Sderot Children Featured in First-Ever International Feature Film

#film, #feature documentary,#PTSD, #missile, #kids, #children, #post trauma, #global #terrorism, #Sderot, #Sderot Media Center, # Noam Bedein, #liane thompson

Sderot Media Center to make feature documentary with acclaimed US television executive
By: Anav Sliverman

The first-ever feature length film about Sderot’s trauma children is currently underway. Sderot Media Center’s Noam Bedein has teamed up with acclaimed US Producer and Director Liane Thompson to create Missile City Kids, a film featuring the trauma-stricken children of Sderot following years of rocket fire.

Missile City Kids http://www.missilecitykids.com is a non-political project about children suffering from the terror-related post traumatic stress disorder that has engulfed the civilian population of Sderot, Israel. Sderot, an Israeli city located less than a mile away from Gaza, has been subject to 10,000 missile attacks in the past eight years.





Studies have revealed that 70-94% of Sderot's children suffer from PTSD. Many Sderot children find support at the local resilience center but due to budget cuts, the center will soon shut down.

“We want to use the power of a good film to create global awareness about terror-related PTSD in children worldwide,” Liane Thompson told Sderot Media Center.

Thompson has received three-time Prime Time Emmy nominations and a public awareness award from the American Medical Association for her work as an executive producer on the #1 television program Trauma: Life in the ER. As an executive with New York Times Television, the TV unit of The New York Times, Thompson has delivered over 130 hours of programming to US broadcasters such as Viacom’s Showtime Network, The National Geographic Channel, Discovery Communication, Inc., Discover Health, The Food Network and more.











Photos:Noam Bedein

Independently, Thompson created the anti-terror technology program, Outsmarting Terror, which aired to millions worldwide on National Geographic Television. "Outsmarting Terror was about how we fight terrorism, but as terrorism becomes a part of our daily psyche, Missile City Kids will focus on the psychological ramifications of living in a terror stricken world," said Thompson.

Many Sderot children find support at the local resilience center but due to budget cuts, the center will soon shut down. “We want to use the power of a good film to create global awareness about terror-related PTSD in children worldwide”


Missile City Kids will follow the lives of several children, portraying their day to day struggle with psychological trauma and the impact of rocket fire on their families. However, primary filming has yet to begin. The project is in the development stage seeking an executive producer or financial backing from an angel investor or donator. The producers have secured some company sponsorships including Phone.com who has given the filmmakers a US toll free number to help with fund-raising (1-877-801-6099) and PLYmedia who has offered various language subtitling and other products once the film is complete.

Film completion is still a long ways off as raising money for a documentary is proving difficult in these hard economic times. But Thompson remains optimistic that potential investors will see the film's value as a product that not only creates worldwide awareness but also generates an economic return.






http://www.missilecitykids.com

SMC’s director Noam Bedein said that it was a pleasure to work with a professional like Thompson. “We just launched fund-raising efforts last month at the social media Twitter 140 Conference and at the US-Israeli Executive Summit held in New York City.”

The Sderot Media Center (SMC)( http://sderotmedia.org.il/ ) is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising worldwide awareness to the plight of Sderot residents. SMC’s mission is to convey the “human face behind the headlines” via the arts and media.

“We hope that Missile City Kids will bring the Sderot reality a little closer to home and shed some light to the devastating impact that rocket terror has had on the children of Sderot and the Negev,” said Bedein.

Thompson plans to expand the project to other countries where children suffer from war related post trauma.

“While we are focusing on Sderot at the moment, we hope to get the budget to ultimately take the project global to include children suffering from PTSD from other countries such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and more,” Thompson added. "This is a worldwide problem."

Bearing Witness to the UN in Geneva: Sderot Media Center Director Noam Bedein Presents Sderot’s Case to UN Judges

#Geneva, #United Nations, #UN, #War crimes, #Gaza conflict, #Hamas, #Israel, #Noam Bedein, #Noam Shalit, #Sderot Media Center, #Judge Richard Goldstone, #rockets, #terror, #Palestinians

By: Noam Bedein

Director Sderot Media Center

http://www.sderotmedia.org.il/

On July 6th, I traveled to Geneva to testify before the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. Participating in the delegations were Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin, Dr Alan Marcus the director strategic planning branch in Ashkelon, Ophir Shinhar of Sapir College, and Dr. Mirelda Sidrer who was injured during a rocket attack on a medical facility at the Ashkelon mall.

*From left to right: Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin, Dr. Mirelda Sidrer, Hillel Neuer and Dr. Alan Marcus.

The Israeli delegation also included Noam Shalit, who impassionedly spoke on behalf of his son, Gilad, who was abducted three years ago by Palestinian terrorists and has since been held by Hamas.

The Israeli government officially refused to cooperate with the UN mission, since the UN investigation had already formulated conclusions asserting that Israel had committed war crimes during the December-January war.
At the same time, however, the head of the UN fact finding mission, South African Judge Richard Goldstone, told the Israeli media that he would like to hear both sides of the conflict. "The aim of the public hearings was to let the face of human suffering be seen and to let the voices of the victims be heard."

In preparation for the Geneva hearing, the UN mission invited the Sderot Media Center , a Sderot NGO, to prepare material, footage and information regarding the impact of the Gaza bombardment of the Israeli civilian population in the Negev during the Gaza war. The UN Mission aimed to at obtain an unofficial Israeli perspective.

Before the UN hearing in Geneva, the Israeli delegation received a briefing from Hillel Neuer, head of NGO 'UN Watch.' Neuer provided background on the UN fact finding mission and the agenda of each judge on the UN investigating board.

During the days leading up to the testimony, it was not easy to sleep - as the only resident of Sderot and the western Negev in this delegation, knowing that there would be only 30 minutes to convey how aerial terror has devastatingly impacted the civilian population of Sderot.

At the same time, the UN afforded an opportunity for Sderot Media Center, which specializes in communicating the human story of Sderot and life under continuous rocket terror to decision makers around the world , to finally reach the UN.

While the delegation got ready to testify in the “lion’s den,” it was less than sobering to know that one of the UN judges included Professor Christine Chinkin from London. In a Sunday Times article published on January 11th , Judge Chinkin supported the allegation that “Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is not self defense, it’s a war crime.”

Israeli reporters in Geneva asked hard questions:

"Why testify before a such a ‘neutral’ judge who claims that Israel does not have the right to defend her citizens and whose actions “ amount to aggression violating international law and human rights law?"

"Why testify when the government of Israel itself has boycotted the investigation which already formulated it allegations against Israel before the investigation commenced?"

However, the presence of a UN invited delegation from Israel created a precedent.

Hillel Neuer of Human Rights Watch noted that never in the 16 years of operating in Geneva had there ever been a time when the UN invited and even sponsored a delegation from Israel to give testimony - until now.

This time, the UN provided an opportunity for ordinary people from Israel to make their voices heard across the world. It was an honor as a resident of Sderot to partake in such an event.

Yet the long road to peace and justice for Sderot and Negev residents does not end before a panel of UN judges or a commissioned report.
Residents of Israel who act as witnesses to terror against the Jewish people, are obligated to speak up and convey the experience of what it is like to live under sustained rocket attacks-defined as a terror act and crime against humanity.

*Noam Bedein in the main hall of the UN Headquarters before testifying.

After screening two short videos in front of the panel of UN judges, which depicted the 15 seconds that Sderot residents and their children have to run for their lives when the rocket alarm is activated by impending Gaza rockets, I concluded my presentation with the following thoughts and questions.

“I do not have enough fingers, to count on my hands the amount of times rockets exploded just a few meters from a kindergarten--would any other western democracy in the world tolerate even one rocket being fired towards their territory? Why is it that we must wait, until a kindergarten or classroom packed with children, is struck directly by a rocket in order for Israel to gain international support, to protect and do what is right for our own people?"

US President Barack Obama put it best when he visited a devastated home in Sderot during the 2008 campaign:
"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing."

There were no questions or reactions from the UN judges. We will all have to wait, along with all the residents of southern Israel, to peruse the Geneva verdict on the war when the UN Mission report will be released in September