A recent film screening at Congregation Sherith Israel offered more than a cinematic experience to viewers, it opened the door to a deeply personal story and often complex conversation about Jewish identity. Around 70 people attended the documentary, Son of a Seeker, created by local filmmaker Kai Balin, which takes viewers on his evolving relationship with Judaism.
Balin grew up in Vancouver, Jewish but not religious. The film shares home videos of him dressed up as a rabbi and running through skits with siblings. These videos show a kid with energy and humor, proud to be Jewish. Over time, he felt a little more distant from Judaism.
“October 7th was kind of that wakeup call. I was also listening to certain podcasts, more on the religious end,” Balin said. “I was like, maybe this is the truth. Maybe this (Orthodox) is the way of Judaism.”
One Shabbat, Balin joined his father at the Orthodox synagogue. When they returned home, he joked with his mother who he said was born and raised Jewish and worked at the Jewish Day School in Vancouver.
“I said, ‘Oh, you should come with us,’ and she’s not a shul goer, and she said, ‘Why would I go to a place that doesn’t see me as a Jew?” Balin said. “So that kind of threw me for a big crisis.”
On a visit to Israel in March 2024, he described feeling “quite lost.” Being at the Kotel became another turning point for Balin. As someone who had a passion for filmmaking in college and had captured moments of life through a camera lens, he found himself being pulled back to filmmaking on this trip.
"It was going to be more interviewing people from the whole spectrum. What does Judaism mean to them? From atheists to reform, to conservative, and I did do a lot of these interviews,” he said. “But in the end, the story kind of became more just this personal journey and then also featuring my dad's own story with his spiritual journey and his parents being (Holocaust) survivors.”
A raw and vulnerable story, the project was filmed and edited over ten months in different countries. It’s been screened in Canada, Israel, Poland, and now Nashville for its US debut.
Filmmaker Kai Balin during a Q&A post screening
For Sherith’s Rabbi Saul Strosberg he said the film resonates.
“At our shul, there’s a strong recognition that every person is on a Jewish journey,” Strosberg said. “We encourage that for somebody to be in a growth mindset or exploration mindset is to understand, realize, admit, share that they are on a journey.”
Audience member Michael Sanderson met Balin on a trip to Israel and said he started off as a friend who wanted to hear his story, describing the film as compelling and introspective.
“It’s riveting. The longer it goes, the more it draws you in,” he said. “It makes you think about your own story.”
The hour-long documentary doesn’t offer easy answers. It embraces the tension in searching. For Balin, one of the most liberating beliefs has been, “To accept where you are in this moment but not be attached to it.”
After the film Strosberg moderated a Q&A which Balin said the dialogue after is always fascinating to him.
“Two Jews, three opinions, and people can get heated with some things. But the dialogue is really where the growth happens when we're all trying to understand ourselves,” Balin said.
The film will be screened again at Congregation Micah on Thursday, June 4. Visit the link for more details, https://congregationmicah.shulcloud.com/form/son-of-seeker
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