A musical feature film in development, in the vein of La La Land
A contemporary movie musical about who gets to sing the old songs next.
Rebecca comes to her son Joseph Shapiro in a dream: the songs are the soul of his people, and he must carry them. He then opens her handwritten songbook. At MASA, an elite Manhattan arts school just west of Times Square, his mixed eleventh-grade class, most of them not Jewish, rebuilds those songs in English and carries them to a national stage.
Walter J. Kin, producer. Public production credit: Rigli Publishing.
JEWISH tells Jewish history through songs and dances, without a sermon. The songs already travel. The next dollar develops the film. Reviewing the FilmFreeway project? Start on the unlisted Reboot one-pager, or write doublesign28@gmail.com.
Proof of reach
About 7.7 million streams (LANDR, TuneCore, DistroKid) and about 4.5 million YouTube views on @RigliMusic, Russian-language versions, as of June 2026. Most listeners are not Jewish. These reports are not added into one headline. Dated evidence can stay private.
“I am listening to Hava Nagila in your translation and crying… with joy. There is so much life, so much light in this. Now this is my anthem for every new day.”
A listener, in Russian
“I accidentally heard Hava Nagila at my neighbors’. It sounded so kind and life-affirming that for a month now my family, we are Russian, starts every new morning with it, all together.”
A listener, in Russian
The world on screen
Three places carry the whole film: MASA, an elite arts school of 600+ students just west of Times Square; OyPizza, the cafe across the square that is the ensemble's home base; and the mixed eleventh-grade class, The Twelve, who name themselves The Sharpies after Shapiro, take a student show they call Jewish The Musical to a live championship in the square, win, and hear the square sing the chorus back.
Hear it for yourself
Forever rebuilds an old wedding ritual into a communal song anyone can sing. It is the whole project in one track: inherited melody, contemporary pulse, public joy.
ForeverThe flagship demo · on YouTube
Prefer to browse? Hear the full songbook · read what listeners wrote.
The next dollar
The ask is a $25,000 recoupable development seed, not a grant: film development, a 10 to 15 minute AI-assisted proof-of-concept short, and the feature package that can travel to market. There is a door here for sponsors, production partners, and cultural partners. Fiscal sponsorship is not yet active.
Sponsor
Support the film and be named in its end titles. A name that travels with the work.
Sponsor →Production partners
Request the $25,000 third-party film-development package: proof-of-concept short, recordings, and plan.
Request the package →Future charitable support
Ask to be notified if a qualified fiscal-sponsorship path becomes available.
Request an update →Partner
Cultural orgs, schools, choirs, museums, music supervision, distribution.
Partner with us →A musical feature film in development, in the vein of La La Land
A contemporary movie musical about who gets to sing the old songs next.
Rebecca comes to her son Joseph Shapiro in a dream: the songs are the soul of his people, and he must carry them. He then opens her handwritten songbook. At MASA, an elite Manhattan arts school just west of Times Square, his mixed eleventh-grade class, most of them not Jewish, rebuilds those songs in English and carries them to a national stage.
Walter J. Kin, producer. Public production credit: Rigli Publishing.
JEWISH tells Jewish history through songs and dances, without a sermon. The songs already travel. The next dollar develops the film. Reviewing the FilmFreeway project? Start on the unlisted Reboot one-pager, or write doublesign28@gmail.com.
Proof of reach
About 7.7 million streams (LANDR, TuneCore, DistroKid) and about 4.5 million YouTube views on @RigliMusic, Russian-language versions, as of June 2026. Most listeners are not Jewish. These reports are not added into one headline. Dated evidence can stay private.
“I am listening to Hava Nagila in your translation and crying… with joy. There is so much life, so much light in this. Now this is my anthem for every new day.”
A listener, in Russian
“I accidentally heard Hava Nagila at my neighbors’. It sounded so kind and life-affirming that for a month now my family, we are Russian, starts every new morning with it, all together.”
A listener, in Russian
The world on screen
Three places carry the whole film: MASA, an elite arts school of 600+ students just west of Times Square; OyPizza, the cafe across the square that is the ensemble's home base; and the mixed eleventh-grade class, The Twelve, who name themselves The Sharpies after Shapiro, take a student show they call Jewish The Musical to a live championship in the square, win, and hear the square sing the chorus back.
Hear it for yourself
Forever rebuilds an old wedding ritual into a communal song anyone can sing. It is the whole project in one track: inherited melody, contemporary pulse, public joy.
ForeverThe flagship demo · on YouTube
Prefer to browse? Hear the full songbook · read what listeners wrote.
The next dollar
The ask is a $25,000 recoupable development seed, not a grant: film development, a 10 to 15 minute AI-assisted proof-of-concept short, and the feature package that can travel to market. There is a door here for sponsors, production partners, and cultural partners. Fiscal sponsorship is not yet active.
Sponsor
Support the film and be named in its end titles. A name that travels with the work.
Sponsor →Production partners
Request the $25,000 third-party film-development package: proof-of-concept short, recordings, and plan.
Request the package →Future charitable support
Ask to be notified if a qualified fiscal-sponsorship path becomes available.
Request an update →Partner
Cultural orgs, schools, choirs, museums, music supervision, distribution.
Partner with us →