Josh Seftel is a director/producer, who has made many documentaries on different subjects that all highlight his interest in TIKKUN OLAM, repairing the world. 

ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS focuses on families that lost a child at a school shooting. The film won an Academy Award and makes a meaningful and strong case for us as a society to work on gun control and whatever else we can do to prevent these horrible incidents. 

He also made a documentary called LOST AND FOUND about Romanian abandoned orphans adopted by Americans. And NEW YORK STATE OF MIND, highlighting celebrities and focusing on getting NYC back to life after Covid. Another documentary he directed and produced was called THE STEEPIST CLIMB about Delta airlines coming together during covid. Josh is definitely focused on TIKKUN OLAM in the subjects of his documentary work.

And now for the JEWISH content, in addition to his career as a documentary director, Josh produces personal conversations between him and his mother through face time. They are poignent, hilarious, and heart warming conversations, that are very touching and relatable.

This would be a wonderful event. Josh would visit your community in person and during his presentation he would zoom in his mother Pat.

Below is a description of what an event with Josh Seftel would be like including 2 links. He would talk about both his mother and his film career. 

Presentation

What started as a good Jewish son trying to stay close to his mother has become something neither of them quite expected. During the pandemic, director Josh Seftel began calling his mom – just to check in, just to connect. But somewhere along the way, the conversations took on a life of their own. They talked about life, family, memory, loss, and what it means to get older. They laughed. They disagreed. They said the things families don't always say. And before long, those conversations found their way to CBS News Sunday Morning, where their honest, tender, and often hilarious exchanges captivated a national audience.

Now, you have the rare opportunity to host Josh live. He'll zoom in his mother, bringing that same warmth and authenticity directly to your community.

But Josh is more than a devoted son. He is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker who recently won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short for All the Empty Rooms – a film that follows the bedrooms left untouched by families who lost children to school shootings. It moved audiences to tears and to action. It is, at its core, a film about grief, memory, and the refusal to look away.

It is, in other words, Tikkun Olam on screen.

An evening with Josh Seftel offers your community something rare: a filmmaker who will speak candidly about his career, his craft, and his abiding belief that stories – told honestly and with love – have the power to change how we see each other and the world. He'll share how he came to this work, what drives him to keep making films that matter, and what he's learned about human connection along the way.

And his mother? She couldn't be prouder. She'll tell you so herself.