‘Alison Klayman said she knew her film was onto something late last year after her father told her about an interaction he'd had. Someone at his synagogue had asked him if he was worried about Zohran Mamdani, the soon-to-be sworn in New York City mayor whose pro-Palestinian activism marked a shift in the city’s political order. “He said no,” Klayman said, recalling her father’s response. “And the guy said to him, ‘Oh, so you're one of those self-hating Jews, huh?’” That someone would say this to her father, an active participant in Jewish life, further drove home the premise of her film “Scenes from the Divide,” which is currently playing at the IFC Center. The 32-minute film features interviews with Jewish New Yorkers about Mamdani in the lead-up to the November election. “It's been really clear to me for a while that we're at an inflection point as an American Jewish community,” she said. She said her film “holds up a mirror for this moment.”‘

‘"Scenes from the Divide is a timely portrait of a generational and political split, situated during the tumultuous New York mayoral election that garnered international attention...The film both documents the divisive nature of these perspectives and offers an invitation for discussion. It gives voice to what often prove to be diametrically opposed perspectives, but doing so both with kindness and nuance. The result is a powerful piece that, in its relatively spare running time, provides a more compelling articulation of these disagreements than the usual, histrionic messaging that has dominated the discourse."‘