The Canadian Jewish News, May 22, 1997
Films used as tool to fight prejudice

Cindy Waxer

TORONTO -- All people have the power within themselves to fight prejudice, some 150 participants in the recent Toronto Jewish Film Festival's student program learned. Presented in association with the Edward Bronfman Family Foundation and the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI), the program at the Bloor Cinema featured three short films. In the award-winning video Untitled, filmmaker Seth Kramer chronicles the counting and bottling of six million grains of rice, to illustrate the tragedy of the Holocaust and the significance of a statistic. Kramer was at the program to answer questions from the students. The Israeli film Second Watch, which elicited the most student response, tells the story of Berkowitz, a soldier who, while guarding a desolate stretch of the Israeli-Jordanian border, befriends a Jordanian soldier through the exchange of a Playboy magazine and a canteen of water. And the program's third film, Janet Perlman's animated short Dinner for Two, which featured two lizards fighting to devour the same insect, illustrates the nature of conflict and non-violent ways to resolve contentious issues. I think kids are very visual now...They grew up with television and I think film has a great impact on them," says Helen Zukerman, president of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. Following the screenings, Felice Markowicz, associate director of the Toronto chapter of the NCBI, and Leola Sullivan, a high school teacher who is also a member of the NCBI, conducted a workshop that centred on conflict resolution skills. We're talking to students about what it means to overcome powerlessness, what are some of those things that you need to discover within yourself, something called your centre of power," says Sullivan. Students were asked to form pairs and to gently push one another to recreate the feelings of intimidation and powerlessness that come from encountering discrimination. Then, using visualization techniques. Sullivan and Markowicz taught students how to tap into the inner strength they possess that can be used to non-violently diffuse an incendiary situation. Finally, students were instructed to gently push one another again, this time experiencing greater control of the situation through a reclaimed sense of their personal strength. I thought it was a non-aggressive, sort of defensive stance involving power," says Jeananne Goosen, a high school student from Jarvis Collegiate Institute. Rather than simply prescribe group activities to combat racism, the workshop taught students a way to take charge of a conflict on a one-to-one basis. I think it's more about self-empowerment than it is about collectively doing something [to fight discrimination]. As an individual, you are powerful enough to do something," says Markowicz. A lot of young people know that we need to do something. It's just about giving them the tools to empower themselves," says Sullivan.