|
|
February 11, 2005/Adar 12 5765, Volume 57, No. 24
Old friends team up for musical documentary
JENNIFER GOLDBERG
Staff Writer
When filmmaker Ann Coppel was inspired to create her newest documentary, "A Journey of Spirit," she needed to look no further than her own address book.
The film, a chronicle of Jewish recording artist Debbie Friedman, and the evolution and influence of her work, was born after Friedman's 1996 Carnegie Hall concert. But the two women have a friendship that predated the concert by 25 years.
The two met in 1971: "She was a song leader in NFTY, North American Federation of Temple Youth, and I was a youth group member back in the Midwest," Coppel recalls.
"From that first time that I met her when I was a teenager and we were singing some of her first (songs), it was totally something I could relate to.
"I loved to sing, and there was just something that was very connecting about the melodies she was writing and how you felt when you were singing them. I look back on it now, and I realize that it was a spiritual experience I was having. I didn't really know it at the time, but music opens your heart. She just had a way of making everyone feel they were part of the same thing."
They stayed in touch after NFTY; Coppel did the cover photography on Friedman's third album, "Ani Ma-Amin," and played flute on the recording. Then, after a visit with Friedman in New York around the time of the concert, "A Journey of Spirit" was born.
"Her work has been a big influence and changed a lot of things since her first album came out - since the early '70s - and I think anybody would tell you that," says Coppel. "It just came to me at that point that this was a story that needed to be told."
As she began making "A Journey of Spirit," Coppel realized not everyone in the community was as open to Friedman's innovative musical style as she was.
"One major conflict in the film is the issue of nusach. Nusach refers to the musical motif that the prayers are sung in, and it's a very traditional way of singing the liturgy in a service. What Debbie's sound and music and her style of things did was not follow the nusach."
Coppel interviewed Conservative and Reform cantors and rabbis to get a variety of perspectives on the nusach issue, a process that turned into a learning experience for her.
"I didn't understand why there was such resistance to Debbie's music in the synagogue," she remembers. "Cantors in particular felt that Debbie's sound was going to replace ancient traditional sound, but as you hear many times during the film, Debbie's not about throwing away tradition, but she also wants to make sure you get people through the door."
One of the rabbis interviewed was Rabbi Andrew Straus of Temple Emanuel in Tempe. Temple Emanuel will be the site of a Feb. 13 screening of the film with a post-screening discussion with Coppel.
The local synagogue got in on the film when a childhood friend of Coppel's, who is a current Mesa resident, informed her that the Beit Tikkun healing group at Emanuel was incorporating Friedman's version of the Mischebierach healing prayer into services. The group was weaving a Mischebierach tapestry to wrap themselves in during the healing service.
As her friend told her the story, Coppel recalls, "I can see it in my head, the movie's running in my head. And I know when I can see the images there that there's something going on. I'm getting kind of goose bumps, because this is exactly the kind of story I wanted to talk about."
Coppel travels around the country doing question-and-answer sessions about "A Journey of Spirit," which has won awards including Best New Jewish Film at the Detroit Jewish Film Festival, and Best Film at the National Council of Jewish Women's Film Festival.
"It's so much fun to be there when the film is screening, because there's a lot of moments where one might laugh in the film or one might shed a tear as well," Coppel says, adding, "The response has been extremely positive. I'm very pleased."
The response from Friedman has also been positive. Making "A Journey of Spirit" was a long process, and "obviously, it's tested our friendship a little bit, but we've come out on the good side of that. I'm sure we're closer now as friends," Coppel says.
"She didn't ask me to make the film; I wanted to make the film, because I felt that there was a story to tell. She's very appreciative of what I've done. So that's a good thing. The film tells a good story, and it's more than a biopic about Debbie Friedman - it's really about a slice of American Jewish history over the past 25 or 30 years."
Contact the writer here
Details
- What: "A Journey of Spirit" with post-film discussion
- When: 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 13
- Where: Temple Emanuel of Tempe, 5801 S. Rural Road
- Cost: Free; reservations required
- Call: Phyllis Newman, 480-961-1772
|
|
