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September 26, 2008
Finding spirituality in music
Toronto-born singer Ellen Gould Ventura finds peace in Judaism.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Singer, writer and actress Ellen Gould Ventura moved to Barcelona 10 years ago. In an upcoming documentary, she describes the experience as akin to jumping into the abyss, completely naive, but "what worth is life, [without] just jumping into it?"
Mashalá, which airs on VisionTV next month, highlights Gould Ventura's spiritual journey and her music, as well as exploring the reasons why her Mashalá bandmates – who hail from Chile, Morocco, Italy and Venezuela – were drawn to Spain and to Sephardi music.
"I just had this great need to connect with my roots, with my history," says Gould Ventura in the hour-long documentary by Gemini Award-winning filmmaker Cyrus Sundar Singh.
Gould Ventura grew up in Toronto knowing little about her family ancestry. Her mother had told her that she had Spanish and Portuguese roots, but only when Gould Ventura was a teenager and she confronted her mother about her mother's use of anti-Semitic phrases, did Gould Ventura discover that her roots were Jewish.
It all fell into place at that moment, explains Gould Ventura in Mashalá, adding that what she had been feeling all those years finally made sense. She began to investigate her family history and learn more about Judaism, but it is mainly through music that she finds a connection: "The music that I do today is my life ... this is how I express my spirituality. How I celebrate my culture.... It's about connecting and finding the thread, and passing on the thread so it doesn't get lost."
Mashalá is filmed in Barcelona and, in addition to tracing Gould Ventura's journey of spiritual self-discovery, it follows her as she explores the city's medieval Jewish quarter – and its painful history, including the Inquisition. The film captures the musicians of Mashalá in performance, as they play the music of the Sephardim – sometimes mixed with Arabic sounds – on stage, in the studio, at home and in the city squares.
Mashalá is one of several documentaries on Judaism airing the week of Sept. 29, as part of VisionTV's special programming event, called The Middle East: Religion in Turmoil. The sidebar on page 60 shows the week's programming schedule. For more information, visit www.visiontv.ca.
Coming up next week on VisionTV
• Ralph Benmurgei: My Israel on Monday, Sept. 29, 7 and 9 p.m. (parts one and two); Tuesday, Sept. 30, 7 and 9 p.m. (parts three and four); and Wednesday, Oct. 1, 7 and 9 p.m. (conclusion).
• The Six Day War on Monday, Sept. 29, 8 and 10 p.m. (part one); Tuesday, Sept. 30, 8 and 10 p.m. (part two); and Thursday, Oct. 2, 9 p.m. (parts one and two).
• Soferet: A Special Scribe, about Aviel Barclay, on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 8 and 10 p.m.
• Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, on Thursday, Oct. 2, 6 p.m.
• Extreme Clergy: "The Surfing Rabbi" on Thursday, Oct. 2, 8:30 p.m.
• Mashalá, on Friday, Oct. 3, 7 and 9 p.m.
• Charging the Rhino, in which filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici examines what happened to the Jewish community of Romania during the Holocaust, on Friday, Oct. 3, 8 p.m.
• The Naked Archeologist's new season, in which Jacobovici investigates the mysteries of biblical archeology, Fridays, 7 p.m.
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