When: Thursday, April 21, 2016 at 6:30 P.M.
Where: Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall at Butler University’s Robertson Hall
Click here to view the film’s trailer
“When you touch someone with respect, something changes.” Our beliefs, intolerance and misunderstandings, often nurtured over generations, underlie many of the world’s problems. In our own country and community, welcoming the stranger, living in harmony and respect with others of different racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds are front-of-mind issues. Our hearts break with each act of violence rooted in prejudice, stereotyping and intolerance. It is harder to hate someone or what they stand for when a personal connection is made—when we see that the “other” is a person with the same loves, cares and feelings as us. But how often do we expect others to do this and leave us safe with our “beliefs?” What if we each touched someone with respect? How much change might there be? How much would the paradigm shift?
Pierre Dulaine, an internationally renowned ballroom dancer, fulfills a life-long dream when he takes his program, Dancing Classrooms, back to his city of birth, Jaffa. Over a ten-week period, Pierre teaches 10-year-old Jewish and Palestinian Israeli children to dance and compete together. Dancing in Jaffa explores the complex stories of three different children who are forced to confront issues of identity, segregation and racial prejudice as they dance with their enemy. The classroom becomes a microcosm of the Middle East’s struggle to work together harmoniously while still caught in the politics of the region and race. With the guidance of Pierre, the children learn to dance together and trust one another. Dancing In Jaffa offers an up-close-and-personal perspective of how the future might unfold if the art of movement and dance could triumph over the politics of history and geography.
About A New View Film Series:
Each of us has a unique view through which we see the world. Shaped by our experiences, culture, and familial identity, this view forms our beliefs, values, and way of life. A New View Film Series will journey outside everyday life to explore new worldviews through the screening of five films. Each screening will be followed by a discussion of the film lead by Louise Henderson, former Festival Director and Head Documentary Programmer for Heartland Film Festival, now an independent film producer and film festival consultant. The series will take place every other month from August 2015 through April 2016 at Butler University’s Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall. The series is free and open to the public.
Presented and Facilitated by the Desmond Tutu Center, Center for Interfaith Cooperation, and Butler University’s Amnesty International and Center for Faith and Vocation
