With our trips to Israel on hold, we decided that instead of bringing American film students and professionals to Israel, we would bring some young Israeli student filmmakers to the US! In September, we did just that! In conjunction with the Jewish Studies Department at the University of Georgia, we brought 4 recent grads (and the director), from the Ma'aleh School of Film to UGA for a screening of 5 Ma'aleh films and 2 days of visiting film, literature and Hebrew classes and meeting with students, faculty and staff.

 

On our visit to an MFA film class at Athena Studios, the Ma'aleh grads and the UGA grads shared clips of their films and had an excellent discussion about these films in particular and filmmaking in general. After class, we got a tour of Athena Studios, and the students had still more opportunity to talk with each other about their craft.   

 

We were hosted for a lovely and lively lunch by the Dean of the Grady College of Journalism and the Head of Grady's Department of Entertainment and Media Studies, where among other things, Greek life and college football, two things which don't exist at Israeli schools, were entertainingly explained, and it's safe to say, as you'll see in the photos, the Israelis are all now loyal Dawgs! 

 

It was the first visit to Georgia for all the Israelis, and the first visit to the US for two of them! Everyone was impressed by the size and beauty of UGA's campus and its antebellum buildings, and by Athens itself. Most importantly, the Israeli filmmakers were impressed by the talent, knowledge and friendliness of the students, faculty and staff we met at UGA. We also greatly appreciated the home hospitality shown us by some local Athenians.

 

Then we headed to the Washington DC area, where we visited the National Mall and toured some of the local sites, like Great Falls on the Potomac River.  We finished up with a program on student filmmaking in Israel at a local synagogue. We look forward to future programs and trips with Israeli filmmakers and composers!