Mini Foodie Film Festival: The Sturgeon Queens

Produced at the 100th anniversary of Russ and Daughters, the iconic Lower East Side lox and herring emporium comes this heartwarming documentary that tells the story of the Joel Russ, a penniless Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe, and his wife Bella, who sold herring from a pushcart on the Lower East Side, and then opened a smoked fish store at 179 Houston Street, where the store still does business. Rather than a conventional narrator, the filmmakers bring together six colorful longtime fans of the store, in their 80s and 90s, who sit around a table of fish reading the script in the style of a Passover Seder.

Featuring extensive interviews with two of the original daughters for whom the store was named, now 100 and 92 years old, and interviews with prominent enthusiasts of the store including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, chef Mario Batali, New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin, and 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer.