Today we talk with Lisa Gossels, director of My So-Called Enemy, the coming of age story of six Palestinian and Israeli teenage girls who travel to the U.S. to participate in a women's leadership program called Building Bridges for Peace and the transformative journey that follows both in the program and upon their return to their native countries. In July 2002, 22 women came to the U.S. to participate in the program, and during their time learned to reconcile their experience in the program with the realities of life back home in the Middle East over the next 7 years. What unfolds is an emotionally-charged film about the human consequences of all conflicts--as seen through the eyes of 6 young women who are thoughtful, intelligent and articulate beyond their years.
Q: How did you hear about the Newport Beach Film Festival?
From Steve Shor, a Film Festival Advisor to the Newport Beach Film Festival.
Q: Tell a little about the story of your film and the production of it.
When I started making "My So-Called Enemy" in 2002, I had no idea how long it would take to make the movie, or how transformative the 8-year journey would be. I did not make the film with any answers; the process was all about asking questions.
Right after 9/11, I remember engaging in heated political debates about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I came to understand how wars could be fought on words and how easy it is to reduce conflicts to black and white terms.
Two months earlier, I had the privilege of meeting Melodye Feldman, the founder of Seeking Common Ground (and its Building Bridges for Peace flagship program), at a Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education conference (CAJE) in Denver. Melodye shared the stage with some Palestinian and Israeli participants from her 2001 summer program. I was so taken by the stories from the teenage girls about how the program had changed them that I knew I had found the subject-matter for my next film. "My So-Called Enemy" was never a film about an idea, but about young people. And, I loved the idea that those young people were women, because, as Nicholas Kristof once wrote, "focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism."
While the first act of "My So-Called Enemy" takes place in the emotionallly charged 2002 Building Bridges program, to me the film is really about what happens to the six participants when they return home to the Middle East over the next 7 years.
Q. What is the core message of your film?
The central message of "My So-Called Enemy" is the transformative power of knowing "the other," or "the enemy," as a human being. Through the stories of the young Israeli, Palestinian and Palestinian Israeli women in the film, we see how creating relationships across emotional, ideological and physical borders is a first step towards resolving conflict. Because "My So-Called Enemy" is an emotional journey, it opens hearts and minds and creates the space for dialogue about not only the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but issues that divide us in our families, schools and communities. By watching "My So-Called Enemy," viewers will see the complexities of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through a human lens--and the possibility and hope that comes from listening to each other's stories.
Q: Your take on the main characters in your movie (set backs, triumphs, impressions, good surprises, etc.)
Adi, Gal, Hanin, Inas, Rawan and Rezan, the main characters in "My So-Called Enemy," were teenagers when I first started filming them. Because they live in a conflict region, it took a great deal of courage for them to participate in the movie. While we had some access issues of where we could film some of the girls, particularly the Palestinians, all of them opened their hearts, minds and lives to our cameras. Because films can be very manipulative and will be seen by mass audiences, we have an awesome responsibility as documentarians to not only convey the personal truths of our subjects, but to honor the trust they have bestowed upon us--with the understanding that will have to live in their societies with the final film. We were always careful to respect not only the girls' dignity, but their personal safety. We never created high drama, or humorous moments, at their expense. The young women in "My So-Called Enemy" are my hope. They all have become my family.
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MY SO-CALLED ENEMY screens on Sunday, May 1 at 1 PM at the Triangle Square Theater 3. And Wednesday, May 4 at 3:30 PM at the Regency Lido Theater.
Click on link below to watch a sample of the film:
Click below to buy tickets for the film:
http://newportbeach.slated.com/2011/films/mysocalledenemy_lisagossels_newportbeach2011
Or for more information on the film and program, follow the links below:
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