no escape

With my internet connection down at home, I headed to the neighborhood Starbucks this morning, using their wi-fi to catch up on email correspondence that fell by the wayside while in Israel shooting.

As I sat there, drinking green tea, sorting through a pile of receipts from the trip and relishing the sound of English spoken around me, I heard someone from the next table ask, in Hebrew, “excuse me, are you Israeli?”

The El Al flight attendants from my plane back yesterday, it turns out, are staying at a hotel down the block from my apartment. And, with the Hebrew receipts jogging their memory, two of them had recognized me from prior flights.

To their disappointment, I explained in broken Hebrew that I’m not Israeli at all – just an American who’s been spending too much time heading back and forth from there. But It’s a good reminder of the reality of making movies. If I’m neck-deep in a project, I’m neck-deep in a project, no matter where in the world I happen to be.

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today’s quote

“Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs.”
– Vaclav Havel

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small request

Amidst the nonstop documentary shooting in Sakhnin, we took a quick side trip to nearby Kishorit Village, a live/work community for special needs adults. Kishorit recently started a communications program, and ten of the residents – under the guidance of an Israeli producer and his editor wife – have begun learning how to shoot documentaries digitally, how to piece footage together using Final Cut.

One of the residents, Aviv Wolkowicki, spends most of his day cranking out screenplays that become the basis of some of the group’s films. He’s in his mid-forties, and, despite being mildly mentally retarded, speaks and writes English extremely well. When he’s not writing screenplays, he writes letters to Americans, hoping for a letter in response. Over the past three years he’s been doing this, he’s yet to receive back a single letter. So, if you’d like to accrue some very good karma rather easily, write him a short note and send it along. The American post-mark alone should more than make his week.

You can mail him at:

Aviv Wolkowicki
Kishorit Village
M.P. Bik’at Bet Hakerem 25149
Israel

I’m sure he’d very much appreciate it.

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