Jewish Hipsters in Training / or / My Latest Project

My latest project is a non-fiction film. Many have asked so here is the treatment. Production is well underway and first round grant proposals are submitted & under review. Watch for updates about clips to be posted on YouTube this fall.MMN

Creating Community (WT)

A non-fiction, short-form film

With the memory of bar and bat mitzvah parties faded into history, eleven teenagers who have basically one thing in common, a Hebrew School in lower Manhattan,  come to the realization that there is, indeed,  Jewish life after middle school.

An extraordinary group of ordinary teens attending diverse secular schools in New York City choose to study together beyond their bar and bat mitvah’s to prepare for a trip to Israel. This group soon realizes more than a trip is being planned; community is being forged. As they spend a year together learning and taking on adult Jewish responsibilities they face challenges none could have predicted or ever asked for.  This bonds them into a community that transcends race, class or level of religious observance. It is one where they support and strengthen each other as they make the transition into high school and early adulthood. Their work culminates in an extraordinary journey through Israel, a first visit for many in the group. Their lives, the lives of their families and those of the community around them are forever altered by what they have created together.

Photo by Scott Newirth

Noah, Sigal, Tiye, Jordan, Max, Noya, Lexi, Alix, Haley (David & Daniella couldn’t make the shoot)

This short-form documentary captures the essence of community these kids have forged on their own initiative and celebrates the rising generation of Jewish men and women who are the link for future generations to come.

Produced by MSM&A Productions

Commuting – A Daily rite of TRansition

Every typical weekday many of us go through an amazing rite of transition. We move, physically, emotionally, & for a few, spiritually, from a private space called home to a public space called work and back again to that private space. Public – private – public – private , each time undergoing a transformation of sorts. Back in the day when people wore hats as a necessary dress item we could quickly identify who we were and what we did by the hat we wore upon our head. Today the phrase remains “I’m changing hats right now” to indicate that the present roll we are playing is undergoing a significant shift. I don’t have a hat, I have a commute. Sometimes it comes in the guise of an angry bus driver throwing passengers around in the back, some times it’s the roaring subway, other times a long, slow walk home. This moment of transit is rich with insight and introspection for me. I watch the paterns made by the 800 people criscrossing the intersection of 5th Ave & 42nd St. I observe the shapes of the buildings whirling by or the streak of lights in the tunnel. I recall memories from long ago, or just yesterday. We constantly move – we hate to stop – we focus ahead – we miss a lot.

My life is made up of transitions – how I string them together makes the music of my existance.

Transition Time

CHANGE sounds so good at the time of the initial idea. “This sucks! Let’s change it.” And everybody goes “yeah!” Then returns to the thing they were doing before the suggestion of change came along. It’s hard doing something differently. We, being such creatures of habit, hate the discomfort of the unknown. I’m curious about transitions. How do we embrace different ways of doing things? How do we tolerate cutting edge technology but fear Universal Healthcare coverage? Reason, it seems, has little to do with it. Think about one thing you’ve changed in the past 6 months. How did you manage it? What did it take? What did you learn?

Mid Summer Mourning

In mid summer, when the streets
Sag under hot tires and flip flops
The day awakens groggy
Disoriented

Reaching for that second
Cup of coffee she sighs
As she sweats
Sitting by the window fan
She recalls a sad memory

Her hand drops into her lap
The coffee looses its flavor
The artificial breeze no longer delivers relief

Wails from a passing fire truck
Bells from a distant steeple
Cries from a cranky child
Sighs from a parent locating yet another ounce of patience

We each arise to face the mid summer mourning

MMN Tisha b’Av

The Effect of Empty StoreFronts on the Psyche

I knew it would be happening; taking the bus down 5th Ave day by day I knew I’d see more & more businesses close. It really started for me with Circut City. Once a massive presence on the corner of 42nd & 5th Ave it is reduced to dark, cavernous holes in the glazed walls of a slick city. Now little stores follow. A legacy of lost dreams, lost profits, lost support systems strewn about the canvas of our waking lives. Yet we ignore these gaps. We pretend they are not there like the homeless man asking for a hand up or the cross dressed poodle being walked down the street by a monkey wearing a hoop skirt. We don’t see, we ignore, we deny, we keep walking, we forget.

MMN