Joanne Ashe’s parents were both Holocaust survivors who brought to the U.S. their Eastern European traditions and values. “I grew up crossing cultures daily,” she recalls. “Eventually, films became an important source of my understanding about the vast diversity in our world. I could reach out in my imagination and connect to countries so far beyond my own mental and physical boundaries, inspired by people so unlike me.”

Shortly after adopting a five-year-old Russian orphan who spoke no English, Joanne returned to Russia with a friend with a movie camera and produced a documentary film on the experience of international adoption, “The Waiting Children,” which premiered in the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. That further fueled Joanne’s interest in foreign films. While attending the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Joanne had an epiphany: “Why don’t kids see these films? Why aren’t they shown in schools as a way of teaching children about other countries and cultures?”

She immediately began to research the idea of developing educational curriculum based on foreign-language films – cold-calling people who could help her and giving presentations. “I did things I never thought I could do,” Joanne recalls. “I felt like I was guided by the spirits of my parents. Journeys in Film became the vehicle to educate people about cultural differences so that atrocities like the Holocaust would Never Happen Again.”

Within a year, she and Anna Rutins, Director of Programs Development, launched Journeys in Film with two films and curriculum guides. A year later, the program piloted in six cities around the U.S. and was evaluated for attitudinal change, by Amy Shea, of Brandkeys. In Albuquerque Public Schools, Journeys in Film was adopted as a district-wide project involving 20 middle schools. Fifty educators received a full-day of professional development, with special guests from the city and state education departments. A team of professors from University of New Mexico who specialize in intercultural communication practice and theory, deemed the project worthy of their participation in the evaluation component.

To date, Journeys in Film has reached over 600,000 middle-school kids nationwide with six films that address a variety of global issues. Students challenge traditional gender roles in New Zealand’s Maori culture, learn about refugees through young, soccer-loving Tibetan monks, explore compassion in the Middle East, experience unconditional love between a South Korean boy and his mute grandmother, and grieve the loss of family members from the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa.

Joanne’s efforts and past connections have yielded some prominent spokespeople for Journeys in Film, including Liam Neeson (whom she met because he played Schindler), Tony Shalhoub, Harold Ramis, Mary Steenburgen, Ted Danson and Alan Dershowitz. In July, 2011, Journeys in Film became an official project of The Norman Lear Center at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication, where they are seeking new funding sources in order to make the program available to all schools. She remains firmly dedicated to her original mission:

“My hope is that the impressions and lessons from the films selected by Journeys in Film will continue to echo in their hearts and minds for years to come, inspiring today’s students to become cross-culturally competent, productive and compassionate adults,” says Joanne.