Coexist-Documentary Film Outreach Project » classroom

Happy New Year!

Adam — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:21:32 +0000

Coexist is a documentary and educational outreach project which includes a 40-minute film, Viewer’s Guide, curricular and technical support, which constitute a ready-to-use toolkit for incorporation into programs on anti-violence, conflict resolution, anti-bullying and other standards-aligned curricula by school districts, youth development organizations, colleges and universities.

How Coexist is working in Schools

Here’s a link to one example of what happens in classrooms where we teach Coexist. That school now plans to broaden and deepen the conversation about violence prevention.

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The Coexist team was interviewed ahead of the San Francisco Bay Area premiere of Coexist this Friday, November 18th at 8pm at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley. Event info is available here: http://www.lapena.org/event/1893

To listen to the interview hit play below, wait a few moments for the show to load and then click in the middle of the time bar to jump forward to 62:00 where the interview begins.

Listen to internet radio with Wandas Picks on Blog Talk Radio

Find our latest post about Penn State and the failure to stand up here.

Read what people are saying about Coexist here.

Penn State and the Failure to Speak Up

Adam — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:12:12 +0000

Find our latest post here and below:

Read what people are saying about Coexist here.

By Mishy Lesser, Coexist Learning Director

Penn State is a tragic case study of a system that is stuck. Assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s sexual predation of young boys, his abuse of power, and the cover up and collusion by Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, President Graham Spanier, and graduate student Mike McQueary, are just the most recent incarnations of failed leadership. It is now known that both Paterno and Spanier were told by McQueary that Sandusky was sexually abusing boys, but they were part of a college culture that encouraged loyalty to friends, more than courage to act to stop abuse and prevent further victimization. Spanier led Penn State, starting in 1995, and Paterno’s tenure lasted 46 years. Their failure to notify police reveals greater concern for the college’s image than for the protection of victims, and the healing and justice they deserve. As 31 year-old Iraq war veteran and Penn State graduate Thomas Day wrote in a scathing criticism of a generation of failed leadership, “This failure of a generation is as true in the halls of Congress as it is at Penn State.”

Victims and their families suffered from initial response to the revelations of sexual violence at Penn State. The fact that at first 5,000 students took to the streets to show support for Paterno, rather than stood in solidarity with and concern for the victims, was surely re-traumatizing. Penn State student president T.J. Bard aptly pointed out “we watched as mayhem built a false sense of community.” It is this illusion of togetherness that can be so dangerous in human society. An unquestioning attitude, blind obedience to authority, and unwillingness to report wrongdoing by one’s friends — all these behaviors help explain why seemingly decent people fail others in times of greatest need. Thankfully, the mood shifted a week into the scandal, as students and the community became vocal in support of victims. Could that same shift happen in a pre-genocidal frenzy that can take over a society?

I am the learning director of a documentary film called Coexist and for the past year, I’ve taught the film in a variety of schools and on campuses all over North America. Coexist is a film about the complexity and limitations of reconciliation and forgiveness in post-genocide Rwanda. It is also a film about our own limitations, as a species, at recognizing and respecting difference. And it is a film about the cycle of violence, and how today’s victims can easily become tomorrow’s perpetrators, unless they learn how to stop it. When I work with students to unpack the messages of the film, as I did to a packed crowd on November 9^th at Stonehill College near Boston, they are quick to make a connection between the behaviors that contributed to genocide in Rwanda and the behaviors that leave some feeling singled out on campus. The damage caused by those who stand by and allow harm to happen to targeted groups in middle and high schools and on college campuses is oft noted with grave concern in the workshops I conduct. Making assumptions about others, name-calling, teasing, humiliating, stereotyping, intolerance, and harassment—including sexual harassment, and are all-too-common behaviors. Just last week a major national survey reported that 48% of students in grades 7-12 experienced some form of sexual harassment in person or electronically.

What a time to be working with youth to help reinforce their understanding of misuse of power, the damage caused by silence of bystanders, and the importance of becoming upstanders! Wherever we turn, there is a story about lack of leadership, collusion with brutality, and refusal to denounce deplorable behavior of friends and those seen by their peers as “nice people.” Sadly, there are far too many examples of emotional and physical pain experienced by victims, whether of child sexual abuse, bullying, or other forms of cruelty.

By teaching Coexist to new generations, we hope to help them recognize abuse, mistreatment, stereotyping, and scapegoating in all its forms, and commit themselves to stopping it and holding perpetrators accountable. As is often the case, perpetrators are themselves the product of degrading and dehumanizing circumstances. Victims, their families, as well as perpetrators must get professional and community support for healing. One of the things that can most soothe victims is knowing that onlookers will no longer be disengaged, that they’ve done an inventory of their own moral conduct, and concluded that they must step in and speak out. The creation of a strong culture of upstanders is the best insurance policy to protect future victims, whether of bullying, sexual violence, or genocide. Being a bystander is a choice, and it’s that poor choice of standing by and failing to act that allowed Sandusky to prey on more young boys for years after his criminal behavior was first discovered.

That’s a message that students, and adults, at Penn State, and in schools and communities around the world are ready to learn. Are we willing to give them the opportunity?

Students Reflect on Bullying, Genocide, & Non-violence

Adam — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:05:46 +0000

“A lot of people at my school need to work on taking a stand against injustices.”

Nearly 250 students, from 9th through 12th grade joined in an hour-long discussion about the documentary film Coexist at Amherst Regional High School in Western Massachusetts on Thursday October 27, 2011. Coexist Learning Director Dr. Mishy Lesser designed and facilitated the workshop prompting students to think about their own role in conflict. One student reflected, “I see fear, greed, and hate at school, which I was able to think more about.”

Teachers from English, Acting, Social Studies, and French agreed to use the Coexist Viewer’s Guide and screen the film before Mishy’s arrival. Teachers pooled their students in the library, taking over the space for five periods, thanks to generous support from the high school’s librarians. Another student observed, “You have to do something to stop harm. If everyone waits for someone else to do it, it won’t get done.”

During the workshops students developed a group definition of genocide, identified the behaviors that contribute to genocide, those that contribute to preventing the escalation of violence and scapegoating, and discussed which behaviors that contribute to genocide might be present in the school community, even if in a milder form. One student made an important connection, “Bullying is like mini-genocide. I [now see] the connection between bullying and genocide.” Another student said, “Genocide is caused by fear and greed, but also caused by people being bystanders, and people not taking action.”

Principal Mark Jackson and student leaders of STAND invited Mishy to lead the workshops. STAND is the student-led division of United to End Genocide. The event was planned over the course of several months, which allowed student leaders enough time to identify and recruit a variety of teachers to participate in the Coexist workshop. STAND group envisions a world in which the international community protects civilians from genocidal violence.

Following the workshop one student said, “In school people are quick to judge and write people off without fully understanding the other person’s situation, or even attempting to.” Another wrote, “The only way people can live in peace is if we communicate and try to practice non-violence. “

The event was made possible thanks to the generous support of Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee of Orange. The Coexist team looks forward to returning to Amherst Regional High School to work with other students and teachers, and is available to work in nearby middle and high schools.

Watch this video for a look at what a Coexist workshop looks like in action:

**What are viewers saying about Coexist?**

Audience members yearn for more time to unpack the many messages of Coexist. Here are recent comments about both the film and the debriefing discussions facilitated by members of the Coexist team:

“Coexist is a remarkable film and unparalleled in conveying the complexities of life today in Rwanda for survivors of the genocide. The experience of survivors such as Fifi and Domitilie, and the unique opportunity to hear their views in their own words, is a call to action for us all. Not only must we remember the victims of the genocide, but also the survivors still living with the consequences of genocide today.” -David Russell, Executive Director SURF (Survivors Fund)

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“This is an excellent film. Of the various films I have seen on the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, this is the most truthful, the most real. It presents things as they are, not driven by the desire to show how wonderfully people reconcile. It shows the pain, the mistrust, with some glimmering of hope.” -Professor Ervin Staub, author of Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict and Terrorism (Oxford University Press, 2011) and Founding Director of the doctoral program in Psychology of Peace and Prevention of Violence, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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Coexist was carefully and sensitively made, drawing in a variety of narratives, beliefs, and perceptions that underscore the complexity of mass violence. The video and educational programs serve as beneficial learning tools for American adults and young people who may not know much about Rwanda and have not been faced with the need for social healing and reconciliation after genocide. I especially appreciate the film for not offering simplistic remedies to the profound questions of how people live together, and live with themselves, after such atrocity. The film reminds us that we each face ourselves and manage our recovery differently, and that human beings have an astounding resilience.” – Dr. Paula Green, founder, Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, and CONTACT Program, SIT (School for International Training Graduate Institute)

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“The power of the film and Mishy’s way of inviting us to experience it deeply has Saturday evening still reverberating in me. So many levels of engagement arose as the evening progressed, with Mishy setting the context, with the brief history presented, with Mishy’s inviting and facilitating comments from the audience.” - Sarah Conn, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist and Co-Founder, Earth Circles

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“Coexist is outstanding, in part because it brings up for viewers so many profound thoughts and feelings. The film underscores our capacity as humans for evil and betrayal and injustice. And Mishy’s welcoming, context-setting, and facilitation of the debriefing were terrific.” – Robert Ryan, Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness Consultant/Coach

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“Coexist is so evocative; it crushes the heart because it is so real and tells the truth about what did happen and what could happen. I feel edified by having seen it.” – Brett Litz, Ph.D., VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University

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Praise for Coexist

Adam — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:36:01 +0000

**What are viewers saying about Coexist?**

Audience members yearn for more time to unpack the many messages of Coexist. Here are recent comments about both the film and the debriefing discussions facilitated by members of the Coexist team:

. . .

“Coexist was carefully and sensitively made, drawing in a variety of narratives, beliefs, and perceptions that underscore the complexity of mass violence. The video and educational programs serve as beneficial learning tools for American adults and young people who may not know much about Rwanda and have not been faced with the need for social healing and reconciliation after genocide. I especially appreciate the film for not offering simplistic remedies to the profound questions of how people live together, and live with themselves, after such atrocity. The film reminds us that we each face ourselves and manage our recovery differently, and that human beings have an astounding resilience.” – Dr. Paula Green, founder, Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, and CONTACT Program, SIT (School for International Training Graduate Institute)

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New Video: Coexist in the Classroom

Adam — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:07:17 +0000

We’ve often been asked how our documentary film, Coexist, can be used in the classroom. Since we are documentarians we thought it would be best to show you! Check out our new video, and if you like it, please share it with friends:

What are viewers saying about Coexist?

Audience members yearn for more time to unpack the many messages of
Coexist. Here are recent comments about both the film and the debriefing
discussions facilitated by members of the Coexist team:

. . .
“Coexist was carefully and sensitively made, drawing in a variety of narratives, beliefs, and perceptions that underscore the complexity of mass violence. The video and educational programs serve as beneficial learning tools for American adults and young people who may not know much about Rwanda and have not been faced with the need for social healing and reconciliation after genocide. I especially appreciate the film for not offering simplistic remedies to the profound questions of how people live together, and live with themselves, after such atrocity. The film reminds us that we each face ourselves and manage our recovery differently, and that human beings have an astounding resilience.” – Dr. Paula Green, founder, Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, and CONTACT Program, SIT (School for International Training Graduate Institute)

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Would you like to organize a screening? Contact us to make it happen!

UPCOMING SCREENINGS

MARCH 30th, 2011, 2 p.m. The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ (Free event)

With Director Adam Mazo. Full details to come.

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MARCH 23rd, 2011, 5 p.m. Bentley University, Waltham, MA (Free event)

With Director Adam Mazo. Full details to come.

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Coexisting in School

Adam — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:49:38 +0000

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TO ORDER COEXIST EDUCATIONAL DVDs CLICK HERE

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Check out the latest news on Coexist, featured in the Lowell Sun.

Coexist has just been awarded an Honorable Mention in the documentary category at the Metropolitan Film Festival of New York!

Through Coexist we want audiences to become activists in their communities. We hope Coexist inspires dialogue with friends, family, and most importantly strangers and the “other”. We encourage you to explore our site to learn more about our educational mission that we are working to achieve. Below check out pictures from our World Premiere on November 6th in Boston.

400+ guests gather for the Coexist World Premiere

Reverend Hurmon Hamilton of Roxbury Presbyterian Church introduces the film

Director Adam Mazo speaks after the screening

Learning Director Mishy Lesser meets Translator Kenneth K.

Four Screenings and Scores of New Friends

Mishy — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 03:26:41 +0000

Yesterday, at the Youth Summit we screened the film to a group of thirty youth from all over North America, as well as Kenya. I posted seven questions on the walls of the room and asked the youth to “walk the walls” and decide which question most resonated with them. Each wrote their name on the sheet of the question that tugged at them. The groups were unevenly sized: two, four, seven, six. Then they got into seven small groups to share their perspectives on these questions:

-are human beings inherently violent?

-are some people born killers?

-who stands to benefit/lose from forgiveness?

-is evil intrinsic to some individuals and if so, is it a waste of time to forgive them?

-how might you judge the sincerity in a perpetrator’s confession?

-what do you think of the statement that students in Rwanda are the same as students in the U.S., except that they lived through a different situation and faced different moral decisions?

-what do you think about this statement: the widow who reaches out to her husband’s murderer is an expression of empathy not just for her loss but also for the loss of the perpetrator’s moral humanity.

Their discussions were rich and several groups did not reach agreement. They reported out in the remaining time and we had to wrap it up. One of the young men is from El Salvador and we got to talk my research with Salvadorans many years ago, and the ways he feels pulled between non-violence and his families historic ties to the FMLN. It was a very real and wrenching conversation.

Early Saturday afternoon, political scientist Cynthia Enloe (Clark University) described her focus on the post-war reality of Iraqi women and U.S. women. She talked about injured soldiers and the women who care for them, and the impact this care has on the lives of the women, and how men’s stories of war influence women’s stories of war. She called this the gendering of injury of war. Cynthia ended her talk by saying that the privileging of men’s war stories, the submerging of women’s war stories, women’s role caring for injured men, and the use of violence against women in war form the perfect patriarchal seed bed for the next war.

Carolyn Nordstrom, anthropologist from the University of Notre Dame, talked about the fault lines that constitute the zones of vulnerability that are often invisible. She described a fourteen year old girl from a war zone in Angola: she was shot as a child, lives on the street with other children, they care for each other, have clear rules about sharing and looking out for one another. Their motto is “let’s not turn into Brazil; let’s change this before Brazil happens here.” Carolyn examines the extra legal activity that constitutes 1/3 of the world’s economy: smugglers, drug traders, money launderers, dealers in guns and body parts, which all told generate over $2 Billion that are not accountable to anyone. About one-tenth of the world’s economy is being laundered at any given moment. Meanwhile, 12 million children are forced to work in the sex industry every year, and 218 million children work illegally, mostly in agriculture. The informal economy is beginning to eclipse the formal economy, and the profits are used to grow political power and impunity. There is a global ideology that says this is okay, and this is a major fault line on our planet. Societies built on fault lines collapse.

Today (Saturday), we got an extra opportunity to screen the film for students from Roanoke College in Virginia. We will set up a screening on campus in the spring.

In the afternoon, we screened Coexist again for 47 Conference participants — mostly college professors and activists. Three of the Conference keynote speakers joined us: Cynthia Enloe, Carolyn Nordstrom, and Catherine Morris of the University of Victoria. We were asked many more questions than we had time to answer, and most importantly, we made new friends and contacts, many of whom asked for copies of the film and the Viewer’s Guide. One professor said his students are in ROTC and they need to see Coexist. Another professor said this kind of violence permeates our inner cities in the U.S. Someone else suggested that the film be used in Israel and Palestine to teach about coexistence. Some viewers said they love the film’s complexity, others its relevancy and power. We were VERY pleased. After the screening, we met George Lahey from Swarthmore who encouraged our work, and many other pillars and pioneers of the peacebuilding and peace education movements of North America. We are thrilled to have attended the Conference and already have an idea for our next film! Stay tuned!

–Mishy Lesser, Learning Director for Coexist

Boston Students Find Meaning in Rwanda’s Lessons

Adam — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:51:11 +0000

“Learning about Rwanda… it gives people the opportunity to open their eyes about things that are going on in our neighborhoods (in the United States) so we can buckle up and make change. So, I think it’s very important to learn it.” High School senior Maceyo Branch reacted to seeing a preview of Reconciliation’s Reach at a discussion this week with the filmmaker at Health Careers Academy on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston.

25 seniors watched a 5 minute video preview of Reconciliation’s Reach about genocide survivors efforts to reconcile with wives of perpetrators. Then the students, from neighborhoods across Boston, engaged in a lively discussion about why Rwandans stories are relevant to them and why they care about the struggles of people on the other side of the world.

Some students found it hard to imagine how genocide survivors could begin to accept a killer or a killer’s relative. Ashley Harton-Powell saw maturity, “It shows how strong they are. Because if you went to one of us, or an American in general, and asked ‘What if this was to happen to you, how would you feel if the wife of that person or the family member of that person came to you to apologize for their wrong doing?’ A lot of people probably would not be able to accept the apology.”

Maceyo understood how some Rwandans have found ways to live side by side with former enemies, “After the genocide they were able to humanize the person cause they really got to know that, ‘They’re human just like us and they suffered just like us.’ You can dehumanize somebody but you can also humanize a person too.”

Watching Reconciliation’s Reach was powerful for Noadya Legrand, she said, “It’s something that can really change you, can change your whole mindset and your values.” Some students see the possibility of organizing their community for action. Efrangely De La Cruz, “We’re the teenagers in America and it takes one person to make a change. If one person starts it up and they tell people, more people become involved and become more interested in making that difference.”

Bendina Remy saw a clear connection between Rwandans work for reconciliation and her life, “It relates to me because just like the Tutsis and the Hutu, I live in Dorchester (a section of Boston) and there’s a lot of gang violence between the Bloods and the Crips. And it just reminds me, they’re killing each other over nonsense and you need to stop it. It kind of hit home cause I know a lot of gang-affiliated people. Maybe we could do something to change it. And if we could change it in Rwanda we could change it in Boston.”

See what we’ve been up to:

-Photos from our recent benefit concert event

-A live interview with the filmmaker on ABC-TV:

Adam on ABC7

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Talking Reconciliation @ Broccoli Hall

Adam — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:30:18 +0000

As we prepare for our benefit concert event on Thursday March 26th, we’re talking about the power of reconciliation with high school students.

“We’re all on this rock together.” That’s the reason a high school student at Corwin-Russell School at Broccoli Hall gave for why reconciliation in Rwanda is important and relevant in his life. The message was clear from this group of 30+ creative and intelligent students. Arriving at Broccoli Hall in Sudbury, Massachusetts, just outside Boston, the name is the first clue this school is like no other. Teachers and students flow through from room to room of the quirky building that is half school house half modern/pop culture art museum. The sign outside the principal’s office is “Toad’s Hall.” Harry Potter paraphernalia is also popular. A photo illustration by the secretary’s desk shows an open pea pod with rainbow colored peas “None of the things in this place fit into the same category.”

Somehow at the assigned time all the students just seemed to know where to be as they seated themselves alternately at a long high table with barstools, at computer desks, on the floor and perched on anything else they could find to hear me, a documentary filmmaker, tell them how they can help change the world. They also offered their advice on the lessons of our documentary film Reconciliation’s Reach and how those ideas can be implemented in their lives. After a brief history of what happened in 1994 in Rwanda- 1,000,000 people killed in 100 days- we watched a preview of the film (watch it at the top of this page) Immediate reactions ranged from “moving” to “frightening.” The students were immediately engaged asking dozens of questions during our 90 minutes together.

They were quick with their ideas of how this model of reconciliation, which seems to be working in Rwanda, can be used in their lives. They talked about their personal relationships with other students, teachers, and then they mentioned grander ideas of reconciliation in Iraq and between Sunnis and Shia. They learned that REACH in Rwanda has been successful to a degree in introducing the idea of building peace through business and social partnerships. This progress comes despite the Rwandan people’s experiences, suffering through atrocities that are unimaginable. One student said, our discussion helped to remind him that our problems are not as dire and that makes reconciling the differences we may have that much more feasible. Several students shared this sentiment saying, they feel that seeing this example inspires them to think about ways they can create reconciliation in their personal lives and neighborhoods.

The energy was infectious from this dynamic group of students. The class and the teachers were inquisitive and excited and eager to see the completed film, Reconciliation’s Reach. They left with the reminder that they have the power to make a difference in their world. As one student, Nick, summed it up at the end quoting Ghandi he said, “We can ‘be the change’ we want to see in the world.”
–Adam Mazo, Executive Producer-Reconciliation’s Reach

Join us in Boston:
Rock Out for Reconciliation’s Reach
Thursday, March 26th
Hennessy’s of Boston
25 Union St.
Boston, MA 02108
6 p.m. – 1:30 a.m.

Come for the live music, dozens of raffle prizes worth thousands of dollars and much more! To learn more about Rock Out for Reconciliation’s Reach and download the flyer click here. RSVP via facebook. Not a facebook member? Email us!
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Did you see this? We recently had the opportunity to talk about our film on ABC-TV in Sarasota, Florida.

Adam on ABC7