious-horror television, arguing for curiosity and openness to the field’s breadth.

People in this episode

Guest: Olga Gershenson

Topics covered

• Judaism and film
• Jewish film
• global cinema
• Jewish women in film
• horror genres
• transnational adaptations

Keywords

• Judaism
• film studies
• Jewish cinema
• global case studies
• horror
• dybbuk adaptations
• Jewish film festivals

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Massachusetts Amherst, Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Michigan, Oxford University Press

Books & works: The Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Film

Places: San Francisco, Kerala

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