JIFF program to launch with Surviving Malka Leifer
Co-presented with The AJN, the 2025 JIFF program will launch with a screening of Surviving Malka Leifer, followed by a panel discussion with the crew and sisters.
When filmmaker Adam Kamien first encountered the story of three sisters fighting to bring their former school principal to justice, he was sitting in the Australian Jewish News newsroom where the scandal initially broke.
Now, more than a decade later, his documentary Surviving Malka Leifer premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival, will debut on Stan on October 5, and will launch the Jewish International Film Festival program for 2025.
The film will screen at the program launch, co-presented by The AJN, and will be followed by a panel featuring Kamien alongside Dassi Erlich, Elly Sapper and Nicole Meyer, moderated by The AJN‘s Carly Adno.
Having covered previous child sexual abuse scandals within the Jewish community during his time at the paper, including the Manny Waks trials and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Kamien understood the complexities of the Malka Leifer case. And the sensitivities.
What drew Kamien to transform this news story into a documentary was deeply personal.
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