Arab Israel Bank, Ein Bustan take 2, and Amir Shlomian

What an adventure the past couple of days have been! I thought the trip was starting off too slowly and now opportunities are popping up out of nowhere. Yesterday, I was invited by Uri Ben David of the Jezreel Valley Arts Center to an opening of a branch of the Arab Israel Bank in an Arab village near Nazareth. This bank donates a large amount of money to the center's Mifne project (read about it here: http://www.musicalvalley.co.il) so the students in the project performed at the opening of this branch. Their was a recorder ensemble, a violin solo by Telemann, and two vocal pieces in Arabic sung by two girls from the Shani Choir. Among the speakers at this event were executives of the bank and the mayor of the village who was kind enough to give me a brief interview. I was graciously given a ride to the event by the Arts Center's International Relations Director, Zohar Dayan, who gave me a few more connections for my project (including a possible connection to Israeli musician and peace activist David Broza, who has collaborated with Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Bono, Sting and others).

This morning, I made my way back to Ein Bustan where I was given permission to film their Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony they have every Thursday, complete with musical accompaniment by their founder, Amir Shlomian. I was also able to film a lot of the children playing outside. Pictures will be up on my facebook soon. After the parents came to pick up their children, I interviewed two of the teachers, Gibi and Ibtisam, as well as one of the parents, with Amir translating.

Tonight, Amir and I went to a cafe where he gave me an amazing hour-long interview covering a wide-variety of topics, including the story of how he founded the school, the role of music in Waldorf education and how they've incorporated it into their school, his own attitude towards peace efforts and even his philosophy concerning what Peace will look like. It was an awesome interview that I hope will turn out well in the editing process.

Sunday I am trying to get out to Tzfat to spend the day with Yair Dalal, then Monday I will get to interview some of the girls from the Shani Choir. Next Thursday I will spend the day with George Samaan (look him up, he's awesome). Other than that, I have more connections to contact and fill up all of that time in between.

I really can't describe how great the project is turning out so far and I'm sure it can only get better. I haven't even made it to Jerusalem yet. I still have almost an entire month left in Israel, and I want to fill up at least 11-16 more hours of film.