Get Herald RSSFilming took place on campus from Oct. 11 to Oct. 14, and the show is scheduled to air in early November. "We were doing a piece on young people and religion, and I thought, my gosh, this is very, very broad. I thought the best way to tell the story is to pick a college and speak to a variety of students from various faith backgrounds," said segment producer Susan Goldstein. "We were just trying to find out how spirituality played out in the lives of students."
So why Brown? Goldstein said she chose to do the segment about Brown because of the University's emphasis on interfaith dialogue. "We thought it was unique that you have an interfaith dorm. We also knew we were going to find articulate students."
Goldstein was also familiar with Brown because her niece, Elizabeth Ochs '07.5, attends the University.
Goldstein arranged the filming with University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson. The PBS film crew visited an Iftar dinner run by the Muslim Students Association during Ramadan; Friday night services at Hillel; RELS 0120: "The Foundations of Chinese Religions: Mystics, Moralists and Diviners," taught by Professor of Religious Studies Harold Roth; a Brown Christian Fellowship meeting; Sunday morning Catholic mass; a meditation session run by the Brown Zen Community; Thursday night interfaith supper at Janet Cooper Nelson's house; an Imani Jubilee service; anda Chinese lion dance perfomance.
"They saw a fairly broad spectrum," Cooper Nelson said.
The PBS crew interviewed Danyel Currie '08, a leader with Imani Jubilee, and former interfaith house roommates Yael Richardson '08 and Atena Asiaii '08, as well as Cooper Nelson, Associate University Chaplain Rumee Ahmed and Senior Associate University Chaplain Alan Flam.
The crew also looked for non-believers, but atheists proved more difficult to find. "We were on campus in the college green, we were asking, 'Do you believe in God?' We found one skeptic, riding a bike," Goldstein said.
Goldstein said the interfaith relations on campus particularly impressed her. "I think the most interesting thing that we found was that students for various religions all felt the same way that when they were able to be with kids from other religions they were able to critique their own religions."
The filming of religious services proved tricky in some instances. "We wanted to make sure we didn't offend anyone by having them film on Shabbat because there is a Jewish law that you shouldn't profit from actions done by non-Jews on Shabbat, and we worried about people being uncomfortable about a sacred space," said Jacob Baskin '08, executive vice president of Hillel's student board. "But we also wanted to show PBS a view of Jewish life on campus as best we could."
To compromise, services began at 5:30 p.m. instead of the usual 6:10 p.m. on Friday, so the first 40 minutes, when the filming took place, wasn't technically the Sabbath.
The crew was also sensitive while filming Muslim students at prayer. "When shooting at a mosque, (Muslims) prefer if you don't shoot them from behind. We would shoot from the front or the side - not the back," Goldstein said. "We try to be as sensitive as possible. A lot of people feel that prayer should be a very private time. If people didn't want us to shoot of course we wouldn't."
Cooper Nelson hoped the filming would be an opportunity to educate the general public about religion. "The general level of ignorance about society is reflected in the way the media asks the wrong questions about religion," she said. "There's a lot of bigotry about religion and I think the press misses opportunities."
