AVAILABLE ON DVD!
"Richly detailed and entertaining!" - The Hollywood Reporter
HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE) is a documentary romp through the history, mystery, and meaning of the great Jewish standard.
Funny, deep and unexpected, the film celebrates 150 years of Jewish history and culture
and reveals the power of music to bridge cultural divides and bring us together as human beings.
The film premiered as the opening night film at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in July 2012.
Since then HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE) has been selected as opening or closing night film in 46 festivals!
It was released theatrically in 66 cities and is now available on DVD and Netflix.
"Richly detailed and entertaining!" - The Hollywood Reporter
HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE) is a documentary romp through the history, mystery, and meaning of the great Jewish standard.
Funny, deep and unexpected, the film celebrates 150 years of Jewish history and culture
and reveals the power of music to bridge cultural divides and bring us together as human beings.
The film premiered as the opening night film at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in July 2012.
Since then HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE) has been selected as opening or closing night film in 46 festivals!
It was released theatrically in 66 cities and is now available on DVD and Netflix.
THE STORY
It is instantly recognizable – musical shorthand for anything Jewish, a happy party tune that you dance to at weddings, bar mitzvahs and even at Major League Baseball games. It conjures up wistful smiles, memories of generations past…and no shortage of eye rolling. But as audiences will discover in HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE), the song is much more than a tale of Jewish kitsch and bad bar mitzvah fashions. It carries with it an entire constellation of history, values and hopes for the future. In its own believe-it-or-not way, Hava Nagila encapsulates the Jewish journey over the past 150 years. It also reveals the power of one song to express and sustain identity, to transmit lessons across generations and to bridge cultural divides and connect us all on a universal level.
“When you find a song that says ‘Let us rejoice,’ there’s no better song to leave an evening with. Hava Nagila tells us who we should be and what we, in a fundamental sense, aspire to be – peoples of love and joy and peace.” – Harry Belafonte
Featuring interviews with Harry Belafonte, Connie Francis, Glen Campbell, Leonard Nimoy, Regina Spektor and more, HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE) follows the song from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the kibbutzim of Palestine to the cul-de-sacs of America. It excavates the layers of cultural complexity with humor, depth and heart – traveling the distance between the Holocaust to Dick Dale and his surf guitar, sometimes in the same sentence. It stops at key places—Ukraine, Israel, the Catskills and Greenwich Village, where Belafonte performed a hopeful version in the late 1950s, only to be countered by Bob Dylan, who butchers the song in his version Talkin’ Hava Negiliah Blues.
The film covers Allan Sherman’s parody Harvey and Sheila, and Lena Horne’s civil rights anthem Now—both set to the tune of Hava Nagila. The film spotlights Italian-American crooner Connie Francis, who made the song the first track on her famous album of Jewish favorites; and Glen Campbell, who released an instrumental version of Hava on the B-side of his theme song from True Grit. It also dissects the proliferation of pop culture references to Hava Nagila in film and TV and brings the song up to the present, where it’s a rallying tune at sports games, a hot dance number in nightclubs and a global hit online.
The resulting film not only entertains us and makes us laugh; but it reminds us of the power of melody to go deep and to bring a celebration to life – offering delightful moments of discovery, one after another, on the song’s fascinating journey from Ukraine to YouTube.
“When you find a song that says ‘Let us rejoice,’ there’s no better song to leave an evening with. Hava Nagila tells us who we should be and what we, in a fundamental sense, aspire to be – peoples of love and joy and peace.” – Harry Belafonte
Featuring interviews with Harry Belafonte, Connie Francis, Glen Campbell, Leonard Nimoy, Regina Spektor and more, HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE) follows the song from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the kibbutzim of Palestine to the cul-de-sacs of America. It excavates the layers of cultural complexity with humor, depth and heart – traveling the distance between the Holocaust to Dick Dale and his surf guitar, sometimes in the same sentence. It stops at key places—Ukraine, Israel, the Catskills and Greenwich Village, where Belafonte performed a hopeful version in the late 1950s, only to be countered by Bob Dylan, who butchers the song in his version Talkin’ Hava Negiliah Blues.
The film covers Allan Sherman’s parody Harvey and Sheila, and Lena Horne’s civil rights anthem Now—both set to the tune of Hava Nagila. The film spotlights Italian-American crooner Connie Francis, who made the song the first track on her famous album of Jewish favorites; and Glen Campbell, who released an instrumental version of Hava on the B-side of his theme song from True Grit. It also dissects the proliferation of pop culture references to Hava Nagila in film and TV and brings the song up to the present, where it’s a rallying tune at sports games, a hot dance number in nightclubs and a global hit online.
The resulting film not only entertains us and makes us laugh; but it reminds us of the power of melody to go deep and to bring a celebration to life – offering delightful moments of discovery, one after another, on the song’s fascinating journey from Ukraine to YouTube.
WATCH THE TRAILER
PRODUCTION TEAM
ROBERTA GROSSMAN - Director, Producer
An award-winning filmmaker with a passion for history and social justice, Roberta Grossman has written and produced more than forty hours of documentary film and television. Grossman's most recent film, Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, was shortlisted for an Academy Award, won the audience award at 13 film festivals, was broadcast on PBS/Independent Lens and nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. Grossman was the series producer and co-writer of 500 Nations, the eight-hour CBS mini-series on Native Americans hosted by Kevin Costner. Her feature documentary, Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action, premiered in 2005, screened and won awards at more than 40 festivals worldwide and aired on public television stations. Grossman’s other writing and directing credits include In the Footsteps of Jesus, a four-hour special for the History Channel; Hollywood & Power: Women on Top, a special for AMC; The Rich in America: 150 Years of Town and Country Magazine for A&E; The History of Christianity: the First Thousand Years, a four-hour special on A&E; and Heroines of the Hebrew Bible and Judas for the A&E series Mysteries of the Bible.
SOPHIE SARTAIN - Writer, Producer
An award-winning writer for print, film, television and digital media, Sophie Sartain’s experience includes stints as Executive Director of Editorial Services for MGM Home Entertainment, Managing Editor of Sony Online Entertainment and Director of Development for Katahdin Productions, where she also served as writer and co-producer of Blessed Is the Match: The Life of Hannah Senesh (PBS, 2010). Sartain created and co-executive-produced the VH1 special, Fortune Files, and contributed as a writer on In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee (PBS) and The Rich in America (A&E). As a grant writer, Sartain has raised more than $1 million for documentary projects. As a freelance writer, her clients have included 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Studios, New Line Home Entertainment and ABC Radio Networks.
MARTA KAUFFMAN - Producer
Marta Kauffman co-created and executive produced the Emmy Award-winning series Friends. Previously, Kauffman co-created and served as co-executive producer on the critically acclaimed comedy series Dream On. While on Dream On, she received an Emmy Award nomination and a CableAce Award. Kauffman also co-created the comedy series The Powers That Be for Norman Lear. She served as executive producer on the one-hour drama Related on the WB. She also co-created and served as executive producer on the comedy series Family Album and Veronica's Closet, starring Kirstie Alley. In addition, she served as an executive producer on the series Jesse, starring Christina Applegate, and was executive producer of the documentary Blessed Is the Match. In 2011, she created and executive produced the Lifetime Original Movie Five.
LISA THOMAS - Executive Producer
An innovative entrepreneur, philanthropist, film producer and Grammy Award-winning music producer, Lisa Thomas is best known as the cofounder and former CEO of Clif Bar, Inc. From the moment it was introduced to the marketplace in 1992, Clif Bar—an all-natural energy bar—was a success. Over the next several years, Clif Bar, Inc., appeared frequently on the annual Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing privately held companies, and in Working Woman Magazine's 500 fastest growing companies owned by women. Thomas produced Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh and executive produced the feature documentary Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action (2005). She also produced Sacred Ground, a companion album to Homeland that won the Grammy Award for Best Native American Album.
CHRIS CALLISTER - Editor
In 2018, Chris Callister finished the Netflix Original Documentary Seeing Allred, which premiered in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and was praised by The New York Times for its “excellent and well edited collection of news footage” charting attorney Gloria Allred’s legal fights and victories. Also in 2018, Callister was editor for the feature-length Holocaust documentary Who Will Write Our History, and served as an editor on the Netflix Original Documentary Series Evil Genius. He has written and directed multiple music and concert videos for one of the most popular rock bands in the world, The Killers. Other editing credits include Mimi and Dona (2015) which aired on the PBS Series Independent Lens, Hotel Everest (2017), Ishi's Return (2016), Above and Beyond (2014) and Hava Nagila (The Movie) (2012). Callister has previously edited for The History Channel, Universal Sports Network and the Sundance Institute. Other credits include the feature film Cyrus (apprentice editor); and the short film The Liar (writer, director and editor), which screened at numerous festivals including the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
JOSH KUN - Consulting Scholar
Josh Kun is an associate professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and director of the Popular Music Project at the Norman Lear Center. He holds a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley. Kun's research focuses on the arts and politics of cultural connection, with an emphasis on popular music, the cultures of globalization, the US-Mexico border, and Jewish-American musical history. Kun is co-founder of the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation. As a critic and journalist, he is a contributor to The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Magazine. His writing has also appeared in Tu Ciudad Los Angeles, Cabinet, LA Weekly, Village Voice, SPIN, Mother Jones and Rolling Stone. He is the author of Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America (UC Berkeley, 2005) and co-author of And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Past as Told by the Records We've Loved and Lost (Crown, 2008).
An award-winning filmmaker with a passion for history and social justice, Roberta Grossman has written and produced more than forty hours of documentary film and television. Grossman's most recent film, Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, was shortlisted for an Academy Award, won the audience award at 13 film festivals, was broadcast on PBS/Independent Lens and nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. Grossman was the series producer and co-writer of 500 Nations, the eight-hour CBS mini-series on Native Americans hosted by Kevin Costner. Her feature documentary, Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action, premiered in 2005, screened and won awards at more than 40 festivals worldwide and aired on public television stations. Grossman’s other writing and directing credits include In the Footsteps of Jesus, a four-hour special for the History Channel; Hollywood & Power: Women on Top, a special for AMC; The Rich in America: 150 Years of Town and Country Magazine for A&E; The History of Christianity: the First Thousand Years, a four-hour special on A&E; and Heroines of the Hebrew Bible and Judas for the A&E series Mysteries of the Bible.
SOPHIE SARTAIN - Writer, Producer
An award-winning writer for print, film, television and digital media, Sophie Sartain’s experience includes stints as Executive Director of Editorial Services for MGM Home Entertainment, Managing Editor of Sony Online Entertainment and Director of Development for Katahdin Productions, where she also served as writer and co-producer of Blessed Is the Match: The Life of Hannah Senesh (PBS, 2010). Sartain created and co-executive-produced the VH1 special, Fortune Files, and contributed as a writer on In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee (PBS) and The Rich in America (A&E). As a grant writer, Sartain has raised more than $1 million for documentary projects. As a freelance writer, her clients have included 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Studios, New Line Home Entertainment and ABC Radio Networks.
MARTA KAUFFMAN - Producer
Marta Kauffman co-created and executive produced the Emmy Award-winning series Friends. Previously, Kauffman co-created and served as co-executive producer on the critically acclaimed comedy series Dream On. While on Dream On, she received an Emmy Award nomination and a CableAce Award. Kauffman also co-created the comedy series The Powers That Be for Norman Lear. She served as executive producer on the one-hour drama Related on the WB. She also co-created and served as executive producer on the comedy series Family Album and Veronica's Closet, starring Kirstie Alley. In addition, she served as an executive producer on the series Jesse, starring Christina Applegate, and was executive producer of the documentary Blessed Is the Match. In 2011, she created and executive produced the Lifetime Original Movie Five.
LISA THOMAS - Executive Producer
An innovative entrepreneur, philanthropist, film producer and Grammy Award-winning music producer, Lisa Thomas is best known as the cofounder and former CEO of Clif Bar, Inc. From the moment it was introduced to the marketplace in 1992, Clif Bar—an all-natural energy bar—was a success. Over the next several years, Clif Bar, Inc., appeared frequently on the annual Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing privately held companies, and in Working Woman Magazine's 500 fastest growing companies owned by women. Thomas produced Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh and executive produced the feature documentary Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action (2005). She also produced Sacred Ground, a companion album to Homeland that won the Grammy Award for Best Native American Album.
CHRIS CALLISTER - Editor
In 2018, Chris Callister finished the Netflix Original Documentary Seeing Allred, which premiered in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and was praised by The New York Times for its “excellent and well edited collection of news footage” charting attorney Gloria Allred’s legal fights and victories. Also in 2018, Callister was editor for the feature-length Holocaust documentary Who Will Write Our History, and served as an editor on the Netflix Original Documentary Series Evil Genius. He has written and directed multiple music and concert videos for one of the most popular rock bands in the world, The Killers. Other editing credits include Mimi and Dona (2015) which aired on the PBS Series Independent Lens, Hotel Everest (2017), Ishi's Return (2016), Above and Beyond (2014) and Hava Nagila (The Movie) (2012). Callister has previously edited for The History Channel, Universal Sports Network and the Sundance Institute. Other credits include the feature film Cyrus (apprentice editor); and the short film The Liar (writer, director and editor), which screened at numerous festivals including the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
JOSH KUN - Consulting Scholar
Josh Kun is an associate professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and director of the Popular Music Project at the Norman Lear Center. He holds a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley. Kun's research focuses on the arts and politics of cultural connection, with an emphasis on popular music, the cultures of globalization, the US-Mexico border, and Jewish-American musical history. Kun is co-founder of the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation. As a critic and journalist, he is a contributor to The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Magazine. His writing has also appeared in Tu Ciudad Los Angeles, Cabinet, LA Weekly, Village Voice, SPIN, Mother Jones and Rolling Stone. He is the author of Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America (UC Berkeley, 2005) and co-author of And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Past as Told by the Records We've Loved and Lost (Crown, 2008).
