Michal Goldman
Independent Filmmaker
Other Roles: Editor
Areas of Focus: Documentaries
Biography
Michal Goldman’s documentaries look at how people express the urgent issues of their times through the way they actually live their lives. She has directed, written, and usually edited her films, producing them through Filmmakers Collaborative.
Her work has won the Academy Award, Chicago International Film Festival’s Golden Plaque for Documentary, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s first Promoting Tolerance Award, and the Oral History Association Award. She is the founder of Filmmakers Collaborative and founder of the Boston Jewish Film Festival.
Her Filmmakers Collaborative films are: A Jumpin’ Night in the Garden of Eden; Umm Kulthum, A Voice Like Egypt; Epiphany in Progress; and At Home in Utopia. She is currently completing a short, almost-personal documentary called WHY WE DANCE.
Films
WHY WE DANCE (2024)
Role: Independent Filmmaker
From earliest childhood to old age, people dance. I want to explore why we do it. More specifically, why did I, a 78-year-old woman, get on Zoom five mornings a week all during the Pandemic with other women ranging in age from 49 to 94, to dance?
WHY WE DANCE explores this question from many angles. The film is about two kinds of movement: each dancer’s unique physical expression, and our movement from one phase of life to another, seeking renewed meaning, community, and purpose as we age.
This is a personal, hands-on project, filmed by the dancers themselves. Go to the film’s project page to watch the opening scene.
A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden (2021)
Role: Producer
The first film to document the revival of klezmer music, Jumpin’ Night premiered in 1987 and was re-released in 2021. Go to the project page to learn more and watch the trailer.
At Home in Utopia (2009)
Role: Producer
Three decades, two generations, and one cooperative complex built by immigrant Jewish factory workers who live another version of the American dream. Go to the project page to learn more and watch the opening scene.
Umm Kulthum, A Voice Like Egypt (2000)
Role: Producer
The story of the Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. Born a peasant and becoming an icon, her voice, with its enormous range and power, expressed the emotions gripping the Arab world for most of the twentieth century, a tumultuous time of possibility, achievement, failure, and change.
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