{"id":28216,"date":"2024-04-11T17:56:14","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T23:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-first-mom-bridging-divides\/"},"modified":"2024-04-11T23:56:14","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T23:56:14","slug":"colorados-first-mom-bridging-divides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-first-mom-bridging-divides\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado\u2019s first mom \u2018bridging divides\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nydia
Nydia Gonzalez dances to \u201cLa Bamba\u201d in \u201cBridging Divides: Sharing Heartbearts.\u201d (IronZeal Films)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The world can be an overwhelming place, seemingly full of people who are either out only for themselves or willing to inflict pain on others for any number of reasons.<\/p>\n

Documentary filmmaker Susan Polis Schutz knew there had to be more, so she set out to find groups that are exemplifying the best in people. What Schutz, who is also a writer, poet, committed feminist \u2013 and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis\u2019 mother \u2013 found was that there are people around the globe who might not ordinarily interact with each other meeting up to sing, play sports and get to know each other.<\/p>\n

\"Susan
Susan Polis Schutz (Courtesy)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Schutz\u2019s new film, \u201cBridging Divides: Sharing Heartbeats,\u201d will have its national broadcast premiere Wednesday night on Rocky Mountain PBS DT 4 World. It\u2019s also streaming on pbs.org.<\/p>\n

In the film, she features six groups: Fandango Fronterizo; PeacePlayers in Northern Ireland; The Jerusalem Youth Chorus; Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom; Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha, Nebraska; and United Voices Chicago. Each group works to bring people of different faiths, ethnicities, religions and more together to realize that people are just, well, people. And despite perceived differences, friendships and greater understanding can be formed.<\/p>\n

Schutz said the idea of the film came to her in a couple of different ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been so upset about all the divisiveness and hatred, and that was swirling around in my mind, probably like everybody else,\u201d she said. \u201cI read an article about Fandango Fronterizo and \u2026 they were just so outstanding. I decided to just do some research about them and learn about them. And then I met Jorge (Castillo), who started the organization, and I interviewed them, not quite knowing why, but I interviewed them. And it was so uplifting.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the initial interviews, she said she decided to make a film with the group and any other groups like it she could find, which led to the six in \u201cBridging Divides.\u201d There are numerous other groups around the world also bringing people together, Schutz said.<\/p>\n

The film took about two years to make, and she said that from her work, she learned that while people can get a lot out of talking about differences and similarities in groups, the addition of activities \u2013 like the PeacePlayers in Northern Ireland who use basketball as a way to connect kids from Catholic and Protestant backgrounds \u2013 can go a long way to bridging what divides people.<\/p>\n

\"Sisterhood
Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom members Clarie and Shereen hug in \u201cBridging Divides: Sharing Heartbeats.\u201d (IronZeal Films)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWhen I was finished with the documentary, I was thinking, I want to live in a world like the one that these groups are building,\u201d Schutz said. \u201cI want to inspire people to even form their own groups. Go out and meet people that are different than them, talk to them, interact with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also wanted to bring attention to the important work that these six organizations are doing,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to motivate people to seek ways of bridging divides.\u201d<\/p>\n

katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Schutz\u2019s documentary to air Wednesday on PBS WORLD <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,28,1107],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-headlines","tag-movies"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28216"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}