Tan Kurttekin and James McLeod working together at the Hebron Glass studio.
UPDATED 2/2/11
Seeking to build a bridge of understanding between two places that are often bitterly divided, a documentary team calling themselves Floating World Projects is exploring the artistic and historic link between Israel and Palestine through glassblowing. Their documentary film project, entitled The Road to Hebron: Glass of the Holy Land, is currently in production by a team made up of American and Turkish glass artists.
Floating World Projects bills itself as a cross-cultural nonprofit arts organization and includes MassArt professor and artist James McLeod and American artist Leo Tecosky. According to McLeod, “Floating World Projects has become an umbrella organization with an aim to create and sustain multimedia collaborative projects based on art and education,” with all endeavors being based on breaking down socially constructed prejudices between cultures.
In 2008, McLeod and Tecosky were helping to lead a study-abroad program in Istanbul. During the trip, McLeod learned of a glass studio in Hebron owned by the Al-Natsheh family, which could trace its long history with the glass community in the Middle East back to the 13th century. Due to restrictions on Palestinian movement in the area and a depleted tourist industry, the family had been forced to close many of its studios. From 40 studios at the height of the family’s glass studio network, today, only two studios have survived.
After learning more about the facility and the family, McLeod found himself intrigued by their history and went to Palestine to learn more.
“My first thought when I traveled there was that there’s a very skewed perception of Israel and Palestine, one based on violence, military, terrorism,” said McLeod. “I realized very quickly that it’s an amazing community, and at the factory, with the workers there, I was able to speak a similar language because of our history with glassblowing. What I wanted to do was recreate that experience for the larger international community.”
Setting up Floating World Projects with other glass artists from Turkey as well as the U.S., McLeod decided to produce a documentary film about one of the remaining Al Salam Ceramic and Glass studios where glass is still blown. After organizing a team of artists and connecting with Turkish documentary filmmaker Tan Kurttekin, the project team began making plans to travel back to Palestine to film on-site at the Hebron studio with glass masters from the Al-Natsheh family.
Imad Al-Natsheh and James McLeod in the Hebron Glass studio, Photo by Tan Kurttekin
“It started as going to just record a piece of history that’s been there, specifically this Palestinian family that’s been blowing glass for hundreds of years in the same area,” McLeod told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet in a telephone interview. “But, after meeting more people, the point of the film became to highlight glass as a worldwide trade and craft, also a trade and craft that due to its process can bring people together, specifically people in places under political strife.”
In January 2011 the documentary team, accompanied by glass artists Oben Abright and Guido Gerlitz, took trip to Israel and Palestine to continue filming. During the trip, they visited the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design to teach classes and interact with glass art students in Jerusalem. They also spent time at the Al Salam Ceramic factory in Hebron, and developed relationships with different members of the glass world in the area.
To bridge the gap between the glass artists and artisans from the Paletstine, Israel, and the American glass blowing communities, the film producers decided to tell the whole story of contemporary glass making in Israel, as well as what’s left of the glass studios in Hebron. Not only did they find a lack of knowledge among members of the American glass community, but they also noticed a lack of information reaching the students near the studios in Palestine and Israel.
“All of the students we spoke with in Jerusalem didn’t know anything about the Palestinian studio, which is 45 minutes away from them,” says McLeod, who was struck by the similarity between the students in Israel and those in Palestine. “Everybody that I met in Israel was very interested in the studio. I think it was frustrating for the students to not have access to the studio. Palestinian students would also love to be able to travel, and share their knowledge and history. One of my main goals with this is to try to educate people about what both communities are like on a humanistic basic level.”
Noa Fein and James McLeod at Al Bezalel Art and Design school in Jerusalem, Photo by Tan Kurttekin
When asked what challenges they’ve faced as they attempt the ambitious task of producing an independent documentary film, Tecosky replied, “Money’s just hard to get in general these days, but I think trying to get a little bit of exposure has been the hardest part. I don’t think people are taking the project that seriously, and it’s kind of just getting brushed to the side, as just another collaborative project without its potential being realized.”
McLeod says that he’s encountered some skepticism about the subject matter of the film from some potential funders, though he credits the enlightened environment of the college where he teaches as a critical area of support for the project.
“Every time you bring the subject up with somebody you never know what sort of reaction you’re going to get,” said McLeod. “I’m lucky enough to work in the higher education field at a liberal university, so there’s a lot of support from the community within Boston.”
McLeod has realized that the best solution to this situation is to rework their pitches and how they approach the media. “We have to realize that you always have to start from square one. There are always people who have grave misconceptions, so one of the challenges is that you have to step back and have the conversation from the very beginning.”
In the end, McLeod puts his faith in the energy and talents of the documentary team: “It’s a very complex project that’s expensive, and very altruistic in nature. But when you get a number of like-minded people on a project that all work together, there’s nothing that can stand in your way.”
When asked what impact he wanted the movie to have, both in the glass community and in the wider world, Tecosky said, “It’s about maintaining posterity and maintaining and keeping records of information that we have. And recording this moment in time and having it for the future generations.”
McLeod sees the film as telling “the whole story” of glass making in Israel and what’s left of it in Hebron; as a comment on societal misconceptions of a part of the world many have formed opinions on solely through mass media. And, in turn, he sees the film as a step towards breaking down those misconceptions, and as a tool for education.
“The film is showing a true human perspective of different cultures that are brought together for the love a certain material which is glass,” he says. With glassworking a shared aspect of different cultures, he hopes that this film illuminates not only this connection between the histories and peoples of Palestine and Israel, but those in the glass community worldwide.
With the help of public and private grants including one from MassArt, organizing fundraisers, and direct donations through their Website, some of the funding for the film is in place, according to Tecosky and McLeod. To ensure that money will come in for their August 2011 trip as well as post-production work the group is constantly in the process of applying for grants. An art exhibition hosted by Public Glass will provide a percentage of the sales generated to the film.
To learn more about Floating World Projects, their upcoming exhibitions, and about how you can become involved, visit their Website: http://floatingworldprojects.org/ or blog: http://floatingworldprojects.blogspot.com/
—Alica Forneret