Foreign films foster awareness and tolerance
By Derek Loosvelt

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Inside Manhattans City Hall Academy on a dark and wet Friday morning this past February, actor Liam Neeson introduced some 35 New York City public school teachers to Journeys in Film, a nonprofit educational program using feature-length foreign films such as Whale Rider, Bend it Like Beckham, and The Cup as a springboard to instill cultural awareness and tolerance among middle school students. Neeson, national spokesman for Journeys, stressed the importance of creating global citizens and said he was honored to be in a room full of teachers, explaining that he comes from a family of teachers himself and highly respects the profession. Neeson ended his brief introduction by telling the teachers their work is vital to the long-term well being of the United States. For the next generation, he said, knowledge of the world is no longer a luxury, its a necessity.

Neesons appearance was followed by a Journeys in Film workshopa professional development seminar for teachers sponsored by the New York City Board of Educationthat included sample lesson plans and a screening of Children of Heaven, another film used in Journeys curriculum.

Journeys, which was officially unveiled to more than 4,500 students in seven cities in 2004 and could reach as many as 50,000 students in the 2005-2006 school year, is the creation of Joanne Ashe, whose background certainly informs the program. The daughter of Polish immigrants, Ashe grew up in the late 1950s and 1960s in Beverly, Massachusetts, among families of numerous ethnicities. She holds a masters degree in humanistic education and has curated art exhibits on racism as well as childrens mental health issues. Shes also the mother of two daughters and an adopted son, who is originally from Siberia. That experience prompted Ashe to work for an international adoption agency and, later, to coproduce The Waiting Children, a short documentary taking viewers inside Russian orphanages that appeared at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.

Ashe, who serves as Journeys executive director, says the idea to teach children through film came to her during the 2001 Palm Springs International Film Festival, held a few months after 9/11. At the festival, Ashe saw nine films, two of which, she says, stood out and got me thinking. One, Abandoned (2001), written and directed by Hungarian-born Arpad Sopsits, follows a young boy thrown into an orphanage even though his parents are still alive. The second,

Baran (2001), written and directed by Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi, focuses on an unlikely relationship in Tehran between a 17-year-old Kurdish worker and a young Afghan with a secret. After that film, Ashe says, while the credits were still rolling, I came up with the idea.

Originally, Ashe thought the project, which today involves in-class screenings as well as pre- and post-screening discussions and related lessons and assignments, would be geared towards high school students and focus on human rights issues. In order to reach the masses, she says, I knew early on I had to take the project to schools, rather than theaters. She also figured kids wouldnt care as much about a human rights issue unless they were familiar with the culture in which it was based. So she thought to take the program to middle schools and center it on connecting to characters and story, which she hoped would lead to cultural understanding. Ashe then decided to combine the program with geography, history, and social studies lessons. It was a way to get into schools, she says. It couldnt be arts-based, because arts funding was being cut.

While the idea began to grow, Ashe met Neeson in a bar in New York. Two of her daughters friends were appearing with him in a Broadway production of The Crucible, and at an after-party, Ashe was introduced to the actor and thanked him for his moving portrayal of Oskar Schindler in Schindlers List. Ashes parents are Holocaust survivors, and her father worked in Schindlers factory. That film validated my parents lives, Ashe says.Until then, survivors had largely been forgotten. After Ashe told Neeson all this, he said, God bless you. And God bless your father. Tell me about him.

She did, and then told Neeson about her idea for Journeys. I just let it out, she says, and right away he said, How can help you? On the spot, Ashe asked Neeson if hed be her national spokesperson, and he agreed. It was still an idea then, she says, but that got me focused.

The first Journeys screening occurred in 2003 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at a theater not far from where Ashe lives and bases Journeys. (For logistical reasons, screenings are now held in classrooms.) About 250 kids from five schools watched The Cup (1999), a film about two young Tibetan refugees who, along with several teenage monks, are transformed during the broadcast of soccers World Cup.

Ashe hoped the kids watching would be transformed, too. The outcome didnt disappoint. At the end of the film the kids were clapping, Ashe says. And during the Q&A, they were jumping out of their seats to ask questions. Before the film rolled, kids were asked to look out for stereotyping, various cultural objects, and the different ways in which food is prepared and people greet each otherall of which is standard procedure in Journeys lesson plans. Kids were also asked what theyd think if they were to meet a Tibetan boy who wore an orange robe with a sash.

Most thought it would be weird, says Ashe. But after the film, when we asked them the same question, they said it would be cool. It went from weird to cool. And that was our data. Additional data came a few weeks later when Ashe heard that many kids had asked their teachers if a Tibetan exchange student could come to their school.

In 2003 and 2004, while searching for other middle school-appropriate films with which to rollout the project on a wider scale, Ashe focused on creating alliances and landing funding. As a result, she discovered Building Bridges: A Peace Corps Classroom Guide to Cross- Cultural Understanding, an online resource that teaches students about the universal aspects of culture and the ways in which it influences behavior. Ashe thought Building Bridges would complement Journeys and today, the curriculum includes it. The Peace Corps Donna Molinari, who works alongside Ashe, praises the program. I know of no other organization that approaches cross-cultural understanding in such a meaningful and effective way, she says of Journeys. Films are meticulously screened for content as well as screenwriting quality, and students are drawn in by seeing their own likeness on screenbut in a far away place.

The universal messages in the films enable students to transcend regional, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious distinctions that often separate people from their fellow citizens. Film has the ability to transport students mentally to locations and remote regions that they may never otherwise have the opportunity to experience

The World of Wonders Project

iearn

Media Literacy Project

KIDS FIRST!Cares

Media Rights

Tolerance.org

Other links

Peace Corps Worldwise Schools

Educational Insights