Film: Jewish in Berlin

My dropping knowledge film which asks the question: What does it mean to be Jewish in Berlin today? (4min) is now up on their Schatten Auf Berlin website. If you scroll to the bottom strip of films in the category of Nue Berlin and click on several films over you can watch Judish in Berlin there... ...or if you feel like it's too complicated to get to (since there is no direct link) please click on the following image:

Two of the three interviews are in German, so in many ways there were new challenges to this project but overall I'm quite pleased with what I was able to accomplish in two weeks with this film. I also recommend taking a look at the Shadows on Berlin web magazine though that is entirely in German. Enjoy!

It seems like the other link takes a long time to upload. So on Blogger video for now.

Schatten auf Berlin- a dropping knowledge initiative

One of the projects that I have been working on at Dropping Knowledge is Schatten auf Berlin- The Shadows of Berlin. It is a multi-media web magazine looking at the social issues of Berlin: from alcoholism, prostitution, to delinquent youth, and the homeless. The project is based on a series of ethnography studies conducted by Hans Oswald in the late 1800's. dk compares the many issues of Berlin of that time to Berlin in 2007.

This Sunday, September 23rd, the website will go live. Along with it, here in Berlin, there will be an evening film screening and discussion event with doors open at 9pm at the Kino Babylon.

Though I have not been able to participate much in this project due to my lack of German, in the last two weeks I have been able to pull together a short film for their New Berlin category. The four minute film I made asks the question: What does it mean to be Jewish in Berlin today?

The reason why I sought to answer this question was because that I had read a statistic which said that there was a growing number of Jews moving (back) to Berlin. Why have they come back to Berlin? Why Berlin and not some other German city? and finally What does it mean to be Jewish here and now?

Anyways, I am very happy that I was able to contribute to this project and produced a short film while I was here with Dropping Knowledge.

60 Seconds of Light

This video is part of the 60 Seconds of Light internet memorial.

"60 SECONDS OF LIGHT is an attempt to create an internet-wide September 11th video memorial. The concept is simple: on September 11th 2007 we are asking all vloggers and internet video content creators to take a break from their regular scheduled content and instead upload 60 seconds of light. A candle burning. A lighter lit. A glow stick glowing. Anything light-filled that you feel honors the memory of all those who were lost. Our hope is to have this light spread throughout the internet; creating the largest memorial service ever to commemorate September 11th."

So if you have a web camera, will you consider joining me and other bloggers in a minute of silence and light to honor the people who lost their lives six years ago today?

May our light shine peace on to this world.