Short film

Surf + Turf

2011 · 25 min

A thoughtful, essayistic documentary that observes a community's tensions and contradictions, asking viewers to sit with uncomfortable questions about belonging and class.

Directed by: Abigail Child

Overview: Contemporary ambiguities on the Jersey shore: the look is secular, the lifestyle capitalist, the religion orthodox. 40,000 Syrian Jews have moved into a landscape previously occupied by Irish, Italian, and the quite different sect of Askenazi Jews. The “unmelted pot” of America’s small towns is set within memory and contemporary oppositions. What does it mean to have class in America? What does it mean to be Jewish? I think of conflicts between Israel and Palestine, Serbia and Bosnia, India and Pakistan: neighboring families and races split apart by religion. Extreme poverty enforces the tribal, while extreme wealth maintains it. Surf and Turf provides no easy answers but raises issues that have too long stayed behind closed doors: what do we say when we think no one is listening?
How it feels: Satirical, earnest, melancholic and tense. Measured and demanding.
About: Identity, class, faith, isolation
Content: Mild language. No violence, gore or sexual content.
Note: Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown