dubbed<\/a> Shlain the \u201cDigital Diva\u201d of Silicon Valley.<\/p>\nBut it wasn\u2019t until she met her husband, Ken Goldberg, that she got in touch with her Jewish side. Goldberg, a professor of robotics at the University of California, Berkeley, who now co-writes most of Shlain\u2019s films, took her to Israel for their honeymoon and introduced her to Shabbat observance \u2014 a Jewish ritual that would inspire Shlain in the years to come.<\/p>\n
After attending the inaugural conference organized by Reboot (a Jewish nonprofit that \u201cengages and inspires young, Jewishly unconnected cultural creatives,\u201d according to its website) in 2002 and making \u201cThe Tribe,\u201d Shlain started working on a feature documentary, \u201cConnected,\u201d which explored technology\u2019s ways of connecting people. It was shown at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.<\/p>\n
While working on the film, Shlain watched her father, who had been diagnosed with brain cancer, deteriorate to the point of having only \u201cone good hour a day.\u201d She resolved with her husband to turn off all of her family\u2019s screens each Saturday \u2014 what she termed a \u201ctechnology Shabbat\u201d \u2014 in order to greater appreciate their time together.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people are surprised by it because I founded the Webby Awards,\u201d Shlain said. \u201cBut most of my work explores the good, the bad and the potential [of the Internet], all three of those things. Disconnecting one day a week every week has just been the most profound experience for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shlain went on to make a short film about the \u201ctechnology Shabbat,\u201d which was also the first episode of a web series called \u201cThe Future Starts Here,\u201d which she was commissioned to make for AOL. \u201cConnected\u201d and the subsequent \u201cBrain Power\u201d were included in the State Department\u2019s American Film Showcase, which showed the films at American embassies around the world.<\/p>\n
Since \u201cThe Tribe,\u201d Shlain has also carved out a niche for herself in the Jewish community, which she says gravitated toward the film\u2019s distillation of complex ideas, and some Jewish educators and community leaders had been asking her for another \u201cJewish\u201d film. Shlain credits her nonprofit with helping her reach out to Jewish institutions across the country without worrying about the profitability of her films.<\/p>\n
\u200b \u201cEstablishing the nonprofit was a huge breakthrough as a filmmaker,\u201d Shlain said. \u201cRather than focusing so much energy on licensing fees and selling the films, foundations and grants could support giving the films away for free, and we could make so many more films and have them reach so many more people.\u201d<\/p>\n
In producing \u201cThe Making of a Mensch,\u201d Shlain on her website requested video submissions from people around the world to provide a definition of a mensch. (She had asked a different question for a previous short, \u201cThe Science of Character.\u201d) Snippets from selected submissions will make their way into the final cut of the film, which Shlain is completing.<\/p>\n
Shlain terms this collaborative process \u2014 along with releasing the film for free to maximize its reach and impact \u2014 \u201ccloud filmmaking,\u201d a term that symbolizes how deeply her work is entwined with the power of the Internet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the word \u2018cloud\u2019 because, to me, a cloud sounds intimate, and it sounds like creativity,\u201d Shlain said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe exciting part for me is that I can be working on a script with three people at the same time or I can make a film with videos from people from all over the world. I cannot wait to share this.\u201d<\/p>\n
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