Report from the SFJFF

Elise, in San Francisco for the Jewish Film Festival, gives her impressions of the panel: “Is Dialogue Possible?: How Films Help Us Talk About Israel (Or Not)“:

Report from San Francisco

Attended a most interesting panel at the conclusion of the SFJewish Film Festival today. Acknowledging the tensions of last year, Peter Stein introduced the session with the idea of moving forward and using today’s hour as the beginning of a conversation. The topic was how films help us talk about Israel (or not). He admitted that it might or might not prove always to work.

The panelists included our filmmakers, Ronit Avni (Encounter Point and Budrus) and Lisa Gossels (My So-Called Enemy, formerly entitled Imaging Peace). Ari Kelman, co-author of the 2006 Culture Study and numerous other books and publications relating to Jewish young people and transformation participated as did a wonderful SF professional focused on conflict resolution, Rachel Eryn Kalish, who is working with the JCRC on their “YEAR OF CIVIL DISCOURSE.” Ellen Schneider, a regular panelist for us and founder of Active Voice, was a skillful moderator, alternating between keeping the panel engaged and fielding questions from the audience – which were delivered on 3×5 cards, ensuring a diversity of voices and perspectives.

How can film be a catalyst to talk about difficult issues is the questions Ellen started with and she talked about how film is intimate, emotional and made by artists, as well as having large audiences. A few short film clips were shown – short enough for me to realize how easy it is for people to misconstrue perspective and intent from short bits. Ronit talked about how Budrus started as a response to the question they were asked during the screening of Encounter Point – where was the Palestinian Ghandi. In Dubai they were criticized for showing empathetic Israelis, in other places they get pushback on their portrayal of the Palestinians.

Lisa began her film when the head of the leadership program that brought together Israeli and Palestinian young woman introduced her to some of them and she was moved by them as human beings.

Issues of balance were raised and both artists expressed their personal focus on being true to the subjects of their films and their personal narratives – that they couldn’t nor shouldn’t carry the responsibility for providing the full historical context of the situation they are focusing on. Their objective is to provide personal stories that arent’ ordinarily covered in the media and to break stereotypes.

Rachel talked about the challenge of “taming the limbic part of the brain” so that when we talk about difficult subject matter we aren’t so reactive, that we really listen to other peoples perspectives instead of waiting for them to say what we already think, and how when there is fear around issues it is important to give people a place to unpack that fear. She called it the “If you don’t see it my way, we might all die” approach. She suggested that culture allows access to pent up emotions that tend to go to politics rather than dialogue.

A question that went unanswered is where are their more balanced media outlets in the Arab world, and while Ronit said that Just vision has good relationships with Palestinian press, no one spoke about a nuanced views of the Israeli Palestinian conflict reflected from the Arab perspective.

Around the question of context and media having an undue effect on college campuses, Ari Kelman (who teaches at UC Davis) talked about having faith in media consumers that they not immediately assume the worst if they see Israelis in uniform as “oppressors” and that criticizing Israeli policy doesn’t mean that young people are giving up on their Jewish identity.

Ultimately, the need for media literacy was expressed as of key importance. Documentary film is not the news and as a narrative driven form, it is not good for macro analysis. Several people complimented the SFJFF for making space for uncomfortable conversations. Lisa aptly expressed her own experience that she has found more than one version of history and that she hopes seeing her film is a starting point for people to do their own research.

This was an excellent starting point for conversation and I hope in the spirit of how the SFJFF spawned so many Jewish Film festivals, the conversation continues across the country.