Bella's Star


	Bella's Star: Blending of Genres What do you get when you take historical interviews, facts, photos, and footage and frame them within a fairy tale-like storyline? Pure alchemy -- the sum becomes far greater than its parts. The film begins by considering our place in the universe (in the astronomical sense) before winding its way into the magical realism of Bella's fictional world. Yet it is because she must navigate the surrealism of this world that she is able to meet her past and her ancestry (and the true experiences therein) before reclaiming her place in time and space—now more clearly defined—in the end. Similarly, it is because the script has softened the edges between genres that it opens itself to layers of meaning, and thus to concrete lessons/study questions/educational explorations beyond what other educational films might offer. In addition to providing entertainment and philosophical value to its viewers, Bella's Star will include an educational curriculum that can either stand alone or be presented as part of a larger unit of classroom study. This collection of study questions, lesson plans, and historic references are based on state and national education standards for upper elementary through high school students. Finally, Bella's Star and its curriculum materials will be appropriate for use in classrooms, workshops, museums, and other educational venues. This hour-long film will be ideal for managing a viewing with a lesson, discussion, or speaker in an hour time slot (though we recommend a longer stretch for initial exploration of the film and its topics). From its inception, Bella's Star has been a project meant to educate, inspire, and challenge audiences of many ages. Other Considerations Related to Bella's Star short film:
	• The first place where prejudice begins is inside the home. Parents, grandparents, and other adults important in a child's life are the first to influence his/her concept of "us" and "other." • People learn social norms of prejudice through the process of socialization, beginning even in the preschool environment. Most 5 year-old American children understand something about the prevailing norms about race. • As children grow older, peer groups become more important in transmitting social norms about prejudice. When peer group and parents hold different values, however, peer group values become increasingly important to children as they experience adolescence. • The media, too, is a central source of social learning about prejudice. According to a recent study by the Simon Weisenthal Center, the use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube by militant and hate groups grew by almost 20 percent between 2009 and 2010. More than 11,500 social networks, websites, forums and blogs promoting violence, anti-Semitism, homophobia, hate music and "terrorism," suggesting a problem of epidemic proportions in the global society. • The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights reports that 7,500 hate crimes are reported annually, or nearly one every hour of every day. These data almost certainly understate the true numbers of hate crimes committed, as many such crimes remained unreported.