— The relevance of the Jewish Calendar, through the prism of contemporary rabbis, teachers, writers and practitioners—

If you are my witnesses, I am G-d; if you are not my witnesses, I am not G-d –Sifre Devarim
When I believe the stone is stone, and the cloud cloud, I am in a state of unconsciousness –A. Porchia, Voices
If one wishes to perceive the invisibe, observe the visible –The Talmud


A bit about myself.

I started producing and exhibiting video in 1979. The works have, so far, explored such issues as men and violence (“Like Men is Pier Marton's heartfelt exposé of male vulnerability. It is a stunning effort, a real labor of love”, Linda Burnham in the L.A. Weekly), and Jewish identity for European children of Holocaust survivors (“The most remarkable achievement. It is the wonder of Mr. Marton's film that his young people heal their wounds almost before our eyes. Individual identity, individual healing, individual transcendence are his subjects. It deserves a much wider audience.”, John Russell about Say I'm A Jew in the New York Times). Some of the pieces are shown in museums (the Jewish Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney in NYC), some are in collections abroad (the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and Beaubourg/Centre Pompidou in Paris). At times, they are presented as video installations specifically geared for generating audience feedback (the touring exhibitWitness and Legacy, at other times, it is through broadcast that I reach my viewers (French and Spanish TV networks).

Working with video represents for me the thrill of using a medium that is so common place as to be taken for granted and demeaned, and at the same time, while the guard is down, to enter the psyche in sometimes very intimate ways. By supporting myself as a university professor, I am able to produce works that are free from the market-value imperative. One underlying principle common to many of my works is the desire to reveal the interplay between the personal and the collective realms: our decisions are our own, yet they often reflect a cultural and political history, with its own biases. In other words, I strive to unmask our blindspots. The fact that, after watching my pieces, no conclusion can be easily drawn is no accident: I build structures that deepen the questionning process rather than end it. While always aiming for a wider public, the work purports to stretch the boundaries of content and form.

From one legacy, the Holocaust, to another, the gift of Jewish time.

With Say I'm a Jew a particular wound had been opened: the fears and struggles of post-war born European Jews were disturbingly palpable. To accept my Jewish identity meant to confront the Holocaust. But after having gone through that particular hardship, the next question was screaming to be asked: why in the face of such adversity would I remain a Jew? For me, the vertigo of such a probing was offset by the clarity to be attained: a Jewish identity by choice ; not by birth or by sympathy for the underdog, but out of a vital enthusiasm for the affiliation.

While cultural Judaism warms up the heart or stomach, I felt the key to the survival lied elsewhere. If I wanted to preserve a treasure, would I keep it in the open? And thus, a secularly raised Jew like myself started opening books of a mystical nature like the Zohar and while easily lost in their encoding and references, I was moved by a richness and depth that was only hinted at within the synagogues. This lead me to search for writers* who could interpret the writings, individuals who also had been touched by some of the mysteries (one such early guide was Rabbi Herbert Weiner, with his book 9 1/2 Mystics ).

The theme of the my current piece, the cycle of the Jewish Holidays, emerged after seeing how the change of seasons had similarly affected various individuals. I had also seen in my own life, that one of the ways to approach this entity called "Judaism" was through its celebrations of the passage of time, those points through which the echoes of the past attempt to make themselves known again. In addition, time is also the gate through which we as human beings feel the most the terrible tension between the eternal and the finite.

In our post-Enlightenment culture where the empirical sciences are the measuring stick, religion is presented as lacking substance and relevance. My challenge is to reconcile and affirm the links between the Jewish traditions of struggling (Jacob becomes Yisrael because of his willingness to wrestle) and of dialectical learning (pilpul), and the healthy questionning a standard (secular) education can foster. Being secular (etymologically "from the century") does not necesseraly mean to do so at the expense of the other centuries. It is not about exclusive choices, but rather about inclusive ones.

For fear of falling into the kitsch and the pitfalls of descriptive or perscriptive language, the tone will be evocative: hoping to inspire my viewers be they Jewish or non-Jewish. I don't believe there is any video material available, at this point, that pays tribute to the richness of the tradition in an adult fashion. At the same time, I will make every effort to avoid the danger of fluff into which a lot of "spiritual" material falls: my goal will be to find the right balance between the ineffable and the concrete. To use an image often used by Rabbi Zalman Schachter, the kite only flies because it is grounded.

Where I stand.

I have about 40 hours of interviews which now need to find a formal structure to house them.
The fact that the Torah is often presented as a Tree of Life, and that the menorah's shape is so reminiscent of a tree led me to the one major visual element for my piece: the trees through the seasons. My use of nature is also motivated by the way trees can gently nudge us into accepting our ephemeral passage on the earth. Thus, my task is to visually integrate all the talking heads of my interviewees with those long pans of trees. The visual design of my piece, composed of faces, trees, Hebrew and English words is totally dependent upon a carefully crafted interaction of these elements.
This page shows some of the visual elements to be included.
I have presented Zot/ ,tz borrowing some of the material fromTime To Be at the Pittsburgh Jewish Community Center and at the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles.

* The list of already interviewed individuals includes the following: Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Lawrence Kushner, Irving "Yitz" Greenberg, David Zeller, Lynn Gottlieb, Daniel Epstein, Matityahu Glazerson, Jonathan Omer-Man, Harold Schulweis, Joel Dobin, Mordechai Finley, Yitz Husbands-Hankin, Aryeh Hirschfield, Shefa Gold, Hannan Sills, David Blank, Gelberman, Margaret Holub, Burt Jacobson, Nathan Segal, and scholars and teachers Avivah Zornberg, Moshe Idel, Tamar Frankiel, Freema Gottlieb, Arthur Waskow, Arthur Green, E.M. Broner, Howard Schwarz, Marcia Falk, Arthur Kurzweil, Judith Hankin, Reuven and Yehudit Goldfarb, Penina Adelman, Barry Barkin, Yael Greenleaf, Estelle Frankel, Linda Hirschorn, Bruria, Barbara Breitman, Liliane and Joshua Ritchie, Rebbetzin Shusterman - I also have the late Rabbi Carlebach singing on videotape.