BRI Trip Inspires Filmmakers
By Josh Marks    December 14, 2004

Traveling on birthright israel has inspired a few Los Angeles area filmmakers to turn their cameras on Israel and the Jewish community.

Shan Makor Prum and Avi Youabian (Winter, 2001) made a short film after their trip together called Gossip (Lashon Harah in Hebrew). Sherene Strausberg (Winter, 2003) created a short film of her trip and submitted it to the birthright israel 2004 film contest, placing third with her film Peace Friends (Shalom Haverim)

"I had made a film of my trip for my own personal reasons. They had this contest (on the website) and I thought it would be fun and cool and challenging to make my own 5 minute film and present the interpretation of my trip to other birthright israel members," said Strausberg.

Makor Prum traveled around Israel with Youabian. They both had video cameras and became instant friends. When they got back to Los Angeles they kept in touch and talked about working on some projects.

"One day we were brainstorming and I mentioned how my brother's wedding was laden with gossip. Then we talked about the potential in making Jewish film and thought it might both have universal and Judaic appeal," said Makor Prum.

He wrote at least 40 drafts of the script - making sure to include different generations of the Jewish community - while Youabian directed the film. They had the help of University of Southern California faculty and the Jewish community, including rabbinic advice from Rabbi Jonathan Klein, president of USC Hillel. Lashon Harah is one of 613 negative commandments in the Torah. According to Jewish law it is even equal to murder.

"I like to write films that have both a moral and comedic appeal - comedy with a message. Gossip is something that bothers me and a commandment, I feel, most often forgotten."

The film has screened at Jewish and secular film festivals in Montreal, Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Diego and other cities.

The setting is a Jewish wedding and the plot revolves around an elderly Jewish mother who starts a nasty rumor that eventually is heard by the bride. The mother must then set things straight.

Strausberg, who is a film composer, describes her film as kind of experimental - she didn't have any dialogue over the music playing. She used a folk song - Shalom Haverim - over the images of Israel that were shown.

"Shalom Haverim means peace friends but it can also mean hello friends, bye friends. Seeing Israel in this light it was very peaceful and I made good friends there. (I was) able to meet people but also had to say goodbye to people. (The film was) a way of showing how I got to say hello and goodbye to friends using the music that I wrote for the film," said Strausberg.

She also wanted to convey through the images and music that Israel is not the war torn place that we see in the media but is really a beautiful place.

To view the film Peace Friends and the other contest winners log on to www.birthrightisrael.com, click on Alumni Central and scroll down to Contest Winners. More information about the film Gossip can be found at www.gossipthemovie.com.



Josh Marks writes for a community newspaper in Long Beach and is webmaster and contributor to the Southern California birthright israel alumni association (BRIAA)website. Besides freelance journalism, his day job is at Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles.