{"id":23793,"date":"2017-04-07T03:26:48","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T10:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=23793"},"modified":"2017-04-04T17:25:34","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T00:25:34","slug":"using-film-school-as-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/04\/07\/using-film-school-as-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Using film school as therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Ma\u2019aleh School of Television, Film and Art, standing, from left to right, are Asher Lemann, David Cohen, Chanan Ariel, Ofir Shaer, Yosef Baruch Kalangel and Nachum Lemkus. Sitting, from the left, are Keren Hakak, Menachem Assaraf and Shalom Sarel. (photo from Ma\u2019aleh)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When a major donor came to Neta Ariel, director of Ma\u2019aleh School of Television, Film and Art, with an offer to provide scholarships as long as the students give back to the community, Ariel accepted the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cMa\u2019aleh is located in the centre of Jerusalem and, unfortunately, there are a lot of social issues,\u201d Ariel told the Jewish Independent<\/em>. \u201cFor example, lots of high school-age teens walk the streets or, during the night, use drugs and live on the streets. So, my students tried to help them \u2013 we knew a few of them, and we invited them to come to the school once a week for two hours in the afternoon to learn about film.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students at Ma\u2019aleh became mentors, encouraging the teens to bring their own stories to life through the materials. Another group \u2013 comprised of immigrants from Ethiopia \u2013 also works with the students.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell your story,\u201d said Ariel of the most important aspect of the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the year,\u201d she said, \u201cwhen we screened the movie for the group, teacher, friends \u2026 it was an amazing thing. They [had] left high school, or the family didn\u2019t want them; they felt like they\u2019re losers and didn\u2019t have self-confidence. When we had the screening and their family or friends came, they really appreciated them. And the film gave them hope. We thought, the making of the film was not only fun, it was a teaching tool to uplift them and our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through learning how to film, from making personal connections and from telling their stories \u2013 which often included trauma or conflict, from rape, violence and negative treatment to gender or sexual orientation issues \u2013 they began to heal.<\/p>\n

For most participants, it was their first encounter with therapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time, at the end of the day, after the project was done, they shared with us that this is the first time they\u2019d dealt with this,\u201d said Ariel. \u201cThis was their way to tell the society, family or friends that this is their story and what I suffer from.\u201d<\/p>\n

From these beginnings, the school developed a curriculum for the program and, with each passing year, it has grown. Now, the school offers two such programs, focusing on how to use film as therapy and how to work together.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a group of social workers and filmmakers,\u201d explained Ariel. \u201cEvery week, they meet and work on the exercises we give them, and they work together to find a balance. It works well, the partnership. It\u2019s amazing how the psychologist becomes a filmmaker and the filmmaker comes to understand psychology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Months after Operation Protective Edge, the school decided to host a group of bereaved mothers from the conflict, to determine if there was a way they could help.<\/p>\n

They found ways of incorporating filmmaking into the process of mourning. At each meeting, they studied and focused on one aspect of filmmaking \u2013 lighting, filming, music, and so on. Once taught, participants were given an exercise to practise the skill. Then, they were given a camera and asked to practise filming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t tell them to make a movie about something specific,\u201d said Ariel. \u201cThey gave them a task about something emotional. Most chose an aspect connected to the son they lost a few months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, we teach them how to write the script, how to do voiceovers, how to incorporate music. Automatically, most would think about their son or themselves and their fears. So, part of the meeting was talking about what we go through, and a lot of it was about creating things.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the year, everyone together made a film called Saba<\/em>. The main character in the movie is the grandfather, as all of them had mentioned their grandfathers, from time to time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the school opened a bereaved fathers group and found that, while they seemed to barely communicate in the classroom, they collaborated well outside of class. They put together what Ariel described as an \u201camazing movie\u201d about their surviving kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something the fathers said \u2013 that the kids at home blamed the parents, saying that, at home, they give a lot of time, attention and energy to something dedicated to the dead son … and [are] not taking care of them,\u201d said Ariel. \u201cRegardless of the age of the kids, in every house, they found it was the same situation. And, it was just amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we are trying to open a group for grandparents … but, most of them, they can\u2019t come, too hard for them, very far. So, I hope that \u2026 we\u2019ll open another group for bereaved mothers … those who couldn\u2019t come last time.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the main objective of Ma\u2019aleh stems from a Jewish perspective, Ariel travels the world to introduce filmmaking and therapy to schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our students come from a Jewish Orthodox background … not all, but a lot of them,\u201d said Ariel. \u201cAnd, a lot of the subjects we touch on are connected to Jewish identity and our roots.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of her interview with the Independent<\/em>, Ariel had just returned from the United States, where one of her stops was at a Christian school, where she spoke about how to best relay religious differences through film.<\/p>\n

Apart from teaching, Ariel uses these trips to fundraise for the school and to keep in touch with filmmakers, mostly in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they come to Israel, they help us, come to give a workshop at our school,\u201d said Ariel. \u201cWe do projects together. Most importantly, we\u2019re sharing our graduate movies with the world. A lot of institutions in Israel and America use them as education tools, cultural tools, and even, from time to time, to promote Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is that this tool will be used for all kinds of populations. Many different kinds of groups can take care of themselves using this process.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, visit maale.co.il<\/a>. The bereaved fathers\u2019 short film can be seen at youtube.com\/watch?v=uoNiQVSqhOw&feature=youtu.be<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Ma\u2019aleh School of Television, Film and Art, standing, from left to right, are Asher Lemann, David Cohen, Chanan Ariel, Ofir Shaer, Yosef Baruch Kalangel and Nachum Lemkus. Sitting, from the left, are Keren Hakak, Menachem Assaraf and Shalom Sarel. (photo from Ma\u2019aleh) When a major donor came to Neta Ariel, director of Ma\u2019aleh School […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[6873,4330,218,4688,1959],"class_list":["post-23793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-film","tag-israel","tag-judaism","tag-therapy","tag-tikkun-olam"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}