- From John Priddy

I am so excited to be able to share this wonderful 23 minute film with you as part of “Windy Wednesday’s.”  Each Wednesday, I will post an award winning and thought provoking film from one of these modern day sages.

Barbara Stepansky of the American Film institute is a two time Angelus Winner. In 2006 she won the $10,000 Excellence in Filmmaking Award for her film, The Trojan Cow. The film was inspired by true events and takes places in 1973 when two teenagers are illegally transported across the East German border inside a hollow cow. An unexpected love story blossoms in the midst of a dangerous situation.

The film screened at Windrider in Park City in January 07 and Rome and Loppiano Italy, February 2008. 
Please Note: This film has mild profanity (English subtitles) and is not suitable for children under 13. Windrider rating is PG-13.

Barriers, Boundaries … and Beyond 

One morning in January, I sat in a sanctuary cleverly disguised as a movie theater during Windrider Forum at Sundance Film Festival I was in church: in a community worship setting. I was in a theater: viewing a “feature attraction” — the presidential inauguration.

I had never watched an inauguration en masse before, and certainly not in a place of worship via a live Internet feed projected on three big screens. I sat with 250 others, in hopeful prayer for the future — much as I would on a typical Sunday morning at my home church. I also watched in a state of excitement as part of an audience glued to the “big screen” while a new star emerged — much as I would on a typical outing to the movies.

The church feeling, and the theater setting, both seemed especially appropriate in view of current events worldwide. This president will need prayer as he faces global issues like never before. And the world will be his audience. Even now, as our president gave his inaugural address, there was renewed strife between Arabs and Israelis, and I was reminded that Barak Obama will quickly have to deal with age-old borders and boundaries. Hopefully he will find a way to remove them. Finally.

While filming our documentary, “To Die in Jerusalem,” with the ever-talented Hilla Medalia, my brother Ed and I had a chance to visit the Middle East. We were surprised at how near Jerusalem and Bethlehem are to each other: unbelievably close physically; light years apart ideologically. A 26-foot wall stands between the two.
During our time in Jerusalem, I made many Israeli friends and heard innumerable tragic stories, like the one at the heart of “To Die in Jerusalem”: Rachel Levy, a 17-year-old Israeli girl on her way to do a bit of shopping at a Jerusalem market, becomes a victim as Ayat Al Akras, an 18-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber, blows herself up — along with Levy. Two young victims destroyed by passions that transcend their “ordinary” lives.

Israelis call the 26-foot wall between Jerusalem and Bethlehem “the separation fence.” I can understand how such a sturdy barrier can provide a sense of separation, comfort and safety to a people who feel unsafe and unsettled in their neighborhoods, homes and supermarkets.

On the Bethlehem side, Palestinians have named the barricade, “the Apartheid wall.” We stood beside it with fifth-generation Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb. From what we learned, I can clearly see that such borders and barriers between people can — and do — cause pain. Boundaries can give a hopeless feeling of being trapped; walls can mean segregation.

Two different sides; two different perspectives. At a press conference regarding the dead girls, president  Bush said, “When an 18-year-old Palestinian girl is induced to blow herself up, killing a 17 year old girl, the future itself is dying — the future of the Israeli people and the future of the Palestinian people.”

Barbara’s Stepansky’s film, “Trojan Cow,” tells yet another story about boundaries and borders. We are reminded of a different conflict, a different “wall.” If Medalia’s “To Die in Jerusalem” is an ode to hope, Stepansky’s film lets us see hope in action. Through two young people and one Trojan cow, we can dream of a time when borders are safe, relationships make boundaries healthy, and ultimately, walls are no longer needed.

Just as we watched the inauguration in community and in prayer, just as we watched a young president stand in a global pulpit, we are reminded that walls are built by people. And only people can tear them down.

All of  this caused me to ask, what walls have I erected in my life? What must I do to tear them down?