At Large Business Briefs Cartoons District Court Report Editorial Gone Fishin' Letters to the Editor Real Estate Transactions Sports Sports Highlights

Art Bestsellers Dance Edibles Film In Print Music Theater

This Week's Happenings Save That Date Ongoing Events Groups Libraries Museums and Tours Children's Resources Hotlines 12-Step Programs Religious Services Volunteer Opportunities

Achievements Astrology Birds Births Community Shorts Dean's List Engagements Garden Notes Honor Roll Obituaries Off North Road Short Subjects Town Meetings Visiting Vet Weddings

Aquinnah Chilmark Edgartown Oak Bluffs Tisbury West Tisbury

---

Directories

---

---

search the web www.mvtimes.com

The Martha's Vineyard Times is a weekly publication.
December 30 - January 5, 2004 Edition
Web Comments - Email Submissions

FILM December 30, 2004 There is no new Film story this week. Documentary offers hope for peace December 9, 2004 By Brooks Robards After a season of high-pitched polemics and partisanship in documentary films, “Seeds” comes as a breath of fresh air. This story of an American camp for youth from high-conflict regions will be shown at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center Sunday, Dec. 12, at 7:30 pm as part of its winter film series. The Seeds of Peace camp in Otisfield, Maine, began in 1993 as the brainchild of former foreign correspondent John Wallach in response to the first World Trade Center bombing. Initially, Seeds of Peace provided an opportunity for teenagers from Israel, Palestine, and Egypt to mingle and experience in a neutral environment the human side of the enemies they faced at home. Starting in 2000, students from Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Turkey, and Greece joined the mix. For three weeks each summer, these young people talk, play games, eat, and sleep together. In the film, camp director Tim Wilson tells the campers, “You have the right to sit down and talk to someone you wouldn’t ordinarily. You don’t have to continue the cycle of violence.” Teenagers are encouraged to believe they can bring about change. “We teach listening skills,” said Wallach, who died during the production of “Seeds.” “What one side has, the other side has the right to demand for itself.” That could mean statehood, security, justice or equality. Without fancy editing techniques, special effects, a pumped-up soundtrack, or too much in the way of scenic photo ops, directors Marjan Safinia, an Iranian, and Joseph Boyle, of Native-American Irish extraction, have let the story of the camp speak for itself. No sonorous voiceover tells the viewer what to think. The youths quite literally speak for themselves on occasion, thanks to a video diary booth set up so they could drop in and tape their thoughts. Like the campers, the production team comes from many cultures. The producer is a Saudi-American; the composer, Lebanese; the editor, Russian Jewish. Nor does “Seeds” simply cheerlead for peace. A discrete amount of battle footage reminds the audience of the contexts these teens come from, as does their own occasionally emotional commentary. The year 2002 proved a challenging time to film the camp’s story, since tensions in the Middle East and other parts of the world were especially high. Suicide bombings in Israel led the Israeli Defense Forces to attack Yasser Arafat’s headquarters, as well as many Palestinian cities. That year the 166 campers also came from Afghanistan, where American planes were carpet-bombing, and India and Pakistan, where the Kashmiri dispute threatened to boil over into a full-blown war. Just after camp began its final week, founder Wallach lost his battle with lung cancer, and his death seems to stun campers into a new awareness. Counselors divide the campers into Green and Blue teams for a series of competitive games where national boundaries temporarily stop mattering. In the final hours when campers are packing up and making their farewells, one teen says, “It does make all the difference to live with a person who is supposed to be your enemy.” Students do not deny the pressures and suspicions they face upon return, but in some cases these young, vulnerable youths find a way to change at least their own lives. An Afghani girl breaks off her arranged engagement. A Palestinian returns to the program’s Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, designed to foster continuing relationships among campers. Even a skeptical Israeli says, “Seeds didn’t change me, but it made me more open-minded.” Another from a settlement says he’ll move. At a time when the cultural divisions in our own country sometimes seem as wide as those producing conflict in other parts of the world, it is heartening to see a film about the chance to develop harmony instead of more dissension. “Seeds” can be seen at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, Center Street, Vineyard Haven on Sunday, Dec. 12 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10 at the door. 508-693-0745. Brooks Robards, an Oak Bluffs summer resident, is an author, professor emerita at Westfield State College, and frequent contributor to The Times.

©The Martha's Vineyard Times 2004 - www.mvtimes.com