[Chicago Crossings: Bridges and Boundaries, reel 55; Student Mural Day]

The Kartemquin crew visits a classroom where students are working on the mural project associated with Spertus Museum of Judaica's "Bridges and Boundaries" exhibition. The students work on various parts of the mural while the crew gathers footage and briefly interviews two of the students about their involvement in the project.

0:00Copy video clip URL Color bars, followed by unrelated footage of an interview for a program about medical issues.

2:53Copy video clip URL Bars and tone.

3:05Copy video clip URL The teacher moves around the classroom, showing students what needs to be done on the mural. She speaks with one student, Jose, about his various design decisions, including his decision to leave a prominent figure faceless. She encourages him to think about the differing ways that facelessness might be interpreted, and emphasizes the importance of being mindful and considered about how your choices in art can be read. She states that she’s not saying there needs to be a face, just that it’s a decision that needs to be carefully considered, especially when it’s a more politically charged piece like the mural.

7:14Copy video clip URL The crew interviews Jose. They ask him if it was a surprise to be asked to work on this project. “Actually, yeah,” he says, but then admits that he wasn’t that surprised, since his teachers often ask him if he wants to do something, just not usually something this big. He also says his school is very diverse, and that most of his friends at his school are Jewish, so he’s used to being in racially mixed environments.

9:26Copy video clip URL B-roll of the students working on the mural. One of the teachers poses for a reference photo holding the shofar so that Naomi, the student working on that part of the mural, can figure out how the hands should look.

18:08Copy video clip URL Jerry Blumenthal interviews Naomi. She says she was excited to work on the project, and tells a story about a group of black and Jewish students she met while on a trip to Israel. She also talks about how she enjoys the fact that the mural project “isn’t always deep” and that they “can just kind of hang out.”