Published: March 21, 2008 10:02 am      

A Creative Journey: Filmmaker's documentary shows at State

CHARLEVOIX -- Rebecca Glotfelty's one-line biography is simple: Evoke change.

That's just what the Charlevoix filmmaker is doing, one project at a time.

Glotfelty cut her teeth on commercials and promotional documentaries, but eventually became disenchanted with the work. So in 2000 she formed Real People Media, a video production company with a mission to produce programs of educational and social merit.

Now she produces two significant films a year while managing her seasonal fine art gallery, Cycling Salamander, in a one-time farm granary and chicken coop.

"I still do commercial work," said the 2001 Marshall, Mich., transplant, "but it really has to go with my core beliefs."

Those beliefs are broad, from the legal right of Palestinians to their homeland to the preservation of local Anishinaabe culture. Accordingly, her projects have included documentaries like "Such a Normal Thing: A Simple Journey into the Israeli-Occupied West Bank" and "The Four Directions and the Waganaksing Odawa," broadcast by CMU Public Television and other Michigan PBS affiliates in November in recognition of Native American month.

Programs addressing social issues are a way to put her talents -- and a bachelor's degree in social science-international relations from Michigan State University -- to good use, Glotfelty believes.

"I want to believe that I'm a caring, compassionate person that wouldn't tolerate ethnic cleansing or genocide," she said. "If I'm the person I say I am, and I know that's happening, I need to stand up and say it's happening. Storytelling is a way for me to do that."

Since doing graduate studies in the region in 1992, Glotfelty, 40, has been especially drawn to the Middle East. She attended American University in Cairo, lived with a roommate and her family in Tunisia, and studied standard Arabic in Jordan. After earning an associate degree in broadcast communications-video production, she returned to the Middle East in 2003 and again in 2005 to understand the issues between Israel and Palestine.

The result was "Such a Normal Thing" and "Waging Peace," which document Palestinians' struggle to maintain a normal existence under sometimes brutal Israeli occupation, and the efforts of Palestinians, Israelis and others engaged in non-violent opposition to the occupation.

In making the films, which screened locally as part of the Mideast: Just Peace and Little Traverse League for Peace and Freedom film series, Glotfelty found herself dodging tear gas canisters launched by the Israeli Army at protesters in the West Bank at speeds of up to 50 mph.

"You imagine them being shot in the air and lobbing down, but they shoot them at you," she said.

Those projects spawned a 20-minute DVD on U.S.-Middle East relations called "What I'm Thinking: American Thoughts on the Middle East." The 2005 project began when Glotfelty, also a still photographer, interviewed and photographed over a dozen Americans with varying social and political views on the region. Then she displayed the images and written statements -- in English and Arabic -- at a national university in Nablus, Palestine and captured the Palestinian students' reaction to the exhibit on video.

In a departure from her more serious work, she recently produced "Journey to Joy." The half-hour documentary takes viewers backstage as the Great Lakes band, Song of the Lakes, prepares for its 25th anniversary concert at Interlochen Arts Academy in February 2007.

"It gives you a good glimpse into the personality of each band member, their reactions behind stage and their nerves, and how each prepares to go out on stage before a performance," said Glotfelty, who also weaves in interviews with band members and clips of past performances.

The film's premiere will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, at the State Theatre in Traverse City. It will be followed by a screening of "Live at Interlochen," a video capturing highlights of the concert, by Traverse City filmmaker Rich Brauer.

Glotfelty hopes the documentary will be the first in a series on Michigan bands that would be aired on PBS. Next on her agenda: an independent documentary called "Women, Media and Body Image;" "Battle for Bil'im," an experimental documentary short about one Palestinian village's struggle to keep its land from Israeli occupation; and perhaps a documentary on Great Lakes islands.

"To me filmmaking's kind of like writing poetry or any type of writing," she said. "You don't know where you're going to end up when you start the process. It kind of evolves. The whole thing is a creative journey."

But one thing's for certain, she said. Underlying each project is the goal of improving her craft.

"A trend that's really bugging me is documentaries being awarded for their subject matter and not for their creative and technical merit. That bothers me," she said. "I think films need to exhibit everything to be given awards."