Maital Guttman is a documentary filmmaker. As a freshman at Duke University her interest in documentary work began through the Humanitarian Challenges at Home and Abroad FOCUS Program. During her senior year she produced her first full-length documentary titled Mechina: A Preparation. The film follows six Israeli teens three months before they become soldiers. Through the film, Maital hopes to provide a fresh glimpse into the life of Israeli society and look beyond the images of conflict shown in the media. As a documentarian she plans to continue telling stories that are often unheard and unseen by the general public, with the underlying intent of moving beyond differences and bringing people together.
A comparative area studies major, Maital is passionate about the world, its beauty, and its cultures, with primary interest in the Middle East. She lived in Israel for seven years and is fluent in Hebrew. She also studied intensive Arabic while living with a traditional Muslim family in Morocco. She brought many of the lessons she learned in Morocco and abroad to Duke where she founded the first Arab and Jewish Students for Dialogue Group. She has traveled and worked across the globe, in Thailand, New Zealand, Uruguay, Kenya, Australia, Eastern Europe, and in the United States, in New Orleans.
As a Lewis Hine Fellow, Maital worked with the Ten Million Memory Project in South Africa to complete a film about the impact of “Hero Books” on children’s lives.
To learn more about Maital’s work, visit:
http://documentarystudies.duke.edu/projects/hine/gallery/maital-guttman