We Play Cinema

Director Emile Bokaer, Producer Melanie Vi Levy

We’ve all heard about the “greatest films ever made,” but consider the greatest films never made. When a filmmaker uncovers his Tunisian Jewish film-obsessed father’s trove of never-made “underground film” scripts…cinematic and interpersonal revelations ensue.

We Play Cinema was selected as the recipient of the 2024 JFI/JSP Momentum Award.

Emile Bokaer

Director

Emile Bokaer is a documentary filmmaker whose recent work includes producing A Field Guide to Coastal Fortifications (dir. Tijana Petrovic, IFF Rotterdam), and directing La Red Callejera (A Stripe Press short film). Feature post-production credits include Jamie Meltzer’s Informant and True Conviction, Kevin Gordon’s True Son, and Geoff Pingree’s The Return of Elder Pingree. Emile also edited Lost and Found in Guantanamo (dir. Yael Bridge) and Watch Out for Bullets (dir. Nicholas Berger & Emmanuel Dayan). We Play Cinema is Emile’s second documentary feature as director, after Pure Fruit (2012).

Melanie Vi Levy

Producer

Melanie Vi Levy is a documentary producer, director, and editor whose work includes award-winning documentaries for HBO, Hulu, National Geographic, POV, and Independent Lens. Her feature credits include Elan Golod’s Nathan-ism (JSP alum and winner of the Yad Vashem Award for Cinematographic Excellence). Hillbilly, Wonder Women: The Untold Story of American Superheroines, and What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael. Melanie teaches and mentors at Maine Media Workshops + College. She holds a BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA in Documentary Film and Video from Stanford University.