Chabad Russian Center Gala Film

Feature Film | Chabad Russian Center – 2026 Gala

For the Chabad Russian Center’s 2026 Gala Dinner, I partnered with Director Rabbi Yaakov Garfinkle, to create a cinematic feature film chronicling their extraordinary journey, from humble beginnings in borrowed spaces to the completion of a permanent campus. Using archival footage from the earliest days of the Kellers’ shlichus, combined with newly filmed interviews of major contributors, founding families, and community leaders, the film traces the vision, sacrifice, and collective responsibility that built this institution.

Structured around five “gateways”, Vision, Prayer, Learning, Community, and Youth, the project blends storytelling, drone cinematography, emotional narration, and donor recognition into a powerful narrative experience. Premiered live at the gala, the film honored the families who laid the foundation while inspiring the next chapter of permanence for Jewish life in South Florida.

Rabbi and Rebbetzin Keller have built their community with warmth, steadiness, and real personal investment. In 2021, I had the opportunity to film their daughter’s Bat Mitzvah: a moment that reflected not just a family milestone, but the values they live every day. Being welcomed into that chapter made the 2026 gala film feel like a natural continuation of a story still unfolding: one rooted in family, commitment, and genuine connection.

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The story starts with a piece of land in Sunny Isles. Years later that land is a twenty million dollar building, and the film had to carry that distance.

What makes it work is the community around it, which is deeply devoted and loyal and draws people from all over the world. We interviewed people whose lives intersected with the center in ways you could not script, including a bank owner from Ukraine.

Not all of the footage is mine. The Moscow interview was filmed by a crew the center hired there and sent over, and I worked with a translator to bring that material in line with the rest of the film.

This project is one part of a longer story. Read the full case study here.