Passion and love, sensuality and graphic sex – and all in Yiddish! Celia Dropkin wrote and published poetry in the 1920s and ’30s, and viewers of this film will discover that her work is daring even now. She shocked many of her contemporaries, but several of them recognized her as a talented, innovative, and groundbreaking poet. Over time, as more of her poems were discovered, she garnered acclaim.

This film is about Dropkin’s poetry, and also about her – a strong woman who dared to push the envelope and craft bold poems even before the era of contemporary women’s poetry. Excerpts from her diaries and poems are interspersed with interviews with poets, translators, and literary scholars (including leading Israeli intellectual Menachem Perry), and some poems are accompanied by original animation by Yaron Shin (a.k.a. Jewboy). Some of Dropkin’s poems inspired Jewish musicians whose work is also included in this film, which is a sensitive portrayal of her daring poetry and the fascinating woman herself.

Opening lecture: Yaron Shin (Jewboy).