Goy Vey!

by Jill Duff-Hoppes

For filmmaker Talia Osteen, the best part about storytelling is upending stereotypes and challenging the way people think.

“What I love to do is to flip expectations and cause people to think about things differently,” says Talia, a product of Longwood, who now has a successful career in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. “I want to use storytelling to make a connection and to reach people, and sometimes that’s by making them laugh.”

Talia illustrates this concept perfectly with The Shabbos Goy,  a short film she wrote and directed about an Orthodox Jew who finds herself in an extremely awkward situation. To get out of her embarrassing predicament, the young woman turns to a total stranger for assistance.

A Shabbos goy is a non-Jew who performs certain tasks that religious law prohibits a Jew from doing on the Sabbath. The more succinct and comedic description, according to the film, is “a human loophole.”

The film’s slightly racy plot involves an electronic device that the central character is desperate to shut down but is forbidden to turn off herself during Shabbat. When she spots a young black man walking down the street, she cajoles him into coming to her rescue.

“The Shabbos Goy is a comedy, but it’s really about two people from different worlds who collide in an unexpected and surprising way,” Talia says.

Clocking in at about seven minutes, the film was executive produced by Paul Feig, the powerhouse comedy director who has helmed hit movies such as Bridesmaids and The Heat.

Talia’s comedy short has been screened at numerous events since the fall of 2019 including film festivals in Austin, Napa Valley, Denver, Omaha, and Los Angeles. Locally, The Shabbos Goy was screened in August at the Florida Film Festival at the Enzian Theater in Maitland, and it will be shown on September 17 at the Orlando International Film Festival, also at the Enzian.

Writing and directing a short film are just the latest in a long list of Talia’s creative accomplishments, which include acting, singing, and film producing.

Talia became a professional actress at the age of 10, after an agent spotted her in a talent show at a local mall and encouraged her to audition for The Reppies, a TV show in which she appeared. She was also one-third of a popular vocal trio called Visions, which got its start at Congregation Ohev Shalom, the synagogue that Talia’s family attended in Maitland. Visions, which toured extensively and released several CDs, reunited in 2018 to perform for Ohev Shalom’s 100th anniversary celebration.

During one of her acting gigs, Talia realized that she really wanted to work behind the camera, not in front of it. She had been cast in the 2001 movie Things Behind the Sun, which was a revelation to her because the film was directed by a female – independent filmmaker Allison Anders.

“It was the first time I’d been directed by a woman, and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I would like to do that,’” says Talia, who subsequently enrolled in film school at the University of Southern California.

After graduating from the school’s Cinema-Television Production program, where she studied directing and producing, Talia directed the documentary film Blindsided, about an Orlando boy who was going blind. Next, she shifted her focus to producing and developing movies for a film production company based in New York City. Then, she switched things up yet again, going on tour with her band, an indie folk-pop duo called The Wellspring.

Talia and her bandmate Dov Rosenblatt eventually transitioned from performing out on the road to composing music for TV and film, including for The Shabbos Goy. The time she spent touring with her friend Dov, who is Modern Orthodox, inspired Talia to use the concept of Shabbat goys and other workarounds as fodder for a lighthearted comedy.

“I have a deep respect for the dedication to being shomer Shabbat and taking that time to stop and rest,” Talia says. “I also thought there was a lot of humor to be had because, any time there are rules, there are always ways to bend them.”

At first, Talia was a little worried about how the film and its premise would be received, especially in the Orthodox community. But as it turns out, there was no need for concern.

The Shabbos Goy has been screened at several Jewish movie festivals, including the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, where it won Best Narrative Short Film. Now, Talia is developing the short into a feature-length project.

“The theme is edgy for some, and so I wasn’t sure what the reaction would be,” she says. “But so far, the response has been really positive. It’s been really fun to see it with an audience and hear people laugh.”