I started this project 2 ½ years ago with the fantasy of doing a documentary about finding peace through art. The plan was to return to Israel, the place of much of my childhood trauma. There I would confront my old pain and also work with an Israeli peace activist and artist to look at the parallels between trauma in the world and trauma in the home and how we might use art to heal both.

On this trip I received some very deep healing experiences in conjunction with being re-traumatized. While I did end up with 40 hours of footage, the trip was a whirlwind of drama and trauma. The lesson I came home with was that I was not going to be able to tell a story spreading peace until I was able to find true peace in my own heart.

So I have spent this time recuperating from the trip and building tools to address my trauma reactions. Through a combination of art therapy and EMDR, I was able to return to Israel last summer (2006) for a school reunion and simply have a good time!

I finally feel ready to do something with this footage.