If you think back to your transition out of high school most of you will probably remember worrying about the SAT, grades, and where you would continue your studies. Now compare your experience with that of teenagers in Israel. Required to spend a year in the military, high school students choose not which college they will attend, but rather which military group they will join.
Duke senior Maital Guttman has captured this experience in a documentary entitled Mechina: A Preparation. The film follows her cousin and his five friends as they prepare to join the army.
Born in Israel, Guttman remained there until she was seven years old. Since she still has family in Jerusalem, she returned to Israel every year to visit, but it became difficult to visit when she started college. When she began her project last year, she hadn't been back in over three years.
The idea for a documentary came to Guttman as she began to look for funding for her trip. She applied for and received grants from multiple sources including campus arts, Judaic studies, and international groups.
“I knew that my cousin would soon be entering the Israeli army and couldn't help but compare his life with mine.” Guttman explained. She thought of the documentary as a way to portray an important story that we don't see in the Unites States. Mechina explores what the transition into the military is like for Israeli teenagers. She captures their fears, expectations, and questions.
Guttman spent three weeks filming in Israel over the summer and then returned again last January to see her cousin ship out. Although teenagers in Israel are required to join the army, they are allowed to defer their involvement for one year of volunteerism and studying-the program from which the film draws its name. Guttman joined her cousin and his friends during the end of their year of Mechina.
Having to join the military is especially challenging for the subjects of the film because each is a strong proponent of peace. Her cousin had previously attended Seeds of Peace, a well known camp in Maine where Arab and Israeli teenagers selected by their country's government based on academic performance and leadership ability live together, eat together, and participate in summer camp activities. While in Israel, Guttman, her cousin and his friends attended the country's largest peace rally in ten years.
One of Guttman's main motivations for creating this documentary was to show aspects of the story that the media does not portray. In the news, we are only shown images of conflict and violence. Guttman hopes that Mechina will help people to see Israel beyond the conflict and to realize that the media is not the only reality. `
For her cousin and his friends, the experience of joining the military is not about the conflict. It has been about questioning what it means to be a member of the Israeli army, what their behavior in the army should be and how to be a moral soldier.
The story is told through the eyes of the filmmaker, which is significant because this could have been Guttman's experience had she remained in Israel. “At first I didn't know that I was going to put myself in the film,” Guttman said. “Then I realized that even being behind the camera I am still very much there.”
The creation of the documentary became a personal journey for her, in which she was able to explore what it means to be born in Israel and to move to the United States. While Guttman was not required to join the army—having lived and attended high school in the States—the very process of obtaining her exemption gave her reason to reflect.
When she returned from Israel, Guttman faced the challenge of making something out of over 50 hours of footage. She discovered the Multimedia Project Studio in a lab under Old Chemistry building, which is an unknown gem open to all students for free. She spoke with the director and was able to create an extremely helpful partnership with advanced students.
Guttman hopes that Mechina can become a useful learning tool for the greater Duke community. To this end she has scheduled a variety of opportunities for students to see her film. On April 20 Mechina will premiere in Griffith at 7:30p.m. Additionally, the documentary will be shown as part of Israel Day on April 22 in a tent on Main Quad.
Showings have also been organized for every East Campus dorm on April 28 at 8pm on Cable 13. Each will be followed by RA-led discussions in which students can compare their experiences transitioning into college and can also learn about the resources at Duke that many students never use, such as the Multimedia Project Studio.
Additionally, Guttman contacted approximately 60 professors to whose courses the documentary might be relevant. Many have encouraged their students to attend the screening and others have decided to include Mechina in their syllabus for next year.
Guttman's enthusiasm for the project is evident. “Seeing the trailer on the big screen was the coolest thing,” she exclaimed. “I don't know what I'm going to do on the 20th.”
After graduation, Guttman will continue to promote Mechina. She hopes to enter it into film festivals and has been in contact with many groups such as The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and MTV Films. For Guttman, creating and promoting Mechina has served as her own version of service to Israel.
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