Champlain College: Erik Esckilsen

Narrowing the Focus

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:30:36 -0500

Since returning from Jerusalem a couple of weeks ago now, I’ve had the chance to digest the film recommendations and other insights I gleaned on the trip. I’ve also had opportunities to discuss my research with friends and colleagues, the result of which is a better sense of how I might design a coherent, cohesive course on such a complex, complicated matter as political cinema in Israel/Palestine and Iran. Two themes have emerged in these recent contemplations and conversations. 1. THE STATESIDE PIECE I don’t, as yet, have any films in mind that articulate in any substantial way the historical relationships of the U.S.A. with Israel/Palestine and Iran. This came to my attention when I was still in Jerusalem, lingering at the Begin Center. In the center lobby hangs a poster-size photo essay of the historic Camp David Accords of 1978, an episode I remember only vaguely from my teens. Upon my return to my office in Burlington, I rustled up my VHS copy of The Fifty Years War, a pretty good PBS documentary on the entire regional conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, which covers this period of the late 1970s in some detail. So, now I wonder, where are the narrative films—the fictional films—that tell stories of this period and other watershed moments in the relationships that now exist between my country and those under investigation? Where, for example, are the narrative films that illuminate the period around the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran? They're out there. I just have to keep searching. Okay, I'm just going to say it. I'd show a class 2007's Persepolis and feel good about it. This animated film, adapted by writers Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi from Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, actually does a pretty good job of describing, in broad strokes, the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979. In essence a coming-of-age story, the film also offers a look at the impact of Islamic law in people's daily lives. Sure, Persepolis is a cartoon in the literal sense, but students who see this film will nevertheless find that its depictions of Iranian life reverberate in other films from and about Iran, narrative films and documentaries alike. Paronnaud and Satrapi 2. LESS IS MORE I’ve lately been mulling over the way some films use an intimate, even confined, setting to articulate broad, universal issues. I should credit colleagues Eric Ronis and Kelly Thomas here, as we shared the Alumni Auditorium the other day during a workshop session for Eric’s upcoming one-man show, Things I’m Not Supposed to Say. Even with only one other audience member present (Kelly), I felt that sense of complicity in the events unfolding on stage that I’ve come to expect from live theater—to a greater degree than from any other form, even cinema. I was reminded after Eric’s rehearsal that my contacts in Israel had mentioned several films that illuminate broad political issues through a lens focused narrowly on a single location. 2008 — Waltz with Bashir By Writer-Director Ari Folman The whole film takes place in a bar; although, through flashbacks, the story ventures to other scenes. 1997 — Taste of Cherry (in Farsi, Ta'm e guilass) By Writer-Director Abbas Kiarostami While I don’t anticipate screening this film in my class, I’ll make it available to students to view on their own. The entire film takes place inside a car—talk about close quarters—driven by a man looking for someone to help him commit suicide. 1992 — Life According to Aqva (in Hebrew, Chayim Al-Pi Agfa, Ha-) By Writer-Director Assi Dayan (son of the Israeli war hero and former Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan) Again, the entire film takes place in a bar through which walks an assortment of characters representing Israel’s diverse population. Moshe Dayan (1915-1981) 1984 — Beyond the Walls (In Hebrew, Me'Ahorei Hasoragim) By Director Uri Barbash This film takes place entirely in a prison where inmates are forced to deal with one another. Uri Klein, film critic with Ha’Aretz newspaper, praised the way the simple, basic, stripped-down qualities of this setting and story lay bare the complexities of getting along.

Now comes the tricky part...

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:33:30 -0500

“When the Violin�? When The violin Can forgive the past It starts singing. When the violin can stop worrying About the future You will become Such a drunk laughing nuisance That God Will then lean down And start combing you into His Hair. When the violin can forgive Every wound caused by Others The heart starts Singing. —Hafiz (c. 1320-1389), Persian poet from The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master Translations by Daniel Ladansky New York: Penguin Compass, 1999 NOW COMES THE TRICKY PART COURSE TITLE: “Make Films, Not War: Political Cinema in Israel, Palestine, and Iran�? When I first conceived of this course, my expectations about what it might cover were more or less what one might gather from the course title—that is, a look at how films in each of the regions under investigation advance political positions on current issues. To provide adequate context for understanding these “issues�? and their importance, however, I must first try to provide a concise contemporary history of each region, ideally through film: * The history of Israel and Palestine from, say, 1948 (the year of Israeli statehood) to the present * The history of Iran from, say, 1979 (the year of the Islamic revolution) to the present Of course, appreciating even these historical windows requires some background knowledge. For example, the story of modern Israel/Palestine should probably reach back at least to the First Zionist Congress in 1897 (a time when film production was pretty minimal, since motion picture technology was still in its infancy). Likewise, the Islamic revolution would not have been possible without something or someone against which to revolt, namely, Shah Rheza Pahlavi, who came to power in 1941 (when popular Iranian films were often screen adaptations of Islamic fables and legends). Written texts, I suspect, will be required to fill out the picture of each region in this way. This is precisely as it should be. In a course designed to foster a deeper understanding of such an important and complex part of the world as the Middle East, film cannot be a substitute for other texts. Still, the human side of an issue that a film focuses on can enhance one’s understanding in profound ways. Thomas Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem is a great introductory text on who’s who in Israel/Palestine and Lebanon. Follow a few chapters of that book with, oh, Amos Gitai’s Kadosh and Hany Abu-Assad’s Paradise Now, and one sees Orthodox Jewish life and the plight of Palestinians living in the West Bank, respectively, in a more intense light. The biggest challenge in developing this course may be in striking an effective balance between broad historical overviews of each region and intimate portraits of daily life, between rigorous written texts and fluid, immersive film narratives. So far, thanks to my contacts in Israel, I believe I’m on the right track. Perhaps you could help me out. I welcome any suggestions for texts, films, and music. For that matter, share with me your hummus recipe. Post a comment.

Day 10: Jerusalem -- See you at the movies

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:46:24 -0500

I'd been hoping to make a sound recording like the one below (soundtrack for the short film) while I was in Jerusalem. To do so required some hanging around near the Wailing Wall and outside the al-Aqsa Mosque (it was closed). I felt like I was lingering for a chance to spot a rare bird. I asked the security guard outside the Wailing Wall complex if he knew what time the muezzin usually began the day's second call to prayer. He said he wasn't sure but that, if I wished, he'd call Allah and ask Him, which was perhaps a gentler way of saying, "Stupid tourist, you realize my job is to keep terrorists from getting in here, right? Now move along." HOMEWARD BOUND It’s time to say goodbye to Israel—until we meet again. My stay here was brief but productive, and I was able to explore Jerusalem a little bit. If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I have refrained from delving directly into the political situation. I figure you hardly need me for political commentary when you can access, at the click of a button, volumes of commentary on what’s happening among and between, say, Washington, Teheran, Israel, and Palestine. I have been tempted to step onto the soapbox, though, as my time here has coincided with a spate of events on the world scene involving Israel. To wit: • At the start of the week, as news outlets were reporting that Taliban fighters had killed nine U.S. soldiers, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was brokering improved diplomatic relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. • Israel exchanged five Hezbollah prisoners of war and the bodies of some 200 other terrorists for the bodies of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, whom Hezbollah agents abducted across the Israel-Lebanon border. The kidnapping ignited the month-long Lebanon war in summer 2006. (IDF soldier Gilad Schalit remains in Hamas custody in Gaza.) • Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under intense scrutiny for allegedly accepting cash donations from U.S. businessman Morris Talansky and others. Olmert, a former mayor of Jerusalem, has yet to be indicted, but the scandal has severely damaged his public standing. • The Bush administration took a tentative diplomatic step toward relations with Iran by sending Undersecretary for Political Affairs William Burns to nuclear talks between Iran and the European Union in Geneva. WHAT'S FILM GOT TO DO WITH IT? The above bullet points were/are the political matters of the moment during my stay. My chief concern has been with more general political conditions that characterize life in this region, creating backdrops for film narratives and subjects drawn into focus in documentary films. Taking all of my conversations with filmmakers, critics, and scholars into consideration, I arrive at few stable conclusions about what’s going on here and why. I might go so far as to say that my perspective on Israel/Palestine has been complicated by the insights of those who live here. Perhaps this is as it should be. What has impressed me most about the Jerusalem International Film Festival is the way this cultural event fosters dialogue on some of the most pressing issues facing this country. Israeli filmmakers are willing to present films critical of such things as IDF actions in the Palestinian territories and discrimination against Arab Israelis within Israel’s national borders. Audiences attend the films, applaud them, and discuss them. The freedom of speech, or whatever they call it in Hebrew, thrives here (although the news media is censored for issues sensitive to national security). Some of the most compelling films, however, are pure fictions focusing on the personal—love stories, comedies, and dramas about, as Ha’Aretz newspaper film critic Uri Klein noted in our conversation (see Day 7), finding a place in a society of “others.�? Or maybe I should spell it Others. You know what I mean. The story of Israel, whether I “get�? it or not, holds me in its thrall. To be in a place such as Jerusalem, a kind of crucible of coexistence among Jews and Arabs of all religious affiliations and political persuasions, is to behold the drama of a nation coming of age. That this nation’s military is the envy of the Middle East, and some of its neighbors seek its destruction, make the stakes in this evolution rather high. Adding to the dramatic tension in this scenario is the prevailing attitude here that Israel need not seek anyone’s permission to defend itself. The country's track record in this area is very good. While I find the recent op-ed piece in the New York Times by Ben-Gurion University Professor Benny Morris a bit alarmist, he conveys clearly Israel's command of their fate. (Thanks, Tom French, for the link.) To sum things up then, I believe that Israel is an increasingly important story to follow. I daresay this little country roughly the size of New Jersey has more control over what will happen between the U.S., Iran, and nations throughout the Middle East than U.S. media reports would indicate. A course on political cinema in Israel/Palestine and Iran, such as the one I've proposed to teach in fall 2009, will, I hope, illuminate dimensions of this unfolding narrative that are overlooked or obscured by simplistic, skewed media accounts and misconceptions about this region. This visit to Jerusalem has inspired me anew and generated many good ideas.

Days 8 and 9: Jerusalem -- Falling Action

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:59:29 -0500

My time here is drawing to a close. Just two full days remain on my itinerary, the first a Muslim day of rest and the second a Jewish day of rest. I can feel the time flying by. My research has gone well, perhaps a little better than I’d expected. Just today I made two very good research contacts at Hebrew University: Dr. Yehuda Moraly and the university’s media librarian, whom I know only as Wendy (we didn’t get a chance to meet face-to-face). Moraly and I met on campus, and he made some recommendations for films that I could include in my course syllabus. Yehuda Moraly Moraly’s picks include a number of films dealing with religious themes. I was surprised to hear him say that he’s not a fan of the 1999 film Kadosh, one of my favorite films on Israeli culture, in particular the Orthodox Jewish community of Mea Shearim, a Jerusalem neighborhood. Moraly went so far as to suggest the director Amos Gitai’s work borders on anti-Israel. I’ll be interested to check out some of the films Moraly recommended. I’m grateful to Moraly for taking time to meet with me and for offering to help me build my contacts on the subject of Israeli cinema. He seemed to relish the opportunity to show off the Hebrew University campus, and I can’t blame him. Sure, the Champlain College campus has its scenic spots, but check out this view from a patio next to the Hebrew University faculty club (…faculty club?): al-Haram al-Sharif

Day 7: Jerusalem -- Looking in the Mirror

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:40:09 -0500

Sculpture at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem (I lost the sculptor's name, but I'll get it.) Today was another successful research day, thanks to Uri Klein, film critic with Ha’Aretz newspaper. Klein is a well-known voice in the Israeli media, and in an hour’s time, he managed to bring me up to speed on what’s happening in Israeli cinema today—and what happened over the past 50 years or so. I’m grateful that Klein, his colleague Aviva Lori (see Day 6), and Aner Preminger (see Day 4, July 12) would be so open to helping out a stranger looking for information on their film culture. Uri Klein If Klein had merely given me a list of film recommendations for the course I’m developing on political cinema in this region—which, in fact, he has offered to do—the meeting would’ve been productive. Our conversation covered much more terrain, however, venturing as far back as Israel cinema in the 1950s, when, as Klein puts it, “Each film was a huge event and part of the Zionist endeavor.�? Israelis were virtually obligated to attend them, he adds. Contrast this with movie-going in the 1960s and 1970s, when Israeli cinema fell out of favor among Israelis. Klein made reference to comedies of that period, comparing them to a type of Balkan cheese-filled pastry (I should’ve asked him to spell that for me). He also noted that films shifted focus from being about Israel as a collective to more personal stories. During this period, some Israeli filmmakers were honing their craft in Europe or studying the emerging cinematic styles in Europe, such as the French New Wave and modernism in Italian cinema. To cut to the chase, if you’ll pardon the pun, the current state of Israeli cinema Klein describes as a synthesis of film styles and emphases on personal as well as social narratives. What one sees on the screen, he adds, is a much more accurate depiction of what one sees in Israeli society—not the “mythical�? unity that some would promulgate but, rather, a kind of mirror held up to Israel’s diversity. At the heart of the project, he says, is a cinematic examination of identity. What does it mean to be Israeli? What does it mean to be Jewish? What does it mean to be Muslim in Israel? What does it mean to be Muslim near Israel? What does it mean to be Ashkenazi, Sephardic, secular, Orthodox, gay, straight, rich, poor, Orthodox and gay—and to get along with everyone else who’s not like you? You get the picture. As Klein says, Israeli is “a series of others that deal with each other all the time.�? And almost every contemporary film is “a world in itself: the search for a place in Israeli society.�? Given such rich dramatic material, it’s no surprise to me that Israeli movies of the past decade or so have distinguished themselves on the global film scene. NEVER FORGET—IN LIFE OR IN FILM One of the persistent themes in Israeli cinema is the Holocaust. I think it’s safe to say that this tragic chapter in human history holds a place in the collective Israeli consciousness. Contemporary filmmakers, even among the younger generation, take up the subject. Klein made special note of one such film, Walk on Water by director Eytan Fox. Here’s the trailer from the Internet Movie Database. Following my meeting with Klein, I took a trip out to Yad Vashem, the museum complex of the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. Yad Vashem is a must on any visit to Israel, in my opinion. While the mood is understandably somber throughout the grounds, museums, exhibitions, and research facilities, the facility tells this tragic story in ways that no movie ever could. Memorial to the Deportees Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

Day 6: Jerusalem -- Cinema in Context

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:31:03 -0500

A mural on the wall of the old Jerusalem train station. POLITICS AND CULTURE Thanks to Aviva Lori, senior journalist with Ha’Aretz newspaper, for an informative discussion this evening on the arts’ role in the collective political consciousness of Israel. Lori, who studied film and television at Tel Aviv University, covers events, people, and culture. She is also a professor at a college in Tel Aviv and has been a visiting professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts (teaching about journalism in a time of conflict). Aviva Lori Given the breadth of Lori’s professional experience, I hoped that she could help me better understand the social and political context within which cinema takes place in Israel. She also shared insights on generational differences between her and my generation and that of our students with respects to political consciousness and film tastes. Finally, she made a must-see recommendation: Waltz with Bashir, which isn’t screening at the Jerusalem International Film Festival but I expect to be able to see somewhere soon, perhaps at the Montreal World Film Festival later this summer. I’ll share here a few points that struck me as noteworthy: • To my question about how people formulate views on political issues in Israel, Lori cited the news media and education, and she added that required military service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) essentially guarantees that everyone knows something about what’s going on between Israel and its neighbors. (Most men and single women are inducted into the IDF at 18, women for two years and men for three, and reserve duty extends to age 24 for single women and 51 for men. Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/IDF.html) • Lori hastened to add, though, that increasingly youth are ducking out of service by feigning mental illness—not in numbers to constitute a trend, necessarily, but something that was relatively unheard of a generation ago, when failure to serve would have been the source of shame. • Lori points to the Israeli war in Lebanon in the early 1980s as the point when Israel society failed to reach a consensus on the war effort. She recalled friends’ stories of coming back from fighting in Lebanon to find Tel Aviv café culture in full swing, contrasting with the Six-Day War of 1967, when away from the battlefields people generally put down what they were doing to pitch in. • Naturally, I thought of my Champlain College students, wondering how required military service might shape their interest in world affairs. As Lori noted, the IDF is a melting pot bringing together Israelis of diverse ethnic, religious, political, and economic backgrounds. In my experience teaching in Tel Aviv, I found that people’s service in the IDF is when some form lifelong friendships. I’m not taking a position on required military service here, just mulling over this whole matter of motivation to learn about another part of the world and about other worldviews. • When asked about the political culture in Israel today, Lori suggested that Israelis are generally media savvy—and “very involved emotionally in the conflict�? between Israel and its neighbors. The tenor of political debate, however, seems to have softened a bit, she says, with people taking more moderate positions than they might have adopted even a few years ago. The past few days have seen relatively upbeat headlines about warmer diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority and even Hezbollah (and rather downbeat headlines about Prime Minister Ehud Olmert). • That said, Lori sees weariness setting in among people who opt out of the political discussion. They're “sick and tired of the conflict and don’t want to be bothered with the reality,�? she says. She remains optimistic, though she claims this can’t be helped. “It’s my personal fault that I’m an optimist,�? she says. “It’s not a point of view. I’m optimistic about many things.�? A YEARNING FOR THE NATIVE PLACE After our interview, Lori and I watched a documentary film called Lake 68 by Irit Shamgar, a friend of Lori’s. The film documents Shamgar's family reunion at a lake in Poland, where they reflect on what life was like for Jews there in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. Some of the family members left for Israel and other countries at that time, while the family patriarch, a proud communist, stayed behind despite the mistreatment he would receive. As I made my way back to my hotel, I marveled at the intricacies and complications of Israel’s political history. One tends to think of the Six-Day War, for example, as pitting Israel against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. A fuller understanding, however, must take into consideration the fact that the Arab parties to the conflict had the support of Eastern Bloc countries, hence the retaliation against Jews in such countries as Poland for allying themselves with Israel. A CONFESSION Finally, in the interest of full disclosure, one of the movies I saw today has nothing at all to do with the Middle East, not directly. I’m talking about Encounters at the End of the World, the latest from director Werner Herzog. The film documents the work and lives of a hardy group of people in Antartica. The underwater footage alone is worth the price of admission. In the narration, Herzog insists that this is not another movie about penguins, but one of the film’s most existential moments focuses on a penguin that seems to be questioning the meaning of it all. Here’s a link to the Internet Movie Database trailer.

Day 5: Jerusalem -- Moonlight Cinema

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:19:02 -0500

Not much to report today. I spent much of my time this morning preparing for the days ahead. I have a spate of interviews scheduled, beginning tomorrow evening, some with critics from Ha’Aretz newspaper, one with a Hebrew University professor, and another with a filmmaker. I did find a little time, however, to walk around Jerusalem. I explored a neighborhood known as the Russian Compound, which struck me as typical of this metropolis of some 700,000 people: The traffic moves briskly along the main thoroughfares, and here and there a pedestrian market street connects them, sometimes leading to a square such as this one: The highlight of the day was this evening’s screening of The Band’s Visit by Israeli writer/director Eran Kolirin. This film has played in theaters around the world already, including a short run at Merrill’s Roxy Cinema in Burlington, but I was unable to see it until tonight. The story involves a police orchestra from Alexandria, Egypt, who get lost on a trip to Israel, where they are to play at an inauguration ceremony for a new Arab cultural center. Way off track and running short on time and NIS (New Israeli Shekels), they must humbly ask for assistance from a group of Israelis. As events play out over the course of a night, the kindness is exchanged in both directions. Here’s a link to the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) trailer. Tonight’s screening was held at an outdoor venue across the street from my hotel, and the Israeli rock band Hatavlinim warmed up the show. Of course, the setting made the film especially memorable, but its poignancy, sweetness, and subtle humor might just put The Band's Visit in my top 10. I need to sleep on that. In the morning, I anticipate a reunion with the ubiquitous Jerusalem salad, aka Arab salad, aka cucumbers and tomatoes with a dash of mint. Then it’s some tourism and back to the movies—I mean, back to work. This is a business trip, after all.

Day 4: Jerusalem -- Sunday Blues

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:30:11 -0500

Busy work day today. Not much tourism. Pardon the sentence fragments. I spent the early part of the day interviewing Dr. Aner Preminger, a filmmaker and professor of cinema at Hebrew University and Sapir Academic College. Preminger’s fiction/narrative, documentary, and short films have screened internationally, and he has also worked in Israeli television. Preminger was kind enough to meet me at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and answer some questions. I include here a brief (2 minutes) excerpt from our conversation. MAKING MOVIES, MAKING FRIENDS, MAKING PEACE In the afternoon, I attended a special screening of films produced as part of the 10th annual “I Am You Are�? showcase, which celebrates movie-making collaborations between Jewish and Arab teenagers. Events such as these are always moving for the sense of optimism they instill that future generations in this region will carry the cause of peace forward. I must admit, though, that the highlight of the event was not a film at all but, rather, a live musical performance by a trio of Arab rappers from East Jerusalem who call themselves G-Town. Individually, they are B-Boy (aka Mohmad Mughrabi), Error (Al'a Barhmieh), and K.O. (Faddi Ammus). After the event, I asked them if I could post a bootleg recording of their rap to YouTube, and they said sure. Then they sent me to their Myspace page, where I found this much sharper sample of an October 2007 performance of the same song on the same stage.
Here’s a photo of East Jerusalem taken from Hebron Road, between the Cinematheque and my hotel. Below are two photos of the Cinematheque. I realize that they're probably not the most compelling images of the Middle East, but I can't get over what an amazing place the Cinematheque is to see a movie. I do a little volunteer work with the Vermont International Film Festival, and I'm jealous. I'll admit it. I have a few more interviews scheduled for the days ahead—and more films to see, of course. One of these days, I also want to get to the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Temple Mount, and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Check back in a day or so. Cheers.

Day 3: Jerusalem -- Shabat Shalom

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:39:11 -0500

Here's a short (about one minute) video postcard I shot yesterday morning while walking around Jerusalem. Please forgive the image degradation—an unavoidable (at least to my knowledge) result of compressing files for the Web. IMPOLITE LAUGHTER A joke makes a hole that the truth can whistle through. —Japanese proverb While I don’t love the preposition at the end of the above sentence, I find this notion difficult to dispute when encountering deft comic writing—in print, on stage, or on screen—that manages some sort of social commentary. That’s “Arab Labor�? (“Avoda Aravit�?), an Israeli TV sitcom that screened, in two consecutive episodes, as part of the Jerusalem International Film Festival last night. As its provocative title suggests, this show deals with the socioeconomic position of Arab Israelis, who are economically less well off than Israeli Jews. Its comic sensibility is quite a bit like “Seinfeld�?; one Web article compares the show’s main character, Amjad Alayan (Norman Issa), to Seinfeld’s George Constanza (Jason Alexander). But “Arab Labor�? is about something more substantial than urbanite neuroses—namely, racism, ethnic stereotyping, socioeconomic inequality, religion, and virtually every other force sowing divisions into Israeli society today. How does the show get away with broaching such sensitive subjects? Every group depicted is caught in the act of stereotyping as well as living up to a stereotype to some degree. Here's a clip:

I can’t think of a single U.S. TV show that has ventured so boldly into this social terrain. I’m not a huge TV watcher to begin with, but the best I can come up with are those sitcoms in which race-based cultural clashes occasionally occur (some moments of the BBC show "The Office" and its U.S.-produced version come to mind). Has a U.S. show ever taken these clashes as its main subject? I’ll have to think about this (please post suggestions if you have them), as I think a show like “Arab Labor�? may say something important about the function of comic expression in fostering social cohesion in this dramatically divided society. To share a laugh at this comedy’s situations is to confront the truth, on that level where comedy reaches us most effectively, that it’s our wrong-headed notions about one another that perpetuate all kinds of segregation, while our comic flaws show us to be very much alike.

Day 2: Jerusalem -- a Dry Heat

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:17:57 -0500

In advance of a film screening this evening, I spent the early part of the day kicking around Jerusalem’s Old City. I don’t have much to report yet, but I’ll share a couple of photos. Thanks are due to Lyle King, Kevin Andrews, and their team in Champlain’s Media Services department. They’ve outfitted me with enough media gear to produce any number of PBS documentaries on Jerusalem. I’ll try to post some multimedia work to this blog, but I can’t make any guarantees. I haven’t taken any courses with Karen Klove, so giving me a video camera and such is like giving a monkey a gun. On a Friday, this is closest I, a non-Muslim, could get to the Dome of the Rock (al-Haram al-Sharif): Here's the Jerusalem Cinematheque (the orange umbrellas, if you can spot them), a spectacular place to see a movie:

Day 1: Jerusalem

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:07:07 -0500

I arrived in Jerusalem this evening after an uneventful, mostly pleasant flight. I brought along two back issues of the New Yorker magazine to while away the few hours before in-flight lights out. As I flipped through the pages, I was struck by how appropriate these readings selections were for the adventure ahead. In the June 30 issue article "The Brass Ring," for example, Connie Bruck reports on how gambling casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is throwing his financial weight around—he’s America’s third-richest person—in Israeli and U.S. halls of power, hoping to torpedo negotiations of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a more recent issue (July 7 & 14), Seymour M. Hersch's article "Preparing the Battlefield" tells a chilling tale of the Bush administration’s war stance toward Iran, a regional neighbor of Israel within missile-striking distance. Whoa, there, cowboy! Read back-to-back, these articles illuminate why I find Israel such an inherently dramatic place to experience: Tension roils through daily life as Israelis of diverse religions, political affiliations, and ethnicities negotiate their shared future; external forces, such as U.S. billionaires and foreign militaries, encroach from all angles with their agendas for Israel’s tomorrow. In other words, Israel today has crackling internal conflict as well as clear, consequential external conflict—the key ingredients for a compelling story. Of course, the experience of Israel is more than a story for those who live here—courageously, nobly, outrageously, ridiculously, faithfully. Pick your adverb. Yet we most often hear only of Israel’s tragic turns, rarely of the country’s triumphs, more rarely of its beauty. One of my goals in Jerusalem is to explore other aspects of the region’s unfolding narrative—the comic turns, the high drama, and the slice-of-life stuff that film artists evoke more poetically than the news headlines. Judging by the program for the Jerusalem International Film Festival, I won’t have to search far to find what I’m looking for. In coming blog posts, I’ll share some thoughts on what I’ve seen on the big screen. Along the way, I’ll also share the reflections of Israeli filmmakers, journalists, and scholars whom I’ll be interviewing in the coming days. Meantime, enjoy this other, much lighter item from the New Yorker: David Owens’ “My Airline�? riff in the “Shouts & Murmurs�? department. Oh, and here's a photo of the lovely Sultan's Pool outdoor screening venue, where the opening-night feature, WALL-E, played to rave reviews. I know because I heard those raves as I was walking to the amphitheater, too late to see the film but in time to take this picture:

In the next 24 hours...

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:20:39 -0500

I'll be heading for the airport, hoping to arrive in Jerusalem in time for the opening-night feature at the Jerusalem International Film Festival: Pixar's new animated film WALL-E (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/). Okay, so it's not exactly political cinema, but it should be a good, light-hearted way to kick off the trip. Bella senses something is up.