MOVIE FORESHADOWS REAL-LIFE DRAMA TIMING OF STUDENT FEATURE COINCIDES WITH MIDEAST CRISIS.

Byline: Amy Raisin Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Two local student filmmakers were putting the final touches on their debut drama when a Palestinian teen blew herself up in a crowded market, killing herself and an Israeli girl.

Strangely, the timing of the debut of ``Camp Pacific,'' the 30-minute film that explores the conflicts and prejudices among Arab and Israeli teens bunking together at a California summer camp, is hauntingly prophetic.

``It wasn't supposed to be such a timely topic. A year ago, not everybody knew there was a conflict,'' said Koren Young, 21, the film's producer and a cinema student at California State University, Northridge.

With its debut scheduled for Sunday at the International Family Film Festival at the Valencia Town Center, the film began taking shape after Young and Jodie Lea Higby, the film's writer and director, took a bus tour of Israel in January of 2001.

The struggle for Jerusalem was hardly peaceful then, but neither of the Santa Clarita Valley natives and College of the Canyons graduates could have predicted how prescient the script's subject matter would be 15 months later.

``Going to Israel really made me learn a lot more about the situation,'' said Higby, 22, who expects to receive her cinema degree from CSUN in May, as Young also does. ``It inspired me to research the different ways to find peace.''

Both raised Jewish, the filmmakers said they sat down with the crew - Jewish, Arabic and African-American students - before the final draft was ready and discussed what the conflict meant to them.

``We all have our own opinion of the whole conflict,'' Higby said. ``But we all came together to promote this idea of peace.''

As if taken from current headlines, the film centers on two young men - one Arab, one Jewish - who, as they later discover, both live in Jerusalem. The teens must confront a history that dictates a culture of hatred and lack of understanding.

All members of the cast and crew volunteered their time for the film shot over two weekends in Malibu and Hollywood. Young's and Higby's mothers doubled as chefs and caterers on the shoot.

The filmmakers were able to secure equipment donations from movie industry companies - such as the use of Panavision's 16 mm camera - to reduce out-of-pocket expenses on the production that cost about $35,000. However, Young and Higby used nearly $13,000 of their own money to bring the script to life.

After their film is screened in Valencia, the duo will travel to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France, where, in exchange for lending a hand with the events, they will have the chance to show ``Camp Pacific.''

The film, an entrant in the Valencia festival's student short film drama category, will screen at 5 p.m. Sunday at Edwards Cinema.

For information on the International Film Festival Valencia, go to www.sciff.org or call the IFFF hotline at [phone].

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(color) Film students Jodie Lea Higby, left, and Koren Young will debut their ``Camp Pacific'' this weekend in Valencia.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer