Two Walks, a joint production of CJL’s Young Jewish Filmmaker’s Project and docUWM, a division of the UWM Peck School of the Arts, made its debut at Jewish Teen Day of Discovery 2008. This short film, created by seven middle and high school students, explores the Jewish obligation to respond to genocide. It juxtaposes the Milwaukee Jewish community’s Walk for Israel against a youth walk for Darfur organized by two of the student filmmakers and tells the story of how these teens changed attitudes in Milwaukee.
The program, which one student said prepared him well to attend Universal Studios film camp, allowed graduate students in film to meet with the teens one and a half hours once a week at UWM. Using professional grade equipment, students acquired skills in pre-production (brainstorming/research/ storyboarding), production (filming and lighting) and post-production (editing). The film has been uploaded to the Internet and will be screened publicly in various venues and entered in various student competitions later this year.
The student filmmakers included Rachel Herman, Noah Rowlett, Ari Rothenberg, Maddie Mandel, Eric Hagen, Hannah Musickant, and Noah Laufer. Claire Tipton and Max Fantle also participated.
Two Walks was supported by a generous grant from the Helen Bader Foundation.
The Coalition for Jewish Learning is the education program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
