Orot Receives Prize For Innovative “Moviemaking: History in the Making” Project

by Pnina Frankel 
Head, Communication and Cinema Department

Recently, the Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies presented Orot Israel College with an award for its
“Moviemaking: History in the Making” project. The innovative pilot program combines history lessons with moviemaking and allows the student to act as researcher, director, producer, and editor and enjoy a unique multisensory learning experience.
The interdisciplinary project was launched by Orot’s communication and cinema department in conjunction with the history department. A series of short films (each three minutes long), which focus on dilemmas faced by the Jews in the pre-Holocaust era, was produced. After the history students researched the topics, wrote the scripts, and formulated the dilemmas while providing information about dress, settings, etc., the cinema students produced and shot the films. The result was five thoughtful, sensitive, and historically-accurate movies, which shed light on a difficult period and can be used as teaching aids during lessons about the pre-Holocaust era.
The citation accompanying the Massuah Institute award read, “We recognize the creative thinking and the unique pedagogic philosophy behind this project… The student who is exposed to these films will benefit from an educational experience that will contribute greatly to Holocaust study programs in our schools.”