Directed by Shemi Zarchin


This touching and sensitive film explores the daily challenges faced by Shlomi, a sixteen-year-old, whose self-appointed role is to keep peace within his dysfunctional family, and to take care of everyone's needs. He is sensitive and attentive to every one of his famliy members. But no one in the family really sees Shlomi, and neither does Shlomi see himself.
Things change, however, when his teacher and school principal recognize his brilliance, which had been previously undetected. With their help and the help of Rona, a neighbor, with whom Shlomi is secretly in love, he is sent to a school for gifted children, where he finally discovers himself.

Produced and Directed by Martin Himel
USA, 2003, color, English, 47 minutes

In September 2002, pro-Palestinian activists at Concordia University in Montreal resorted to force and intimidation to prevent former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking on campus. Blocking the only entry to the lecture hall, student and non-student activists took over the building and pushed, spat on and, in some cases, hit and kicked those determined to hear Netanyahu. Outside, anti-Israel demonstrators broke a series of windows, prompting police to cancel the lecture because of safety concerns. The shocking incident was captured on tape and featured in the documentary Confrontation at Concordia which aired in May and July 2003 on Global TV.

The doumentary presents the radical agenda of some pro-Palestinian activists, the misuse of the student government, and the precariousness of free speech on campus today.

The program was produced by journalist Martin Himel, who has worked for a variety of networks, including CNN, PBS and Fox.

And

Broken Mirror
Directed by John Henry Davis

Director: Eitan Londner
Israel, 2002, Hebrew, w/Eng. Subtitles35mm, 90 minutes

Michal, a 14-year-old competitive swimmer, is distracted by conflicts in her family. A decade earlier, her father left to become a ba'al t'shuvah, pursuing an ultra-orthodox life. Michal lives with her mother, a new-age, secular Jew who sells beads, tells fortunes, and enjoys the company of a younger man. The funeral of Michal's paternal grandmother brings the family into contact-and immediate conflict-spurring the girl to reconnect with her father, who was once a competitive swimmer like herself. Swimming through life-navigating her relationship with a popular girl Efrat, her main swimming competitor, and fending off the affections of Dror, her eager artist/boyfriend-Michal tries to find a place for herself amidst the conflicting pulls of her father's new orthodox family, the swim team, her mother's world and her own desires. Charismatic, fiercely independent and needy, Michal's character draws the viewer into a personal world that uses one girl's story to illuminate the cultural conflicts besetting Israel today.

Writer/Director: Amir Feldman
Producer: Amit Breuer and Julie Shles
Israel, 1995, Arabic, Hebrew, w/Eng. Subtitles 35mm, color, 45 min.

Scores have been killed in suicide bombing in Israel over the past year, leaving friends and families greiving and creating political turmoil. All Hell broke Loose is a highly stylized look at the survivors of a car bomb attack on a bus in nothern Israel. One year after the bombing, filmmaker Amir Feldman meets with the Jews and Arabs who were on the bus and discusses the effects the event has had on their lives. Cutting swiftly, Feldman creates a unique rhythm that helps elucidate his theme: fear, caused by traumatic events leads some to violent feelings of racism and prejudice and others to expressions of tolerance and forgiveness--a timely expression of an important concept.

and Not Another Jewish Movie

Direction: Carlos Bolado, B.Z. Goldberg, Justine Shapiro
United States, 2001, Arabic, English, Hebrew, w/Eng. Subtitles, 35mm, color, 106 min.

Seven Israeli and Palestinian children living in and around Jerusalem provide deeply humane insight into the complexities of the conflict in the Middle East. Shot during the period between the Oslo peace accords and the current turmoil, these highly articulate and endearingly honest children tell of their efforts to come to grips with the religious and national conflicts that have shaped their daily lives. The children, aged between 11 and 13 during the initial interview, live within a 20-minute radius of one another but have little direct knowledge of the other's lives. Filmmaker Goldberg, who speaks Hebrew and Arabic, serves as an onscreen intermediary between them. The children tell stories of growing up amid the conflict with matter-of-factness and show frequent glimpses of a more hardened, adult nature than we might imagine given their tender years. The story veers in a surprising direction when several Jewish and Arab children come together; it is in this poignant segment that the film truly lives up to its title.

for more information go to www.promisesproject.org

(read Roger Ebert's review of the film)