An email arrived in my inbox with a link to a new trailer for a documentary series on education.
And there I am, in a cameo, as my alter ego persona, Oshi.
Well, we are both in the trailer. Nose off (Viva), nose on (Oshi).
With nearly seven years of television experience and 20+ years as a journalist, my alter ego speedily bumped me to the sidelines and stole the show.
Could this be a failure on my part?
Oshi is dressed in a red and white polka dot shirt and sports a ridiculous hairdo.
The Hong Kong documentary looks at education in six countries.
In the Israeli segment, Oshi and I talk about failure.
The joy of failing.
Failure, of course, is a buzzword today. Everyone is talking about the need to embrace failures.
It’s a word with so many connotations. As a journalist and speaker who tells innovation stories of failure and the lessons we can learn, the varying definitions of failure have been a big part of my work for years.
I give a duet talk on the connotations of failure in innovation and education.
I also blog about failure as a part of the journey to success.
It was a blog on clowning and the Israeli culture of accepting failure as a steppingstone that drew the attention of journalist/filmmaker Zhou Yijun in the first place.
In 2019, shortly after penning a blog on the Joy of Failure, I was asked to participate in the filming of a documentary on world education called, Childhood Elsewhere.
Nose on, I play with the rules of failure with school kids. Nose off, and in my journalist/speaker role (though dressed as a clown), I compare the semantics of the word FAILURE in different cultures.
It is ironic that Oshi is in the trailer. Not just because she's lacking in TV experience (though she does have some).
While Oshi is still a part of me, and is still my alter ego, she left clowning in schools back in December 2019. The year-long experience was amazing and memorable.
But it was.
And now, there’s a trailer – and a whole documentary – that puts the experience back in the present.
That’s the magic of film, I guess. Oshi will forever add joy and fun to the school setting in the documentary.
If you have a chance, watch the entire six-part series. It is fascinating. So many different styles of education around the world.
According to the email, it seems the documentary is now getting ready for a worldwide release. Watch for it on your streaming devices.