Monday, December 13, 2010

Tears, SRO screenings, student essays, the film in California


Do I begin with last night’s SRO moving and exciting benefit for our music scholarship fund for Ethiopian kids during which people cried when they heard the kids perform and we showed the film and raised NIS12,000? (The photo is of some of the kids jamming afterwards.) Or with the screening at the Jerusalem Cinematheque that had to be moved to a larger hall because of demand and then was sold out (nearly 300 people)? Or do I write about how much I enjoyed screening the film and leading a discussion with 60 18-year-old soldier teachers in training? Perhaps most fulfilling of all, I found out by chance that an English teacher at the Music Academy High School in Jerusalem assigned her 11th graders Ruth Eglash’s article on my film in the Jerusalem Post as reading material and then had each pupil write an essay about it…


The film will be showing at Sinai Temple in L.A. on February 16 at 1 p.m. (for info: 310-481-3217) and I’ll be there to talk about making it and to lead a discussion. I’m hoping for more gigs in LA. (Feb 14-21), Denver (Feb 21-25) or the Bay Area (Feb 25-March 1) – so if you have any ideas, please let me know.


If you’d like to take a look at or buy the children’s book that inspired the film – Ma Shmi u’Mi Ani (What is my Name and Who Am I?) go to author Naomi Shmuel’s web site: . If you want to purchase the film and live in Israel (ti’s around NIS80) , get in touch with the distributor, Ruth Diskin: or 02-672-4256.


I haven’t figured out how to drive much traffic to this blog and I’m not sure it’s worth continuing. I’m hoping the film will take on a life of its own so I can get on with my next project – a cookbook/family memoir based on my mother’s delicious cooking. And after that: bringing the Pikler/RIE approach to baby care to Israel.