DOCUMENTARIES WITH A POINT OF VIEW
youth
We were excited to find out that P.O.V. Interactive has been named a Parents' Choice Recommended award winner. We've always known that P.O.V. is a great resource for kids who want to learn more about a particular subject through our documentaries and our website, but it's always nice to get a pat on the back, especially from the nation's oldest non-profit guide to quality children's media!
Part of the Parents' Choice Foundation's mission is to provide parents with the tools to help children learn outside the classroom. Awards are given out in categories like books, DVDs and toys, and each winner receives a full write-up so parents can figure out why the material might be of interest to their kids. Parents' Choice says that our site is "...the best of documentary form, delivered in an interactive frame, direct to your nearest computer." Aw, shucks. Thanks, guys!
Here are some special features on the P.O.V. website that might be of particular interest to young people:
Campaign (P.O.V. 2008) takes a look at democracy — Japanese style. What happens when a man is plucked from obscurity by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan to run for a critical seat on a suburban city council? Watch this funny and eye-opening film in its entirety online.
Do you have a question about U.S. election law? In 2008, P.O.V. aired Election Day, which takes a look at the street-level experience of voters in America today. Check out our Voting FAQ, where an expert answered questions about what you can do if you suspect your vote isn't being counted, how to become a poll watcher, and more.
Think you know all about immigration? Are immigrants dramatically less educated than native-born Americans? Does immigration cause unemployment to increase? In conjunction with 2007's Made in L.A., P.O.V. took a look at some of the most repeated myths about immigration and delved deeper to discover the realities underlying the immigration debate in Immigrations: Myths and Realities.
Make your own music video! In 2007, P.O.V. aired Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, and we teamed up with video-mixing website Eyespot.com so that our users could mix and mash footage from the film and the All Stars' music. The resulting videos look great, and you can still show us what you've got by making your own music video today!
Tintin and I, a 2006 P.O.V. film, focused on Belgian cartoonist Hergé, whose "Tintin" books are beloved by children all over the world. We asked six contemporary comic artists to talk to us about why comics get no respect, how to adapt comics to the movie screen, and more. Check out the responses from Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, Phoebe Gloeckner, Jason Lutes, Seth and Jessica Abel in On Cartooning.
In addition to those features, we've got a lot more content for kids, parents and teachers. So sit back, let your mouse do the walking, and browse through the P.O.V. website for more recommended materials!
Every week, independent journalist Tom Roston checks in and writes about the world of documentaries in his column, Doc Soup.
In honor of this week's premiere of season four of MTV's "The Hills," I'd like to ruminate a bit on the end of the world. Not really, but you'll get what I mean.
The show, in case you're over 25 and/or don't subscribe to a magazine other than The Nation, is a reality (I use that word liberally) TV series about a group of young women in Los Angeles, their friendships, their love lives and their incipient careers.
It is probably the last thing you'd expect to hear discussed by fans of P.O.V. docs, but I'd like to change that. I think there's gold in them hills. The format of the show is such an effective manipulation of real life through filmmaking techniques, that I think documentary lovers ought to take note.
Lauren Conrad from MTV's "The Hills"
Whether it's in writing or not, it's patently obvious that the creators and the so-called real-life subjects of the show are in a pact to produce a successful money-making enterprise. If we accept that fundamental fact, then the allegation that the subjects stage events isn't so scandalous. I don't even want to suggest you should become enmeshed in the drama of the show or the characters. All I care about is how watching "The Hills" is such an incredibly unusual viewing experience.
You'll be inside an apartment with two people talking, and then there's a cut to outside the building, where you see the same people in a wide shot inside the building. Seems like ordinary filmmaking, but, wait, have you ever seen that in a documentary? Or there's the lighting — it's beautiful; every scene is perfectly lit. And then there's the constantly seamless camera angles — you'll see two people sitting in the front seat of a car, and they are each shown in a standard shot-reverse-shot format. How did they do it? They mount two small cameras right in the front of the passengers, just out of view of each other. That way, the audience observe the dialogue without noticing them, and it must allow the subjects to also be unaware (and I use the word very, very liberally) of the cameras as well. Other shots are clearly carried out with cameras on tripods or stedicams ... it's really quite incredible to watch.
Ok, sure, so it takes tons of money to achieve such feats. And the content is hardly the sort to elicit the interest of serious-minded documentarians. All I'm saying is check it out.
It's the future of cinema verité — as most people will know it.
9 Star Hotel is the facetious name that Palestinian construction workers give to the pile of rocks that marks their clandestine nightly abode — a group of cardboard enclosures and tin-covered huts hidden in the brush-covered hills above the Israeli town of Modi'in. It is also the name of this week's P.O.V. film about the daily travails of these "illegals" as they hide from police at night so that they can work in Modi'in during the day.
The Palestinian men are neither militants nor activists, but ordinary youths placed by history in extraordinary circumstances who emerge as fully human — flawed and sympathetic. Caught in a strange and dangerous no-man's land between an Israel that must enforce laws to protect its citizens and a Palestinian Authority that can't or won't help them, they must risk capture and live in makeshift shelters simply to survive.
As a film made by an Israeli that takes the point of view of its young Palestinian subjects, 9 Star Hotel holds out a model for understanding, even across significant divides. The vérité-style documentary reminds viewers that behind all the political contention that so often defines regions like the West Bank, there are human stories. The film's subjects face universal struggles to make a living, care for family and prove their manhood. Individual tragedy is counterbalanced by resilience as the young men dream of a brighter future, despite the uncertainties that define their current situation.
Ahmed has no hope of fulfilling his dream of becoming police officer because he can't read and write. How is the experience of the men in the film like or unlike the experiences of day laborers or undocumented workers in other places? How is their situation like or unlike other places where borders divide areas of wealth and poverty?
Reflecting on Israel's treatment of Palestinians, Muhammad says, "If you shut a cat in a room, won't it jump at you?" If you could recommend to the Israeli government one policy change that would improve the lives of the men in the film, what would you recommend and why? Assume that the Palestinian Authority was not constrained politically. Similarly, what one policy change would you recommend to the Palestinian Authority?
Robert Bahar was the producer and writer of Made in L.A. (P.O.V. 2007). He represented P.O.V. recently at the Film Your Issue awards ceremony in Los Angeles to present the prize to the winner of the POV award.
Last week I had the privilege of presenting the P.O.V. Award at the Film Your Issue awards ceremony in Los Angeles. Film Your Issue is a competition that invites teens and young adults ages 14 to 24 from around the world to submit short films about issues that they are truly passionate about. The hope is that the competition will catalyze dialogue among young adults, and encourage potential future leaders to engage in civic discourse.
The ceremony was held at the Cary Grant Theater at Sony Pictures Studios and featured stars such as Kirk Douglas and Bill Maher, as well as business leaders including the publisher of USA Today, Craig Moon. But despite the star power, the real stars of the evening were undoubtedly the young filmmakers whose films and speeches came straight from the heart. I was there to present the P.O.V. Award to the film New Orleans for Sale, by Brandan Odums and Nik Richard (both 22) and their collective, 2-Cent Entertainment. In just 87 seconds, the film is a sharp, perceptive look at the actual paid tourism, and by extension, the voyeurism that represents a part of our national emotional response to Hurricane Katrina and the devastation left in its wake. It poses questions about why neighborhoods are not being rebuilt, and about whether there are disincentives for reviving the city as it once was. The mixture of documentary and performance techniques makes for a striking short piece:
The 2-Cent team actually brought 10 people out for the awards ceremony, so the podium was rather crowded for the awards presentation. And they got to stay up there for a while, as New Orleans for Sale also received three other prizes including the jury award, the NAACP award and the Silverdocs award! The prizes are fitting, and I'd love to see the film take off as a viral phenomenon. People absolutely need to see it, and these young voices do need to be heard.
I made my first documentary at 19, and I have always believed that films, media and especially documentaries can make a difference and lead to social change. So it was thrilling to spend an evening watching films made by young filmmakers who are fighting so hard to make a difference through these creative, powerful short pieces.
You can view all the winners at http://www.filmyourissue.com.
Irene Villaseñor is P.O.V.'s Youth Views manager. She was recently inspired by some presentations at a conference on youth media and education around the world. She writes in to share her thoughts.
Last weekend I attended Media: Overseas Conversations 5, an International Conference on Media, Education and Youth. Media educators from the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Europe shared information on their programs and the current challenges they face.
This event was an opportunity to learn how nations with histories of state control and censorship are creating spaces for young people to think critically about media. One of the most compelling presentations was by Hyeon-Seon Jeong, a professor from the Gyeongin National University of Education, who shared the difficulties of teaching a subject that can be frightening for established institutions.
Similar to those in the U.S., most media literacy programs in Korea are taught by media activists, workers and artists through extracurricular and after-school programs. Ms. Jeong described some of the varying definitions of "media literacy" among practitioners. One group is the "protectionists," who are concerned about media's potential to be a destructive force: they advocate for young people to limit their time with media. For example, the government is concerned with video game addiction among people in their teens and twenties as a public health issue, sparked by the death in 2005 of a 28-year-old South Korean man who collapsed after playing an online video game for 50 hours. Another group is the activists who see media's ability to foster civic engagement — recently, young people have used online networks to organize protests of the government's policy to import American beef, using digital cameras and mobile phones to document and disseminate evidence of their activities. And then there are educators who want to prioritize the development of communication skills. Ms. Jeong has collaborated with language education teachers on a curriculum that looked critically at commercials and websites. But she raised the question, is it possible to teach media literacy divorced from social and political practices?
If you would like to get involved in this international dialogue, mark your calendars for 2010. That's when the World Summit on Media for Children and Youth is happening in Karlstad, Sweden. Their call for proposals is still open. You can also email info[at]wskarlstad2010.se.
It often surprises people that a "TV show" like P.O.V. has a project like Youth Views, which works with youth, educators, and youth-serving organizations to use documentary film as a tool for youth engagement. Irene Villaseñor, P.O.V.'s Youth Views Manager, tells us more about what she does, and how to get films "out of the screening room and into the streets."
When I first joined the Youth Views Project, other youth media and youth-serving organizations told me they were curious about P.O.V.'s interest in working with young people. Quite simply, Youth Views was created to carry out P.O.V.'s mission to explore the potential of independent media in public life by utilizing the power of storytelling as a catalyst for thought, discussion, and action among young people.
In the spirit of building community and fostering social responsibility, Youth Views trains young people to use media to creatively and effectively reach their educational and community-based goals. Last fall, I wrote an article for the Youth Media Reporter about how we have collaborated with youth organizers and media producers.
It takes more than just showing up with a film and doing a Q&A afterwards if you want to make a deep impact with viewers — especially the local community. Young people need to go beyond simply making and screening a film. They need to learn how to engage an audience, present community issues for social change, and partner with affiliated organizations. They must effectively use their products as resources for education and action — an approach that fosters both the long-term growth of young producers and the youth media field itself.
This is what Youth Views does — it trains young people in using media for social change.
Read the rest of the article to find out about how P.O.V. films have been used to bring youth communities together.
Befriend Youth Views on MySpace.
