MJFF 2013! My Film is Being Shown.

Hey everyone!

It has been a very long time since I've talked to all of you lovely folks - I hope that your new years went swimmingly and that your time with February has been pleasant (albeit rainy and snowy and rather confusing, weather-wise).

I have news!!!

My film ('The Jewish Community') is going to be showing in this year's Maine Jewish Film Festival!

Here's the schedule: Day to Day Schedule. I have heard word that my film will be playing between a double-feature of two short features (see 'Ruth Dayan - My Life' and 'Through the Eye of the Needle'). The double-feature will begin at 1pm on Thursday, March 14th.

I know that this time is not convenient for everyone - I am planning to do another screening later on for all of the wonderful people who participated in my film and supported me throughout the process. I'll be passing along specifics sometime after the MJFF has wrapped up.

I hope that everyone is doing well! I also hope to see all of your faces very soon.

Ten Days until the Film is Due!

Patrick and I have been sitting down in three hour periods, sifting through the footage, and attempting to place it in (roughly) the most logical order. The folks that I interviewed said a lot of really wonderful and interesting things, so it feels somewhat of a daunting task to imagine breaking down what was originally four hours (and is now two hours), into ten-to-seventeen minutes of film.

A rough outline of what the movie is going to include:
- what does it mean to be Jewish?
- what does it mean to be Jewish specifically in Maine?
- and what draws folks to being Jewish in Maine?

Through the interviews, we uncovered some very specific drawbacks to living in Maine as a Jew, some positive aspects and uniqueness to living in Maine as a Jew, general ideas about what it means to be Jewish, some wicked cute answers from kids, and some lovely footage of peoples' various pets. Though somewhat tedious to watch the same footage over and over, it is exciting to make connections between what different people have said, and to place the clips into an overall more-encompassing narrative about what it means to be Jewish in Maine. 

Editing Underway!

So far editing has consisted of sitting down, probably with cups of tea, and watching through the hours of footage. Patrick (my co-editor) and I spent a couple hours last night watching through the Levey interviews and a handful of others. So if you were one of my interviewees, I've likely been watching your face (in footage-form) a whole bunch over the past couple of days.

Once we're done watching through the interviews, Patrick and I are going to compare notes (we've been taking notes while we watch; paying attention to things like overarching themes and well-expressed sentiments and funny and/or touching moments). It has been nice to have another pair of eyes watching the same footage and likely seeing things differently from what I see. I am confident that our collaboration is going to elicit interesting results, at least! It's also very helpful that Patrick's background in Judaism is limited; that means that he provides a perspective as someone who may not as readily pick-up on specific references. So whereas my exposure to Judaism might cause me to assume something to be common knowledge, he can point out that the same something might require more explanation.

The editing process has been a bit more tiring than I anticipated, but it has also been quite fun to watch through the footage and to make connections between different folks and their perspectives and experiences. I'm excited to see where things go!

Thank you all for reading, and I'll update you soon as the editing process continues! Happy almost Chanukah, too!

Stop! In the Name of... Editing

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I apologize for my slowness in updating all of you lovely folks regarding the movie - I recently acquired employment! Hooray! As what, you ask? A crossing guard for the Portland Public Schools, of course (basically my dream job). The job has brought on new changes in my life, such as getting out of bed before 10am, which is not something I've done for at least a couple of months. But I'm adjusting! Slowly. And so, unfortunately, I've fallen a bit behind as I acclimate to a new schedule.

So! Updates! I have completed the filming. Hooray! Last week I interviewed another Rabbi, and two community members who are congregants from local temples/synagogues and who are involved in the Jewish community in different manners.

My friend Patrick was a big help, as he filmed the interviews. I'm looking forward to having him by my side as a part of the editing process.

Editing. Ugh. I mean, the interviews were super interesting because I was able to learn many things about different people's experiences and perspectives regarding Judaism in Maine. I was able to talk to neat folks from the area! But... editing. During editing, I'll just be watching the same clips over and over and trying to figure out where they belong so as to make the most sense. Right?

Maybe not. I was speaking with one of the other crossing guards last week (his name is Mike), and he suggested otherwise. Mike happens to be a retired musician (of sixteen years!) who has experienced positive things during the editing process of his musical recordings. He mentioned that it is during this section of creation that one's uniqueness is able to stand out - the piece becomes a collection put together by individuals, instead of simply a conglomeration of bits and pieces. It becomes reflective of the people who are creating the narrative of the piece.

I think that Mike is on to something. Or at least, it'll be worth my while to keep an open mind about what the editing process is going to be like. Plus! I will have a friend wandering through the process with me. I'll keep all of you updated to let you know how it goes!

I hope that everyone has a pleasant Thanksgiving! Eat turkey. Or tofurkey, if you're vegetarian. Or neither of those, if you're vegetarian and also sensitive to soy. 

Two Rabbis Down!

I am going to be honest here, and just say that Rabbis, and spiritual leaders of all kinds, intimidate me in a way that few other things can.

Now, I don't want to delve into the deep-seated psychological reasoning behind this, but instead just say that it's been totally awesome to be interviewing local Rabbis as of late, despite that they nearly frighten me.

In school I studied Jewish Studies, so I am familiar with the differences in denomination, but what I learned was just set up in a fact-in-a-book-kind-of-way. So aside from these interviews with spiritual leaders being super applicable for the film I'm making, it's also been interesting to just be in a situation where individuality can be lent to the facts I learned previously.

So - two Rabbis down, one to go! And by that, I mean that I have interviewed local Rabbis representing two of the three majorly identified Jewish denominations from the Portland area, and hope very much to secure an interview with the third (if not even more Rabbis! You can never have too many Rabbis, right?).

Other news! I've recently switched to a new camera-person - my friend Patrick is taking over the filming for Zach, who is working on other really neat projects (like puppet shows!). Patrick has also kindly offered to help with the editing process, for which I am very grateful. It's so helpful to have another person's input and viewpoints while creating a narrative from clips of film. The editing process begins mid-November! And so I will continue to scramble to complete the interviews before the end of next week (hopefully).

I hope that everyone survived the bit of snow we had yesterday, and that November has started out well.

Cat! Click here.

Kids and Cats!

The interviewing has been going smoothly! On Friday afternoon I was able to meet up with a bunch of really great students from Levey Day School in Portland. Not only were the kids wicked cute, but they also had a lot of insightful and interesting things to share about being Jewish, living in Maine, and attending Levey.

Here are some production stills from the Levey students I interviewed (there were eleven in total, and I would love to show you pictures of them all, but you'll just have to wait until March to see all the kids in the final product):

This is Dora.

This is Nathan.

And this is Milo.

In addition to speaking with the Levey students last week, I was also able to interview a member of the Portland community, Lauren. She had many interesting experiences to share about growing up Jewish in New York, and then moving to Portland, and, while still identifying as Jewish, not necessarily participating in the same manner with which she was raised.

 Lauren during the interview.

Lauren's lovely cat (whose name I unfortunately forget)!

This upcoming week seems a busy one for folks. My birthday is on Wednesday (also, Halloween!) and the impending storm has discouraged me from scheduling any interviews for that time period. So this week will be a nice chance for me to write thank-you notes to my interviewee participants thus far, to look through some of the footage, and to set up the final interviews for the film. I would say that I'm at least halfway done with filming! I'm hoping to interview Rabbis in the community and a couple more community members by the second week of November, so that the remainder of the month can be set aside for editing. 

I hope that everyone stays safe during the storm! Here's hoping the sump pump at my house continues to function through hurricane Sandy.

More Production Stills! Audio is the Worst.

I have begun interviewing! So far it has been mostly successful, except for a couple problems with less-than-preferably-audible-audio, and then when I accidentally deleted some of the audio I recorded separately. Oops.

But check out these awesome production stills! I've been gathering a bunch of really great footage of really great folks, who have been so willing to share their stories with me.

Anne looking at some photographs

Karen holding up a photograph

Rachel, during the interview

Some of Stephanie's books