Jewish summer camp meets coming-of-age comedy in The Floaters, screening tonight as a Spotlight Centerpiece at the Twin Cities Film Fest.
The award-winning feature, which won Best Director at the Woodstock Film Festival, is infused with Jewish culture, symbolism and community. It’s a story that draws deeply from real-life camp experiences, and the filmmakers behind it.
Set at a beloved but struggling Jewish summer camp, The Floaters follows a down-on-her-luck musician who takes a last-ditch job from her overachieving best friend: supervising a group of misfit campers. As the camp prepares for a high-stakes competition with a longtime rival, the mismatched crew must overcome their differences to save the only place they’ve ever truly belonged.
Producer Shai Korman, who co-produced the film with his sisters Lily and Becky, said the story was inspired by the influential women in their lives – many of whom they met through Jewish community spaces like summer camp.
“We wanted to tell a story where we had Jewish women reflecting the amazing women who are influences on our lives,” Korman said. “I have my two sisters, my mother, my mentors at work, my mentors at Jewish summer camp – and we wanted to center those types of women.”
He describes the film as a funny and charming coming-of-age story that highlights the importance of the people who build community and the enduring lifelong elements that follow.
For Korman, the film is deeply personal. Not only did he meet his best friend of over 30 years at Camp Tel Yehuda, the same camp where his parents met and fell in love, but the movie was also filmed on location there.
“There’s this journey you go on being with other people, and that’s something that lives with so many people, especially in the Jewish world, for the rest of their life,” he said. “I know people who still vacation with their camp friends. Some even married their camp partners.”
Visually, The Floaters showcases pluralistic Jewish practice, with scenes depicting tefillin, Havdalah, and kosher observance.
The film features a cast of 32 Jewish actors, highlighting the diversity within the Jewish community.
“There are Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews, Latino Jews, Asian Jews and Black Jews,” Korman said. “Our cast is probably the biggest, most diverse Jewish cast ever assembled.”
Korman said the diversity wasn’t part of a checklist – it happened naturally through their commitment to telling an authentic Jewish story.
“We wanted to reflect our community the way it actually looks – not necessarily the way the outside world thinks it does,” he said.
Korman says the Jewish Summer Camp backdrop serves as the thread that ties so many themes in Jewish life together.
The goal: to transport audiences back to that place in their heart where they can feel the warmth and connection that camp gave us all, if only for a few hours.
“I want people to feel like they went to camp,” Korman said. “To feel that magic again.”
Tue. 10/21 at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets $30 – TCFF Centerpiece Film!
Marcus West End Cinema in St. Louis Park
Q & A with director Rachel Israel following screening