KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 28, 2019 \u2013 A short film on the Holocaust by student filmmakers at the 溏心vlog免费B站 will be screened at some high-profile events in the coming weeks \u2013and will become one of the education resources available as part of Rhode Island\u2019s mandated genocide education for secondary school students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fence Between Us\u201d will get its 溏心vlog免费B站 premiere Monday, April 1, at the Norman M. Fain Hillel Center on the Kingston campus. The film will also be shown during the 35th<\/sup> annual Statewide Interfaith Commemoration of the Holocaust on May 1 at Temple Emanu-El, in Providence.<\/p>\n The 13-minute film was produced in spring 2018 by 14 students in a film production class in the Harrington School of Communication and Media. The film features the first-person accounts of Holocaust survivors set against a narrative and intermingled with commentary from Rhode Island lawmakers, as well as Holocaust scholars from 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n \u201cI think one of the most gratifying things for me about the film and the experience the students had is what a unique film they\u2019ve made,\u201d said Rob Cohen, a 溏心vlog免费B站 adjunct professor and filmmaker who led the class. \u201cI think the students probably don\u2019t know \u2013 simply by dint of their youth \u2013 what a special film this is. It\u2019s a hybrid of documentary and narrative and archival information. It\u2019s very original, and it\u2019s very gratifying for it be as successful as it\u2019s been and seeing the response that people have given it.\u201d<\/p>\n The 溏心vlog免费B站 premiere on April 1 \u2013 free and open to the public — will be in the Hillel Center, 6 Fraternity Circle, at 5 p.m. It will be followed by a panel discussion with two Holocaust survivors who appear in the film, retired 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Albert Silverstein and long-time state resident Jorge Gardos. The panel will also include Robert Weisbord, a retired 溏心vlog免费B站 history professor and Holocaust scholar, and Paul Bueno DeMesquita, director of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies.<\/p>\n As part of the event, DeMesquita will be awarded the Avi Schaefer Seek Peace and Pursue It Award, bestowed by the Avi Schaefer Fund. DeMesquita, one of 10 awardees across North America, is being honored for his work as an outstanding campus change-maker who stands up for peace, justice and compassion on the college campus.<\/p>\n On May 1, Temple Emanu-El, 99 Taft Ave., Providence, will show the film as part of the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration, starting at 7 p.m. Gardos, a renowned violinist, will play during the event, and 溏心vlog免费B站 student filmmakers Kat Fortey and Griffin Alix will introduce the film. The event is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n Lessons in film and history<\/strong><\/p>\n The film, made possible by a grant from the Victor and Gussie Baxt Fund in Judaic Studies, includes interviews with Rhode Island lawmakers \u2013 Gov. Gina Raimondo, state Sen. Joshua Miller, state Rep. Katherine Kazarian and former state Rep. Aaron Regunberg \u2013 who were instrumental in legislation mandating genocide education in public secondary schools, starting in the 2017 school year.<\/p>\n More compelling are the voices of Holocaust survivors Silverstein, Gardos and Alice Eichenbaum, of Providence. For the 溏心vlog免费B站 filmmakers, interviewing the survivors proved greater than any lesson on the Holocaust they had ever received.<\/p>\n \u201cHearing their personal stories and firsthand accounts was a whole different experience,\u201d said Fortey \u201921, a film studies major from Franklin, Mass<\/strong>. \u201cIn school, you\u2019re just told the information. Hearing it from someone who actually lived through it and experienced things you\u2019ve read about or watched in school was eye-opening.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe survivors are disappearing faster and faster,\u201d added Alix \u201920, of Southington, Conn.<\/strong> \u201cSo, the fact we were able to capture some of them on camera \u2013 telling their very real stories, and how sobering that is \u2013 is very important for anyone, whether a filmmaker or not.\u201d<\/p>\n The 14 students in Cohen\u2019s class set out last January to re-create the trailer of the 2008 film \u201cThe Boy in the Striped Pajamas,\u201d an approach that Cohen had used successfully in an earlier class. But this project grew far more ambitious \u2013 with Cohen throwing out the idea of interviewing survivors, lawmakers, professors, and employing child actors.<\/p>\n \u201cI kind of just wanted to get up and leave,\u201d said Grace DeSanti \u201921. \u201cFor a moment, I was like, \u2018This guy is crazy\u2019 \u2026 to think that 14 students are going to care enough, be dedicated enough to pursue this. We have never been able to accomplish something like this. How are we going to do that now?<\/p>\n \u201cBut for some reason I stayed,\u201d she added, \u201cand I\u2019m grateful I did.\u201d<\/p>\n The course \u2013 FLM 351 \u2013 met once a week for four hours, but the class resembled more a meeting of a film production company, Cohen said. Much of the work of creating the film occurred outside the class. The students took on various production roles \u2013 director, writer, producer, cameraman, makeup, wardrobe, set design, props \u2013 but those roles were flexible, with everyone adopting jobs essential at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it definitely helped everybody in the long run,\u201d says Alix, a film studies major who lent his hand to writing, cinematography, editing and even designed the film\u2019s logo. \u201cWith anything in college, you want to do as much as possible because you never know what you might take a liking to in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSanti, a film studies major from Shelton, Conn.,<\/strong> served as a producer, overseeing many facets of the project, large and small, including running to Walmart for curtains or to Providence for set supplies. Fortey was also a jack-of-all-trades, taking part in camera duties, set design, hair and makeup, and props.<\/p>\n Amanda Grace \u201819, of Westerly, R.I.,<\/strong> served as a director and assistant director, among other jobs. \u201cI thought it was going to be strange at first,\u201d says Grace, \u201cbut it was kind of nice. Obviously as the director, I had to make sure we directed the movie well, but also being assistant director I already knew what the director needed.\u201d<\/p>\n A meaningful outcome<\/strong><\/p>\n The experience has resonated beyond the wrap-up of the filming, the students said.<\/p>\n \u201cGetting to work on something that important early in my academic career was really interesting,\u201d said Fortey. \u201cI\u2019ve added a double minor \u2013 journalism, and justice, law and society. I want to continue making important films about civil rights, civil justice and inequality in America.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt helped us experience how a film company would actually work,\u201d added Grace, a film studies major. \u201cIt gave us an idea of what we\u2019d be doing in our future.\u201d<\/p>\n The filmmakers got their first reaction from an audience when the film was screened at the West Warwick Public Library in October to open a year-long series on the Holocaust and genocide hosted by the Rhode Island Holocaust and Genocide Education Committee.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we showed the film for the first time, a really strange thing happened,\u201d said DeSanti. \u201cSome people thanked us for making it. Nobody had ever thanked me for making something before. I went home and thought, \u2018Wow, I\u2019ve actually now put out something meaningful into the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The Holocaust and Genocide Education Committee, which works with the Rhode Island Department of Education to develop curriculum to assist educators in instruction on the Holocaust and genocides, is adding \u201cThe Fence Between Us\u201d to the resources available to educators through the RIDE website, said Marty Cooper, interim chair of the committee, who also helped line up lawmakers to appear in the film.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the film achieved its goal of drawing attention to students as well as teachers and others associated with academics as to why it is important for the Holocaust and genocides to be taught in our schools in the state,\u201d said Cooper. \u201cIt is hoped that educators will show the film as a way to introduce the topic to students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 28, 2019 \u2013 A short film on the Holocaust by student filmmakers at the 溏心vlog免费B站 will be screened at some high-profile events in the coming weeks \u2013and will become one of the education resources available as part of Rhode Island\u2019s mandated genocide education for secondary school students. \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}