“If Anna Deavere Smith, Sarah Koenig, and Joey Soloway wrote a self-reflexive musical about finance and religion, it might approach [this] film’s impish, mystical spirit…it’s a blessing.”  

—The Atlantic

An artistic excommunication set on Wall Street in 2008, A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADOFF is a mystical meta-musical about the greatest financial fraud in history, as seen through the eyes of musician/poet Alicia Jo Rabins.

A hybrid of musical memoir and narrative fantasy, A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADOFF tells the story of Madoff and the system that allowed him to function for decades through the eyes of musician/poet Alicia Jo Rabins, who watches the financial crash from her 9th floor studio in an abandoned office building on Wall Street. Fueled by her growing obsession, real-life interviews transform into music videos, ancient spiritual texts become fevered fantasies of synchronized swimming, and a vivid, vulnerable work of art is born from the unique perspective of an artist watching the global financial collapse up close.

Alicia J. Rose - Director’s bio:

Director/Photographer Alicia J. Rose has directed over 3 dozen music videos for artists like First Aid Kit, Cake and Bob Mould as well as visually branding popular bands like The Decemberists and many others with her imaginative portraiture. Rose spent 20 years in the indie music business before turning her eye to filmmaking in 2008. Her approach to directing utilizes her unique sense of visual style, grounded humor and intimate storytelling to deliver authentic narratives that resonate deeply with viewers.  

The scripted comedic web series “The Benefits of Gusbandry” was her first foray into digital episodic storytelling and over its two seasons received wide acclaim from press outlets like The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, A/V Club, PASTE, OUT and others. She recently wrapped her feature directorial debut - hybrid narrative/musical A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADOFF and is supporting a 2021 festival run. Rose lives in Portland Oregon. 

Creator/Star Bio:

Alicia Jo Rabins is a writer, musician, composer, performer and Torah teacher. She creates multi-genre works of experimental beauty which explore the intersection of ancient wisdom texts with everyday life. Rabins’ first collection of poetry, Divinity School,won the 2015 APR/Honickman First Book Prize; her second collection, Fruit Geode, was published in 2018 by Augury Books and was a finalist for the Jewish Book Award.  As a musician and performer, Rabins is the creator and performer of Girls in Trouble, an indie-folk song cycle about the complicated lives of Biblical women with accompanying curriculum, and A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, which began as a one-woman chamber-rock opera and is now an award-winning independent feature film currently on the festival circuit.

Rabins is also a coffee drinker, plant lover, DIY bar/bat/b’nai mitzvah tutor, and ritualist. She tours internationally as a violinist, singer, lecturer and performer from her home base in Portland, Oregon, where she lives with her husband and two kids. You can call her Alicia.