View from the Bridge

Connecting.

When COVID first struck, I had no idea I would become a movie star.

Well, maybe not Hollywood, red carpet-level movie star, but in those early days of the pandemic there was a great need for connection. As the Head of Cincinnati Country Day School, the way I tried to assure and lead our community was through the medium of film and video.

Our middle son, Sam, is a film studies major in college. Like many other college students at the time, he suddenly found himself in his bedroom at home instead of on campus. He was taking classes online but also had extra time to spare (didn’t we all?).

In the first week of the pandemic, he helped me film a short video in which I addressed the school community to offer words of assurance, let people know about the steps we were taking to address the newly arrived virus, and call for community even though we were not together.

After the school posted the video on its YouTube channel, it quickly shot to over 1,000 views within a day—a number of views that far surpassed any video we had ever posted. Clearly, we were onto something.

Over the next 15 weeks of the school year, my son and I produced videos for our community that we would share on Sunday afternoons. They grew in complexity as I included photo montages, interviews with community members, information about events, and even a tribute to our seniors who were not going to have a graduation. And with each passing week, we received numerous messages thanking us for the communications and keeping our community together.

Through this process, I came to understand, up close and personal, the power of the movie. In fact, one of the ways I have tried to connect with the Tabor community is through videos that we have posted on the school’s social media. Like Country Day, I have heard from many community members that they very much enjoy this way of getting to know me and what’s happing at the school.

In this edition of Tabor Today, you will read about the experiences of fellow Seawolves who have devoted their lives to movie making. As I learned in a recent Forecasters Series conversation with Peter Aronson ’84, the movie and entertainment industries are in a period of significant disruption with the advent of streaming services and incredibly short attention spans. However, the magic and power of movies still abounds, and so we hope you will take inspiration as you read this issue—perhaps with a bag of buttered popcorn and Junior Mints as you do!