‘Ooh, Life is Juicy!’ is an experimental and contemplative short film using humour, glamour, and a sense of spirituality to challenge myths and stereotypes around Jewish Women's identity. 

Drawing on western histories of glamour and Hollywood, in particular powerful Jewish icons such as Barbra Streisand as portrayed in the 1960s film 'Funny Girl', alongside “everyday” images of the filmmaker's parents at home, Goldwater explores the influence of these public/external and private/personal spheres to question the truths of the representation of Jews.

The film is therefore placed within the sites of films – both the cinema and in a living room where the television becomes the Silver Screen – as places where one experiences a desire for sameness and the reflection of one's difference. 

Using three sets of performers, Goldwater explores how performance functions within film, for example through the direct addressing of the audience; self-reflection; the difference between acting a character and recording the “real” person; the use of monologue and dialogue and traditions of stand-up comedy. 

The Parents represent Nourishment and a direct connection to cultural roots, they are a grounded force, they are “at home” with themselves and their television. 

The Two Women, Gitl and Dolly, meet in the cinema where they are usually looked at by others and now are confronted with one another. They discuss their differences and similarities through the simultaneously philosophical and humoured exchange of their individual recipes for Gefilte fish, a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish meal. Questions are answered with another question, affirming this dialogue as a beginning and a disruption of myths. 

The Woman in the Glitzy Red Dress is a woman manically uncertain and melodramatically searching for an understanding of her role and life as a contemporary Jew in England – she is caught in the middle. Sadly and hilariously, she defines and dismantles her identity throughout, without reaching a fixed conclusion. She is not only a result of being cast in a film but she is a film, she encompasses the emotions a film inspires. She is the narrator and protagonist of this journey, struggling with both the connection to, and the complexities of, the imaging of Jewish women and their sexualities.

Description source: publicity materials