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God, the collaborative version By Oded Yaron Tags: film, israel news, god "When I thought I would get a death sentence, it never occurred to me even for a moment to pray. I said to myself that if you beseech heaven, you're a weakling," said Prof. Michael Harsegor, a historian, as he sat alongside a darkened computer screen and uncomfortably addressed the unseen interviewer, Nati Adler. "It's very hard for me to understand you," Harsegor continued. "Do you need that old man flying above you in the sky?" "I want to think that there's something more sublime than this life here," replied Adler. Advertisement "What is sublime? There is no such thing," Harsegor retorted. "You are a human being. Stay within the boundaries of the human race." But the answer to the question "what is sublime" is precisely what Adler, director of the film "God and I," is trying to discover: the God of each and every one of us - what we feel about him, whether we have felt his presence in our lives and whether we conduct a daily dialogue with him. The work, which is not yet completed, is being produced in cooperation with Channel 8 and Flix on the Tapuz site, and is supposed to be "the first collaborative film in Israel," as Adler termed it. Meanwhile, the material that has already been produced can be viewed at the film's site on Flix (http://tinyurl.com/6o2dt3). It is also possible to participate in making the film by sending Adler a short video about your personal God. "God is in fact like a Rorschach ink blot - everyone sees something different in him," said Adler, 38, in an interview. "That is why I wanted to make the film in this way." "The film is also an attempt to understand what I myself think and feel about God, via the collective experience of many other voices," he added. "During the process, my perspective has already changed very much, several times, in the wake of things people said." And they have said quite a lot, starting with "God is not an entity. he is a group on Facebook, like those groups for freeing [Israeli MIA] Ron Arad. People truly do believe that if they join together with a single good intention, something will really happen." Someone else compared God to a bank "that exists by virtue of those who believe in it, by virtue of the clients. And if the clients stop believing in it, it will cease to exist." Other stories include a father from Dahariya who lost his son to an illness, and a person who embarked on a spiritual journey and said his most significant discoveries came to him in the wake of smoking pot. Adler and researcher Kobi Davidian also interviewed a series of scholars and intellectuals, such as Prof. Boaz Huss of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, who described the perception of God?s sexuality in the kabbala. Well-known personalities such as actor Moshe Ivgy were interviewed as well, alongside ordinary people. Adler, who was interviewed by the Channel 10 current events program "London and Kirschenbaum" when he started the project, related at the time that his decision to bring surfers into the work crystallized after he was exposed to the blogosphere and the idea of open source. "I was turned on by the experience of communicating with people whom I don't know," he said. "My feeling was a bit mystical. If in Buddhism, God is the linkage of all our consciousnesses in the world, then Web 2.0 can give us the possibility of doing this, like Wikipedia. In cinema, there is a lot of creativity, but the basic format hasn't changed for a very long time now. After a while, you discover that it is very difficult to escape the pattern. I felt kind of stuck because of the system. In the last film I made for television - "Kololosh," a film of an hour and a half - the budget was $500,000. That means managing a system that runs for three years. After all that, I loved the ease of the Internet." But his work on "God and I" has taught Adler that the Internet also has limitations. "At first, I had a utopian feeling, that this was a film that was happening almost by itself - something very democratic, and without too much intervention by the director. Now, however, it is in a much more realistic place, and I understand that this has to be a film I am making via the Internet and not a film that the Internet is making." Studies have shown that only a very small percentage of surfers participate in Web 2.0. This is also true of Adler's film: Most of the segments were uploaded by Adler, Davidian and one user who became seriously involved in the project. Despite the thousands of surfers who have viewed the films, fewer than 30 have uploaded films of their own. "The test isn't only how many have uploaded," explained Adler, "but also the open process by which the film is created, sort of one long brainstorming session with a lot of people. If someone has sent in a segment of 10 seconds, I might well go deep into it with him." This has not prevented him from wanting to translate the idea into other languages in order to get perspectives from the whole world. Now, he related, one problem remains: How to put a character into the film who will turn the wheels. "Hagai Dagan, a writer and lecturer on Jewish thought, said to me: 'Look, it's possible to make a film about God, but just take into account that this is a character you can't film.'" Bookmark to del.icio.us   4th quarter jitters Democrats have grown so used to losing, they feel any good news must have a catch. Designing an icon Ten years ago, two students asked Israeli Ruth Kedar to design their new company's logo.

Read & React Bradley Burston: Live Election Blog - Q&A / A&Q Responses: 1 Obama carries lead over McCain into election day Responses: 70 ANALYSIS / Is Obama a danger to Israel after all? Responses: 46 Britain to EU: Clamp down on imports from settlements Responses: 67 You betcha, Sarah Palin hits a nerve among Jewish women Responses: 28 Hezbollah: Large swaths of north Israel belong to Lebanon Responses: 14 More Headlines 10:37 Obama carries lead over McCain as U.S. polls open 11:52 ANALYSIS / Is Obama a danger to Israel after all? 11:52 Rabin's daughter, 13 years on: Same incitement exists today 09:49 Hezbollah: Large swaths of north Israel belong to Lebanon 02:26 Britain to EU: Clamp down on imports from settlements 10:09 Syria asks foreign staff of U.S. institutions to leave country 06:21 You betcha, Sarah Palin hits a nerve among Jewish women 03:04 In wake of financial crisis, Haredim plan prayer day to fund schools 07:05 Illegally built Arab homes in E. Jerusalem to get water service 06:27 Demand for high-tech workers in Israel down 35 percent to 45 percent 06:29 Sheba hospital suspected of selling know-how to foreign countries 06:32 Victim's mother: Driver 'should join Meital in her grave' 07:07 Health Ministry offers tips on how to survive the coming winter Previous Editions Select Day 03 nov 02 nov 31 oct 30 oct 29 oct 28 oct 27 oct 26 oct 24 oct 23 oct 22 oct 21 oct

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