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January 23, 2009
Storytelling is natural
Peter Klein speaks at first film festival lecture.
SARA NEWHAM
The tradition of storytelling is such an innate part of Jewish culture that it comes rather naturally to many Jewish filmmakers and journalists. That was the message journalist Peter Klein delivered to a crowd of 100 at the Peretz Centre Jan. 11, for the first-ever Filmmaker's Salon, one of four lectures associated with the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival.
"Storytelling is such a huge part of Judaism," he said, referring to the Torah. "That's why so many [Jews] tend to get into media." And Klein should know. The Emmy Award-winning producer at CBS's 60 Minutes investigative news show has been using his narrative talents to cover terrorism, the war in Bosnia and the Middle East for more than a decade.
A graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, Klein moved to Vancouver in 2005 when he was named Canwest Visiting Professor at the University of British Columbia School of Journalism. He is currently writing a book about the climate of fear in America following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Now an associate professor at the school, Klein regaled the crowd with behind-the-scenes stories about his career in journalism – how he found himself embedded with Croatian Catholics who were building a weapons cache with money from Christian pilgrims and how he kept quiet about his Jewish heritage when producing a story about neo-Nazis in midwestern United States.
"It's really important as a storyteller and a journalist to let people tell their story," he said – even when you do not personally agree with them. Just like the analyses and debates that happen over the Torah, good journalism also evokes serious debate on human stories and issues, he said.
"Jews suffered a lot over this century and I think we, maybe a little more than some other groups, are really empathetic to the suffering of others, so I think it's one of our responsibilities to highlight those kinds of stories," said Klein, whose father experienced that suffering firsthand, as a survivor of the Holocaust.
During the question and answer period of the 90-minute discussion, Klein told the audience that it is the producers who come up with the story proposal to pitch to the correspondents and editors. If they like it, a budget is determined and the producer begins his investigations, writing questions and working on the project for months. The most expensive story Klein ever produced was on the war in Afghanistan and it cost 60 Minutes $200,000.
"It did give us a little bit of a window into what's happening in his world. It's nice to see who's behind the scenes there being a producer," said Suzanne MacDonald, who attended the film festival event. "When you turn on 60 Minutes, you hear the story and you don't always pay attention to the name of the producer and then you meet the person who brings the story to life."
Naturally, the topic of Gaza was brought up and, although Klein indicated the topic was too complicated to give his opinion on it, he did comment on the media coverage of the situation.
Gaza is such a complex story, he said, "that it's almost impossible within the confines of journalism to tell that story without having a panel and endless long discussions. It's so complex and what we end up doing, as storytellers, is we tell the simple, one-dimensional story of the kid who got killed or the family that's suffering or the Israelis whose school got blown up, but that doesn't get at the real story." Klein added that people's opinions on Gaza depend on their personal views of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "[With] Gaza, more than most stories, what you bring to it is what you get," he said.
Richard Wolak is a board member with the film society and organized this first Filmmaker's Salon. He said his idea was to educate people about what goes into films from the perspective of a Jewish filmmaker. As a longtime family friend, Klein was Wolak's first choice.
"I actually thought the evening was very successful. Yes, we had an internationally known speaker, but we had no idea what to expect," said Wolak, who is trying to find more Jewish filmmakers for the three remaining salons.
"We're trying to do new and innovative things. We're trying also to attract a younger audience ... even with our film selections coming up in the New Year.... It broadens our base, we have our films and we have an education series and, if we attract a different crowd, that's great, it's more people that we're reaching out to."
Wolak said the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival will be held Oct. 24-Nov. 8 and will feature 50 to 60 films. To help tide festival-goers over, a mini festival will be held March 28-30 and it will include eight films. More information is available at www.vjff.org.
Sara Newham is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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