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.

Getting deeper into Dropping Knowledge

Hi, I've been spending the past few days digging deeper into the wealth of knowledge that DK provides. I really think that this is great resource for any of us who are committed to making the world a better place.
I'm posting some of the videos available on youtube that I particularly resonated with:
This one is with Julia Butterfly Hill


What does DK have the power to do? Inspire people. It definitely inspires me.


I think this video asks some good questions, esp. pertinent to what I am trying to figure out in my life's work



DK also just came off their latest project. The G8 Summercamp.

I have arrived in Berlin!

Hello,

I have arrived in Berlin to work for Dropping Knowledge for the next two/three months. I'm not sure what I will be doing for them as of yet but I hope it will be a good experience in which I can use my film/video/graphic skills, improve up on them, and making meaningful media on social issues.

For the past three days, I have been wandering the streets of Mitte in East Berlin. Berlin is such a sprawling city, I have yet to see much of it but I'm excited to explore its many intricacies in the upcoming months. As always I'll be keeping ideas on peace and conflict in mind.

There are two things that I am most eager to explore in particular while I am here and they are based on the observations that I made when I came to Berlin in 2001.

1. Art- Berlin is an explosion of expression. Every corner is a gallery, a design showroom, or some event space that leaves your eyes and ears tingling.

2. Rememberence- You cannot walk through this city with out being reminded of the atrocities that happened here, first with the Nazis and second with the Berlin Wall. Today, the city proclaims loudly, "Such horrors happened here. We will not forget and we will never ever let it happen again."

Please check my flickr photos for updates, as well as enjoy the slideshow below.

Tschuss!
Megumi

Dropping Knowledge

Hi, I am psyched to annouce that this summer I will be working with Dropping Knowledge in Berlin, Germany.

In September 2006, they invited 120 people from around the world to partake in a global dialogue project called the Table of Free Voices. 100 questions collected from the internet were asked of these 120 people over 9 hours. Each person had a camera directly facing them intimately documenting their answers.

Their basic premise is that is through asking questions a global conversation can be started which can change the world for the better.

Here's a short video of the larger project that I will be working on. I'm so excited, so excited....