City at Peace

Create your own play, ‘based on a true story‘! With this guideline, some sixty youngsters from highly diverse cultural and social backgrounds were put to work in a theatre in Washington D.C. The project not only kept the teenagers off the street, the higher goal was that they would get to know themselves and each other better, thereby learning to bridge racial and other gaps. The basis for the planned musical performance were scenes from their own, often turbulent, lives. Susan Koch‘s modest camera adds to the revealing moments during the rehearsals, while interviews and scenes from the show provide illuminating comments. Nobody less than Barbra Streisand and Cis Corman were the producers of this documentary, Jeff Werner (of Streisand‘s film Yentl) was the editor, and the prestigious project received the blessing and warm congratulations of Hillary and Bill Clinton. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)