Films for Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month (JDAIM) - February

A group of young people with Down syndrome embark on a demanding trek through the Himalayas with their siblings. As they deal with physical and emotional challenges, unresolved conflicts come to surface and heartwarming friendships develop.

The film follows the preparations for the Bar Mitzvah of Guy, the director's younger autistic brother, from the moment his parents decide to have Guy do the ceremony in the synagogue up to the day of the Bar Mitzvah itself. During the course of preparations for this unusual event, the daily and complex reality the family must cope with is revealed, paved with difficulties and humor, and Guy's unique view of the world is discovered.

This moving and special documentary follows two special needs Israeli correspondents on the quest to interview President Obama.

Down the road from Woodstock, a revolution blossomed at a ramshackle summer camp for teenagers with disabilities, transforming their lives and igniting a landmark movement.

After a separation of more than a decade, Noam, the conscience-ridden director of the film, returns to the kibbutz where he grew up to save Zach, his childhood friend who has become a reclusive handicapped refusing rehabilitation. Noam devises a consistent and exhausting training routine with the aim of helping Zach run again, or at least move more easily. A touching and humorous friendship between two men who try to change their lives and fight their relentless emotionally charged past.

The story of two disabled war veterans reveals their intimate relationship with their spouses and children. Through wheelchair dancing, they try to overcome their impaired sexual self-image and handicap

A new speech teacher at a school for the deaf falls in love with the janitor, a deaf woman speechless by choice.

A group of 7 climbers with disabilities attempt to reach the Kilimanjaro peak

Praying with Lior asks whether someone with Down syndrome can be a spiritual genius. Many believe Lior is close to God -- at least that's what his family and community believe -- though he's also a burden, a best friend, an inspiration and an embarrassment, depending on who is asked and when. As this documentary moves to its climax, Lior must pass through the gateway to manhood - his Bar Mitzvah.

Aharon raises autistic son Uri in isolation. Facing possibility of Uri living in specialized home, Aharon runs away with Uri on road trip, unwilling for separation from his son.

'Laces' tells the story of a complicated relationship between an aging father and his special-needs son, whom he abandoned while he was still a young boy. Reuben's (60) kidney's are failing and his son Gadi (35), wants to donate one of his own kidney's to help save his father's life. However, the transplant committee objects to the procedure claiming that Rueben, acting as Gadi's sole legal guardian, does not have the right to authorize such an invasive procedure. Gadi, who recently lost his mother, is afraid of losing his father as well. He feels he finally has the chance to do something meaningful; to become a man and stand on his own. He's furious with the committee's decision and sets out to fight for his right to save his father's life. Through the film's portrayal of a relationship full of love, rejeuction and co-dependency, it manages to shed some light and question the importance of human life, human connection and if life is even possible without it either one of them.

This is the story of Ami, a man who while unable to move any part of his body, still manages to move each and every one of us, as he teaches us a part of life's intimate dance.

Galit and Yoav are planning a family vacation for their 5th anniversary together and the 10th anniversary with Delia, their caregiver. The couple are physically disabled and the mutual dependence with Delia became a shared destiny

The film follows Rinat, Elad, and Einav. Elad was left disabled after an operation. He and his wife Rinat bond with Einav as they enter the surrogacy process. The film follows their touching, surprising journey

Samuel Habib, 21, wants to date, leave home, go to college. But he drives a 350-pound wheelchair, uses a communication device, and can have a seizure at any moment. Determined to find his path forward, he seeks out guidance from America's most rebellious disability activists. Will they empower him to launch the bold adult life he craves?

Against a background of holocaust memories, a liberal Jewish girl becomes a nanny to a young Jewish boy with a disability and grows fond of him.

The relationship between a teacher and student-an Orthodox Jewish woman and a blind, autistic Palestinian girl. Devorah Schramm, an American born pianist and composer, relocated to Israel with her family in 1975. A devoutly religious woman, she and her husband Lenn moved to Gilo, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. She began teaching piano, privately at home and at the Jerusalem Conservatory of Music. One day in 1987, the Conservatory's director called her into her office. Sitting there were Helene and Edward Vollbehr, Dutch Christian missionaries from Beit Jallah, a suburb of Bethlehem, and a 9 year old blind and severely autistic Palestinian girl, Rasha Hamid. Rasha, according to her caretakers, showed a tremendous facility for the piano and it was beyond their capabilities to teach her. Devorah had become well known for taking on students with various learning disabilities but she had never encountered a musical savant like Rasha. And with tensions at an all time high between Israelis and Palestinians with the onset of the first Intifada, she was hesitant about bringing a Palestinian into her home. But after witnessing the natural musical talents and the need of this young child who had been abandoned by her family for a teacher, Devorah decided that she could not say no. For 18 years, at least twice a week, through two Intifadas and the ups and downs of the peace process, Devorah has been giving piano lessons to Rasha. Creating a special system that associates numbers with piano keys, Devorah has helped her become an accomplished pianist. Rasha is not only able to perform complicated musical pieces but she also creates her own original music. Several times a year, Rasha, along with the other students of the Jerusalem Conservatory, gives concerts-an amazing accomplishment for someone with her disabilities.

Doc Pomus was the unlikeliest of rock and roll icons. Paralyzed by polio as a child, Jerome Felder reinvented himself first as a blues singer, choosing the blues name Doc Pomus, and then as one of American popular music's greatest songwriters, creating "Save the Last Dance for Me," "This Magic Moment," "A Teenager in Love," "Viva Las Vegas," and a thousand other songs. A.K.A. DOC POMUS brings to life Doc's joyous, heartbreaking, romantic, and extraordinarily eventful journey. Packed with incomparable music and rare archival imagery, its cast includes Dr. John, Ben E. King, Joan Osborne, Shawn Colvin, Dion, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, B.B. King, and Lou Reed, who also reads from Doc's powerful private journals. Doc's was a life of disability and possibility, tragedy and romance, and some of the greatest music ever recorded.

A look at the life, work and religious heritage of violinist Itzhak Perlman.

When Jonathan's father and brother left Panama to seek a brighter future, his mother, sister, and grandmother stepped up to care for him in the face of his disability, bringing their unique sense of humor to the challenges they encounter.

Based on the NY Times bestselling book by Andrew Solomon, Far from the Tree examines the experiences of families in which parents and children are profoundly different from one another in a variety of ways.

A coming-of-age story about a boy and his family who overcame great challenges by turning Disney animated movies into a language to express love, loss, kinship and brotherhood.