Student Film Chronicles Young Israelis Preparing for Military Service
"I was there shooting with my video camera, and they we’re talking about learning how to shoot with their guns."

By James Todd

Tuesday, April 26, 2004 -- A Duke student film about Israeli teenagers preparing to enter the military received a standing ovation from an audience of more than 500 at its premiere April 20 in Duke’s Griffith Film Theater. Duke senior Maital Guttman directed the film and Madeleine Sackler, also a Duke senior, is its executive editor and co-producer with Guttman.

The 45-minute documentary, "Mechina: A Preparation," follows six young Israelis who spend a year after high school working, studying and volunteering before beginning their mandatory military service. The film juxtaposes the friends’ playfulness and idealism as they strike out on their own with their reflections on what they soon may face as soldiers.

"What I see in the news isn’t what I see when I go [to Israel]," Guttman said. In Israel, she said she sees lives that are complex, sometimes contradictory, and not only shaped by the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"[The film is] trying to open up the conversation about how we talk about Israel, about the conflict," she said.

The idea for the film came out of conversations Guttman had with friends and family in Israel, where she was born and lived until age seven when she moved to the United States with her family. She noticed that Israelis graduating from high school faced different choices and challenges than their American peers because of the country’s mandatory military service and ongoing conflict. Young Israelis not only have to decide what branch of the military to enter but can also face difficult moral questions as young soldiers, such as: When should a soldier kill? And how do the roles of soldier, citizen and independent person co-exist?

To document how Israeli teenagers come to terms with the these questions, and the culture in which the questions arise, Guttman spent three weeks last summer in Jaffa, Israel, filming her teenage cousin and his five friends. They each had been granted a yearlong deferral from military service. The movie takes its name from the year of training and service: "mechina" in Hebrew; "preparation" in English.

Watch scenes from "Mechina: A Preparation" directed by Duke senior Maital Guttman and co-produced with Madeleine Sackler, also a Duke senior:

	Guttman explains how young Israelis come of age in a different context than Americans because of the country’s mandatory military service. Watch the clip Realplayer | Quicktime
	Israeli teenagers talk about how they would respond as soldiers in difficult situations. Watch the clip Realplayer | Quicktime
	Hours before participating in a massive peace rally, the young people in the documentary discuss how they plan to handle their dual roles as citizens and soldiers. Watch the clip Realplayer | Quicktime

"Had I not moved to the States when I was seven, I would have had to deal with this and their experience would have been my own," Guttman says in the film. "But instead, I was there shooting with my video camera, and they we’re talking about learning how to shoot with their guns."

While Guttman was filming in Israel, her project partner and former roommate Madeleine Sackler spent the summer learning how to edit and produce films at the New York Film Academy. Neither woman had previous experience making a film.

Guttman returned to campus last fall with 50 hours of footage; Sackler returned with a more developed film aesthetic. Both took an independent study course with cultural anthropology professor John Jackson to work on the film. In January, the women visited Israel to gather footage for a few final scenes.

Jackson helped the women make editing choices about the narrative’s tone, the story’s point of view, cross-cultural communication methods and overall ethnographic techniques.

They received financial support from Avi Chai Israel Advocacy Grant, Hillel, Benenson Award in the Arts, Duke Center for International Studies, Freeman Center for Jewish Life, Comparative Area Studies at Duke, Freewater Presentations and Duke’s Judaic Studies Department. 

Guttman and Sackler decided to focus the film on the personal lives of the Israeli teenagers -- their fears, moral reasoning and hopes -- and not the politics of the country’s conflict ("It’s not the Michael Moore model," Jackson said, contrasting Moore’s blatantly political films.). To establish a bridge between the American audience and Israeli subjects, the filmmakers cut in interviews with Guttman about her connections to Israel and the U.S.

"It’s a really strong film to teach with because all the different aspects of cultural anthropology are on display," said Jackson, who asked the students in his "Introduction to Cultural Anthropology" class to watch the film and write a critical reaction to it. He said aspects of cultural anthropology in the film include seeking to understand subjects instead of judging them, placing the viewer within another cultural worldview, using film to document a society and "auto-ethnography," which includes the researcher as a subject of study.

Guttman and Sackler hope the film will catch on with young audiences beyond the classroom.

"At a time when everyone is watching MTV, that’s not so easy," Sackler said. To keep their interest, she said, they varied the pace of scenes and relied on "pure aesthetic gut."

Related links:

• Watch the trailer in RealPlayer | Quicktime .
• Chronicle interview with Guttman
• "Mechina" website