Eagle Hunter's Son

I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2009. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”

Tarek is an enigmatic and brooding young Arab man who has chosen to be a suicide bomber attacking Tel Aviv. But there has been a malfunction of his explosive equipment and he has to spend a weekend in Tel Aviv waiting until his problem is fixed.

While trying to fix his deadly gear, he makes Jewish people connections. They include an elder couple who welcome him to their home and feed him and confide in him. Tarek also meets a young attractive Jewish shopkeeper who is harassed by young conservative Jews who dislike her modern and stylish ways.

Now Tarek has a dilemma. It was easier to randomly kill via a terrorism act when you don’t know your enemy well. It is another matter to know the type of people you are about to kill or injure or psychologically scar. What will Tarek ultimately decide to do?

This is a taut and compelling tale rolling to its inexorable ending that is both anticipated and unanticipated. The Jewish friends show their humanity to their enemy (?) by giving up their prejudices and acting kindly to Tarek. Tarek shows his humanity in an unusual but altruistic and compassionate and courageous way. You begin to understand why the Arab-Israeli conflict is so hard to unravel and negotiate.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

For My Father

I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2009. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”

Tarek is an enigmatic and brooding young Arab man who has chosen to be a suicide bomber attacking Tel Aviv. But there has been a malfunction of his explosive equipment and he has to spend a weekend in Tel Aviv waiting until his problem is fixed.

While trying to fix his deadly gear, he makes Jewish people connections. They include an elder couple who welcome him to their home and feed him and confide in him. Tarek also meets a young attractive Jewish shopkeeper who is harassed by young conservative Jews who dislike her modern and stylish ways.

Now Tarek has a dilemma. It was easier to randomly kill via a terrorism act when you don’t know your enemy well. It is another matter to know the type of people you are about to kill or injure or psychologically scar. What will Tarek ultimately decide to do?

This is a taut and compelling tale rolling to its inexorable ending that is both anticipated and unanticipated. The Jewish friends show their humanity to their enemy (?) by giving up their prejudices and acting kindly to Tarek. Tarek shows his humanity in an unusual but altruistic and compassionate and courageous way. You begin to understand why the Arab-Israeli conflict is so hard to unravel and negotiate.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Seven Minutes In Heaven

I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2009. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”

Galia is a young woman who was a victim of a terrorist attack on a bus one year ago. Her boyfriend, Oren, was on the bus also and was in a coma and then died. Galia is suffering from painful burns on her back, but even worse, is suffering psychological trauma and guilt and hallucinations. And she doesn’t know why she is getting hallucinations.

This is a quiet story of her trying to start up her life again with the help of a mysterious and almost-saintly stranger named Boaz. Why is he helping her? What is in it for him?

Is she being stalked or is she being merely hit on or hs she met an incredible altruistic human being?

This is a quiet movie that progresses inexorably to answer these questions. It is a story of nuances. The subtle facial expressions of the two main characters reveal much.

Galia is a woman with great honesty and wants to know the truth no matter where that leads her. She shows grace and spirit on her difficult journey.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Entre Nos

I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2009. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”

A Latino mother and her two children are stranded in Queens when their philandering, irresponsible father deserts them. There English is almost nil and now they must support themselves asap. First the wife tries selling homemade Espanadas on the street. Then she tries getting day labor by standing on Latino labor street corners. And finally ends up collecting cans for their deposits with her young son and daughter beside her. They are barely making it when they get evicted from their apartment. And then they become homeless and have to sleep outdoors.

What keeps them going under these awful circumstances? Their closeness and love for each other sees them through these difficult times. Also,they are helped by sympathetic strangers who see their heart-wrenching plight.

Through it all they never lose their dignity or morality. They always act honorably and treat others with respect. Their sacrifices and courage and desperate situation make them more appealing as time goes on. The viewer is filled with admiration for what the human spirit can endure and still not be broken.

The story is wonderfully told. It is realistic and understated and believable. You are often moved deeply as the story unfolds.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Welcome

I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2009. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”

Bilal is a 17 year-old Kurdish boy from Iraq, who has just taken an arduous, three-month journey to Calais in France desperately trying to get to his girlfriend/fiancée in London. But in Calais he becomes stuck with many other clandestines or illegal immigrants. These are people without a country. The French won’t send them back to the Mid-East because there is a war going on. But they are not welcomed in France because they are clearly illegals. Even the local French people will violate French law if they help these clandestines.

With this backdrop, Bilal comes up with the idea that he can swim the English Channel to get to his girlfriend. There is only one problem. He can’t swim. He goes to a middle-aged French swim instructor, Simon, who not only teaches him how to swim, but also befriends him. Simon has his own problems. He is divorcing his wife and is terribly lonely. Bilal and Simon need each other and form a strangely beautiful symbiotic relationship.

This is a quiet and powerful statement on the individual courage and sacrifice of normal human beings. Bilal and Simon are single-minded in trying to do the right thing and will not be put off their objective. This is a very moving film that haunts you afterwards. It does not take a stand on legal or illegal immigration. It merely shows that these clandestines are human like the rest of us and have their own stories.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Pediatrics Magazine Reports Linkage between Internet Violence and other Media Violence with Violent Behavior in Youth

Below is their link.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/short/122/5/929

Their conclusion .... "Exposure to violence in the media associated with concurrent reports of seriously violent behavior across media (e.g., games and music). Newer forms of violent media seem to be especially concerning.

From USA TODAY - TV Sex is linked to Teen Parenthood

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY - 11-3-2008

Could the amount of sex teens see on TV predict whether they'll become a teen mother or father? A study in today's Pediatrics says it's a distinct possibility.
The study is the first to draw a direct link between sexual content on TV and the likelihood that teens who watch it will become parents. Researchers examined survey data from about 2,000 teens. They plucked out 23 popular shows and asked how much teens watched each. They coded the replies to established indicators of sexual content for each show — everything from nudge-nudge jokes on network sitcoms to full-blown intercourse on steamy cable dramas.
What they found: By age 16, teens who watched a lot of sexually charged TV were more than twice as likely to be pregnant or father an out-of-wedlock baby as teens who watched very little: 12% vs. 5%. The gap holds steady through age 20. Researchers controlled for parents' race, income and education and teens' total TV time.
Previous studies have linked sex on TV to earlier initiation of sex; this is the first to link TV sex to pregnancy.
"I don't find it surprising," says Jane Brown, who studies media and adolescent health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Most teenagers watch about three hours of TV a day, so the likelihood that they'll encounter sexual content is high. "It's a cumulative effect," she says. "It's probably not any one portrayal that makes the difference, but it's a consistent, and now unhealthy, sexual script that adolescents do see as a depiction of appropriate behavior."
Psychologist Dave Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family sees parents "delegating sex education to Hollywood. … If I'm a 15-year-old kid and no one's really talking to me about sex and I'm watching a lot of sex on TV, it's not a direct, conscious decision — but over time I start to think, 'That's what people do. That's the norm.' "
Lead researcher Anita Chandra of the Rand Corp. says even sex talk has an effect. If a child is watching more than just an hour of TV a day, she says, he is getting "a pretty substantial amount of exposure" to sex.
Brown says most TV shows portray sex as having few life-altering implications, such as pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. She calls it a dearth of the three Cs: commitment, contraceptives and consequences.
Even a tame sitcom joke takes a toll, she says. "It says, 'Everybody's thinking about it, everybody's doing it … nobody's suffering any negative consequences.' "

Captain Abu Raed

I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2008. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”

Raed is an elderly, Jordanian man who seems to be a simple janitor at an airport. But things change for him when he finds a discarded Captain’s hat that he wears home. The neighborhood children promote him to a world savy pilot and he promotes himself to being an excellent and imaginative storyteller.

But Raed is not a simple man. We slowly find out that he is wise and well read. And, he has suffered tragedies in his life that would break most men and make them bitter. Raed resists being morose and adds positively to the world around him. He is kind to strangers, he mentors children with exploitive parents, and he makes other’s lives easier and more fun.

But this wouldn’t be much of a story if there weren’t a strong conflict. Next door to Raed there is a family dominated by a husband and father who is a wife-beater, child-beater, and drunk. What can an old man do to help?

It reminds one of the quote – “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Raed is a good man of courage and sacrifice. He does something.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Second Hand Wedding

I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2008. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”

Amal is a 30ish autorickshawdriver in New Delhi. He appears to be simple and quiet and even naïve. He dutifully lives with and supports his Mother, and works long hours to make ends meet.

He is so out of place with the rest of the huge city of New Delhi. His fellow autorickshawdrivers seem to be hustlers and cheats. And his passengers and Delhi citizens are even worse. They include conniving lawyers, loan sharks, thieves, bribers, and spoiled adult children.

One day Amal chases a little girl who has stolen a purse from a regular passenger. Amal accidently causes her to be hit by a car and seriously hurt. Amal, out of the goodness of his heart, takes on the welfare of the child in a hospital. We begin to see Amal’s incredibly generous and giving nature.

Amal also has another chance, life-altering encounter when he picks up a surly old man who hates the world and tries to negotiate hard. Amal won’t play his game, and cheerfully acquiesces to the old man’s wishes. Unbeknownst to Amal, the man is rich and is so moved by their brief encounter that he leaves Amal in his will.

There is a painful irony between Amal needing money to help the hospitalized girl and almost being wealthy by a kindness of a curmudgeon. This irony drives the story, and
keeps your interest high.

Amal is unaffected by worldly matters that consume everyone else. He is centered by his goodness and honesty and integrity. Sacrifice is all he knows – except for his rich life in the help of others.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Amal

I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2008. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”

Amal is a 30ish autorickshawdriver in New Delhi. He appears to be simple and quiet and even naïve. He dutifully lives with and supports his Mother, and works long hours to make ends meet.

He is so out of place with the rest of the huge city of New Delhi. His fellow autorickshawdrivers seem to be hustlers and cheats. And his passengers and Delhi citizens are even worse. They include conniving lawyers, loan sharks, thieves, bribers, and spoiled adult children.

One day Amal chases a little girl who has stolen a purse from a regular passenger. Amal accidently causes her to be hit by a car and seriously hurt. Amal, out of the goodness of his heart, takes on the welfare of the child in a hospital. We begin to see Amal’s incredibly generous and giving nature.

Amal also has another chance, life-altering encounter when he picks up a surly old man who hates the world and tries to negotiate hard. Amal won’t play his game, and cheerfully acquiesces to the old man’s wishes. Unbeknownst to Amal, the man is rich and is so moved by their brief encounter that he leaves Amal in his will.

There is a painful irony between Amal needing money to help the hospitalized girl and almost being wealthy by a kindness of a curmudgeon. This irony drives the story, and
keeps your interest high.

Amal is unaffected by worldly matters that consume everyone else. He is centered by his goodness and honesty and integrity. Sacrifice is all he knows – except for his rich life in the help of others.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.