Jerusalem, September, 2003. On Roshashanna it is quiet just within the walls of the Old City. Two foreign filmmakers and six local youths are in conversation beneath a shade tree at one end of a neighborhood square. Aged twelve to sixteen, the youths are self-described self-governing. Unlike their peers, they don't like watching television, playing video games or visiting the 'Blockbuster Video' not far beyond the Old City wall. Is it a religious thing? "No, we just don't have time for any of that stuff. We're not like a lot of Israeli kids," Masha, our thirteen year-old, tri-lingual translator adds, "for one thing, we love it here. None of us wants to live anywhere else."
The Israel component of our exploit is complete. Impressions of this war-torn though vital society have succeeded each other so rapidly it's difficult to do them justice in a brief entry. A synopsis of our progress here instead:
In Jerusalem we meet Arsen, a graphic designer, editor at Time-Out Israel and radio personality. Back in Tel Aviv, he interviews us on Radio Reika. The one-hour Russian language program includes phone-in, and musical segments. Through Arsen we meet with the publisher of Time-Out and discuss youth trends in the streets of J-City and Tel Aviv. Through the publisher, we meet Sasha, a line producer for television and instructor at Hafiz Film School, part of the Open University in Tel Aviv. We agree to collaborate with his students, who could create short film reportage from treatments we provide. Sasha introduces us to Greesha and Dima at a local branch of ORT, the principle Russian International television network. Greesha is a veteran who has worked with ORT since long before the shift from Soviet to contemporary Russian society.
Greesha is convinced that the defining feature of contemporary adolescence is an engagement with technologies of fantasy and virtual reality. The gap between the sophistication of today's electronic gaming and reality is in many ways quite narrow. Kids are manipulating tools and virtual circumstances every bit as sophisticated as those they may encounter in adult real life. As Greesha put it: "They grow up fast because of this. In all but their emotional lives, very mature very early."
One of Greesha's producers, Dima, is overseeing a serial program, "Morning Stars" featuring teens with pop vocalist's aspirations. The nation-wide competitions have been underway for some time now and we are invited to take some samples of the winners' work along with us. It's agreed we could perhaps feature some on the A.S. website.