CentralJersey.com 11/23/11: SPOTLIGHT: My So-called Enemy . Youth is often a time of idealism and empathy with the other. But caught in the difficult struggle between the Israelis and Palestinians, idealism and reality knock heads, creating a vulnerability that can verge into hatred. Into this gap steps the program Building Bridges for Peace, which brings together Palestinian and Israel teenage girls for a joint leadership program in the United States, with a follow-up in their home communities two years later. Filmmaker (and Wayland native) Lisa Gossells, after her first, Emmy Award-winning film, The Children of Chabannes, wanted to make a film about conflict resolution and young people. By coincidence, or perhaps it was fated, she heard Melodye Feldman, founder of Bridges, and four participants talk about the program at a Denver educational conference in August 2001, right before Sept. 11. When Ms. Gossells proposed a documentary about both the program and its lingering effects on the lives of participants, Ms. Feldman was game. Ms. Gossells’ new film My So-Called Enemy is a powerful exploration of both the pain and growth that real listening brings in a situation of conflict. From 5,400 minutes of footage taken by two camera crews working day and night during the 10-day program, Ms. Gossells and her editing crew culled the first 27 minutes of the film; the clips reflect the encounters between the young women, both serious and playful, and highlight the voices of the six Gossells decided to follow in ensuing years.

Wayland Patch 9/20/11: Filmmaker: Film 'Optimistic' Despite 'Bump in the Road of Kenya's History'. To a land far, far away, Wayland resident John Michalczyk took a video camera, a script and a curiosity about how a once “very enviable, democratically stable country” could erupt in a moment into virtual war zone where heinous bloodshed, rape and violence would displace 300,000 people and leave more than 1,000 dead. In 1997, Michalczyk, a documentary filmmaker and Boston College fine arts professor, began working on a series of films about conflict resolution around the world. In January 2011, he turned his lens on Kenya for the ninth film in the series.