The Sacred Society and other Shorts

Benny Zelkowicz’s The Sacred Society uses interviews with local members of the Chevra Kadisha (a Jewish burial society) to explore their deep personal and philosophical reasons for engaging in such difficult work (Benny Zelkowicz, 2025) . Employing a highly tactile and visually poetic sand animation technique, the film recreates a tahara, the ritual cleansing of a body before burial, while interviews address the universal questions surrounding death. 

Zelkowicz is the recipient of a 2024 Ohio Humanities Film Fellows at the Wexner Center grant, and the film was supported by the center’s Film/Video Studio. He has more than 20 years of experience as a character animator for such films and shows as The Lego Movie, The Simpsons, Robot Chicken, and more. Zelkowicz is also a lecturer in Ohio State’s Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design. 

Also included in the program are: The Erlking (2002), a sand animation adaptation of the Goethe poem; Made by Molly (2012); and Caroline Leaf’s landmark The Street (1976), a great influence on Zelkowicz. 

Zelkowicz joins us for a Q&A following the program. (program approx. 75 mins.)