At one point in the documentary, "Knowledge Is the Beginning," maestro Daniel Barenboim explains why he cares so much about his youth symphony orchestra. He explains why being a renowned conductor in Berlin and Chicago was not enough for him, why he felt compelled to take on more work.

Barenboim is Jewish. His best friend, Edward Said, a Muslim, helped him form the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999. The orchestra brings together youngsters from Israel and from eight Arab countries — including Palestine and Syria. These are teens who otherwise never would have met each other, much less performed together, much less shared a music stand. Directed by Paul Smaczny, this 2005 film won Germany's Echo Klassic Award in 2006.

In the film, Barenboim says he knows he isn't changing the world. But he says that when he is conducting this youth orchestra, he is not only making music, he is "reducing the level of hatred to zero." Not forever, just for two hours, he says. Just for the duration of a performance. He knows it's not much.

And yes, he says, he does want Palestinian teens to have a chance to make music. He cares about the Palestinian youth, he says, "because a life without music is impoverished."

"Knowledge Is the Beginning" is the opening movie of the local Jewish Film Festival, which this year has the theme, "Examine Life Through a Different Lens."

The Jewish Film Festival is nearly a decade old in Salt Lake City, having at various times been held at the University of Utah and at the Jewish Community Center. This year the festival is larger than ever before, with a dozen films, all shown free of charge. This year, also, the Salt Lake Film Center is involved for the first time. Representatives from the Film Center and from the U.'s Middle Eastern Center, in addition to people from the Jewish Community Center and the United Jewish Federation of Utah, helped select the films.

Laura Green, coordinator of the Salt Lake Jewish Film Festival, says the committee was enriched by the support from the Salt Lake Film Center, because the people who work there are aware of all the films coming out of the Middle East, as well as a variety of films by and about the Jewish experience in Israel and in other countries.

There were nine people on the selection committee, and the discussion was lively, Green says. She repeats the old joke, "Put two Jews in a room, and you'll get three opinions." She appreciated the diverse opinions, including those of a woman who runs the youth programs for a local synagogue and who wanted to make sure there were a good number of family-friendly movies, and the opinions of the film center staff, who were able to talk about the technical aspects of what makes a good film.

Kathryn Toll, managing director of the Salt Lake Film Center, says the center's goal this year was to develop a number of mini-film festivals around certain topics. They've had Mexican films, Japanese films and African films. The topic of Jewish films was one of their broadest categories, she notes. It includes films made in the United States, Germany and France, as well as Israeli films.

---

E-mail: susan@desnews.com