(upbeat music) - Hello, I'm Cheri Russo, Community Engagement Manager here at WOUB Public Media.

- And I'm Evan Shaw, Producer/Director here at WOUB.

- Welcome to WOUB's "Our Ohio" program.

"Our Ohio" is a high-school documentary film project that WOUB worked on in conjunction with American Documentary POV and with funding support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The students produced independent films that told their own personal and cultural stories.

During this program, we're gonna show you some of those short documentary-style films created by the high school students and look at how examining their identity and Appalachian culture impacted these students.

- That's right, Cheri, we worked with three different schools this year.

We worked with South Gallia, Logan High School, and Meigs High School and we worked with the students to create documentaries that tell their stories.

Not what we would like them to talk about, but whatever stories they thought were interesting and important to tell the region, to tell the state, and to tell their friends and their peers as well.

It was an exciting time, we started this project in 2020.

You may remember 2020 was a little weird.

- (laughing) A little bit.

- Things got a little strange, but we made it through, and so we worked with these students over a series of Zoom calls and, you know, teaching them about how to write and how to make films and to really tell their stories and it was a wonderful experience.

- That was true and we showed them a POV documentary film called "Portraits and Dreams".

That film helped the students think about Appalachian stigma and cultural pride, and the role media plays in telling their own story.

- That's right, and the film really helped the communities identify their Appalachian culture and recognize that they are Appalachians.

You know, here in Southern Ohio, we may not think of ourselves as Appalachia, but we absolutely are, we're rural Appalachians- - Absolutely.

and the students, what we did is we had a panel discussion with local community leaders.

We all watched the film, and the community leaders came into the panel discussions to talk with the students about what makes their communities special.

- During this program, we're gonna show you some of the work produced by students at South Gallia High School.

- Yeah, and South Gallia was a wonderful school to work with.

We worked with their media teacher, Jason Stout, who was so easy to work with and really was excited to have his students, to give them the opportunity to do something different.

You know, especially in this world that we were living in in 2020, where the world was on fire.

- Right.

- (laughing) And this gave the students something to focus on and something to keep their creative juices flowing.

And so South Gallia was a great school to work with.

We have three films from them for this show.

We're gonna start out with Joseph Mandeville's film, "The Digital Divide", and it's gonna just talk about the issues that rural Southeastern Ohio faces when it comes to broadband infrastructure and how important that is for us as a community if we wanna move forward.

So let's take a look at Joe's film.

(contemplative music) - [Male Narrator] Right now at this very moment, there is a real and current problem that has yet to be solved.

There are roughly 7 million Appalachian households that have a broadband internet connection.

This means that there are potentially thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of students who are being left behind in education due to this digital divide.

- My lack of broadband internet or any internet at all really hindered my education because it didn't allow me to work on what I needed to work on or do my homework successfully while I was at home.

So it forced me to end up, as soon as I came to school, I would have to work nonstop through breakfast and lunch just to be able to finish my assignments.

- My ability to do homework is affected by not having internet access because most of the time I can't turn my work in on time.

- Yes, it does hinder me sometimes, especially, again, times where I can't go to school the next day and just ask for, like, a paper copy.

- [Male Narrator] Furthermore, because of their lack of internet access some students may suffer lower grades than what they otherwise would have received.

- And so it affects my grade and since teachers want it on time, it's kind of difficult if the Wi-Fi is slow or me not having it at all.

- It does affect our grades if it's like, uh, you know, if I can't go to school again, but you know, other times it's more of a annoyance.

But, during a lockdown, it's really hindering with that.

- [Male Narrator] Some may even feel that they were at a disadvantage because of their lack of Internet.

- I believe those who do have Internet have a huge advantage over the people who don't, because they are able to complete their assignments and their homework and lessons on time compared to those who don't, who have to crunch in more time at school to be able to do it.

- I wouldn't say a disadvantage because I can obviously find places to go to get Wi-Fi, but it would be a lot easier and simpler to have it and be able to do it at home instead of having to travel to find a place.

- Personally, I don't feel like I'm at a disadvantage, but other kids might have more work that they can't do, or sometimes they are, you know, just don't have Internet at all, and so there's kids out there that definitely need some help or, you know, are at a severe disadvantage.

- [Male Narrator] The recent COVID-19 pandemic has greatly highlighted the digital divide, especially in the Appalachian region.

With remote learning becoming the only way to receive an education, those without Internet access are left to fend for themselves.

- I couldn't get into contact with my teachers to ask for physical work and we couldn't really get out at that time because of COVID beliefs.

Actually, since the teachers are getting so many emails, it was hard to respond to every student.

So, me being, not having Internet, it was kind of hard to get into contact with them, and, obviously, sometimes I would send an email and it wouldn't go through.

That would actually mess with my grade because when asking them questions and them not responding to me and not being able to meet for Google Meets, it was difficult.

- [Male Narrator] So, if the Internet is key to receiving a good education, why aren't students being provided it?

- I don't have the ability to have broadband or any Internet access at home because the Internet companies believe that I am too far out in the middle of nowhere to even put Internet in for it to be a benefit to them.

- I feel like we're not at the top of the list of priorities and sometimes I feel like they may, you know, there's other people that might need it more.

There's people that say they need it more, you know, just sometimes, you know, they forget about us sometimes.

- [Male Narrator] Overall, this account should be more than enough to justify the implementation of a broadband Internet connection in every house in Appalachia in America.

The simple fact that thousands of students are going through similar, if not worse experiences, as the ones in this video is devastating and disappointing.

With ready Internet, not a single American student would miss out on a virtual learning experience.

- So Joe tackled a big topic.

I mean, broadband Internet access in this part of the State of Ohio is something that's on the state level right now, they're looking at again, and so that's a really big topic.

How did he decide to do that?

- You know, Joe, originally we were talking about topics, he talked about this because when he got broadband, how it changed his life- - Mm.

and how, you know, how difficult it was before broadband came to his area, before he lived in a place where he could access it.

And, you know, I was really proud of him for tackling such an important topic that is being discussed at The State House, as you said,- - Yeah.

is being discussed in Congress on Capitol Hill, at The White House, and I hope that more young people like Joe start tackling these bigger projects and these bigger problems that we're facing, because they're the ones who are being affected by this the most.

If we don't have broadband for our young people to keep up with the rest of the world, it's not just for entertainment, it's for education, it's for all kinds of things.

And, you know, I look at broadband as the modern day version of our Ohio Canal.

- Mm hm.

- Back in 1825, we dug a canal from Cleveland to Portsmouth.

Why?

So we could get communication and we can get trade in and out.

The modern day canal is broadband, is the Internet,- - Yeah, absolutely.

that's how we get goods and services out, digital goods and services.

So, Joe is onto something here that we're all aware of, but it's so good to see a young person take the initiative on a project with as big of a scope as this.

- Well, obviously, you know, you and I and many others are aware of this issue, but when you watched Joe's film, did you learn something you didn't know?

- I think what I learned is seeing the real life effects on one person.

You know, it's often viewed at such a, it's such a big problem- - Mm hm.

that it's hard to see the, how it affects an individual, and I think anytime, one of my favorite quotes is from Ken Burns, a documentary filmmaker you may have heard of, (both laughing) and it's, "Look beyond the great men when you're telling a story" and that means get past the big things and look at how it affects an individual, and I think Joe did a great job of talking about, "Hey, this is a real authentic story and how it affects me" and I think that that has value and it helps people relate because I can relate to an individual, it's hard for me to relate to an entire country all at once in that problem.

So, seeing things on the individual level is what I was really excited to see from Joe's film.

- So, tell us about the next film we're gonna watch.

- So, the next film we're gonna watch is called "Appalachian Life" and this is by Braiden, Braxton and Brycen.

Did I get that right?

Braiden, Braxton, Brycen.

- Lots of B's.

(laughing) That's my Killer B's is what I called 'em, they didn't think it was as funny as I did.

(Cheri laughing) But, anyway, so, "Appalachian Life" by Braiden Ellis, Braxton Graves and Brycenn Stanley.

Let's take a look.

(quietly upbeat music) - Ms. Dafney Davis, and I'm a dual-credit, high school social studies teacher at South Gallia High School.

I was born and raised in Gallia County, Ohio, which makes me full-blooded Appalachian.

I have been married for 24 years to the same great guy.

We have three kids, we have one daughter and two sons.

I graduated originally from Hannan Trace High School and then I went on to attend University of Rio Grande, where I got a BS in history, minor in political science, and certification in secondary education, and then I also have two master's degrees, which probably sounds silly, but I do.

I have one in teacher leadership from Walden University, and then I have one from Concordia University in teaching and leading.

Teaching and learning, I'm sorry.

I can't imagine living anywhere else other than right here in good old Southern Ohio.

(quietly upbeat music) South Gallia has, we really have, it's a diverse group, but everybody's gonna say, "Oh no, we're all the same" but we're really not.

You have lots of kids in this district where, you know, you've got a lot of one parent families, and you've got extremely high poverty levels, and we are looking at that every day to try and help improve that situation with those kids, and they have everything they need.

I mean, it kind of goes all about the place, but the main thing you need to remember is South Gallia takes care of our kids.

Appalachia will always take care of them.

I teach the Senior Capstone Course here at South Gallia High School and some of the jobs and things that our kids leave here and go into doing, one of the big fields is nursing.

For whatever reason, our girls are really tuned into the nursing field and lots of them go into that, and some of them are very successful at it.

Currently we have Kate Lee, she's a physician's assistant in Morgantown.

We have Danielle Merry-Sperry, she's a palliative pediatric doctor at CAMC in Charleston.

We also have Dr. Bryan Rupert, who has a PhD in anthropology and archeology.

He is a professor at the University of Indiana, he's gonna be our graduation speaker this year.

These were all kids who, you know, have come from all different directions, and they've all been successful.

I mean, you know, everybody, another big success story, somebody with no college, Landon Hutchinson left here with probably no plan, and his grandfather really encouraged him to go into the police academy, and now he's a active duty police officer in New Boston, Ohio, and whenever all the race stuff, with the Black Lives Matter stuff was being put all over the TV, he's a neighborhood cop in the Town of New Boston, and one of the neighborhood people actually shot a small video of Landon getting out of his cruiser and playing basketball with the kids, and the posts on it said, "Not all color matters," or whatever, and then it just said, "#thanks, Officer Hutchinson."

And you know, doctors and nurses are pretty cool, but right now that's one of the big things that's sticking in my mind, that video of one of our graduates proving that, you know, we have good kids come out of here, and that they're ready, that we're giving them the right skills that they can be successful, no matter where they go.

(quietly upbeat music) I hope that when the students leave my classroom, that putting all the content learning aside, I hope that they learn how to be critical thinkers and I hope that they learn to be good, thoughtful citizens, and I hope that they leave my classroom and go out into the world to be good contributing members of society.

You know, lots of people sell Appalachia short, but what we do have, what we lack in, like, big dollar items and stuff, we don't lack in work ethic, and we don't lack in integrity and perseverance.

(quietly upbeat music) I think academically there's, I don't think there's any difference because the level of rigor in the classroom will be based solely on the teacher.

So, I don't think it matters where you're at, what the main difference in the education process in Appalachia that I noticed does not exist in other areas is that, you know, the community will raise the kid here.

Right?

We have, we'll have, you know, some type of activity after school and Mom, Dad, and sister are all somewhere else, well, then another mom will simply pick the kid up and get him from practice, or, you know, do what needs to be done.

You see so much of that in Appalachia because we're more family-based people and we have that big extended family, and we're all about taking care of what needs taken care of.

We take care of each other because nobody ever helps us.

Appalachian people, I don't know how we became a minority group, but we've always helped each other, we're survivors.

In this part of the country, you have to be able to take care of yourself and you have to have that internal integrity and perseverance, which is what we really want to see in Appalachian kids.

(quietly upbeat music) I think that whenever they first come into the high school in an Appalachian area, kids tend to have a lower self-esteem or this mindset that, "Well, I can't do that" or, "Why would I even try to do that?

I'm from Southern Ohio."

and you know, in my years of experience with teaching, I've discovered this amazing thing that all kids brains are the same.

You know, our school district might never be an athletic powerhouse, but the brains in our classrooms are exactly the same size as the one's in Columbus or in Cincinnati or in New York City.

So, what I want for them, I just, I want them to come in and with that low self-esteem, and I want them to be able to become critical thinkers and become more confident in who they are as citizens, because it's so important that the people of Appalachia become good citizens, become good voting citizens because that's how we take care of our country, we vote.

(quietly upbeat music) - So our Three Killer B's, is that what you called them?

- The Killer B's, right.

- (laughing) So tell us how they developed this idea.

- You know, they had a lot of different concepts they wanted to work with at the very beginning, but they finally settled on this overview of what it means to be Appalachian, what it means to grow up in a place like Southern Ohio and South Gallia County, in Gallia County down there, and I think they did a great job, you know, interviewing people from their community and really trying to find out what makes this area unique.

- What do you think, what do you think speaks to students about this project?

Why do you think they're so engaged with this?

Because, really, I was surprised by how much they wanted to do these projects.

- You know, I was, too.

I didn't know how the students would react to a guy sitting on Zoom at 8:45 in the morning, talking to them on a big monitor while they're in class wearing masks, but they bought in.

- Yeah.

And I think that that shows that rural kids, rural people in general have a lot to say, but they don't get asked.

They, you know, when we ask people about rural issues, so often we're talking to PhDs and researchers and people like that, and it's great that we have those individuals doing that important work, but, at the end of the day, we've got to hear from the real authentic people.

And so, I think giving someone a voice, once they feel empowered, that, "Here's something I can create and here's something I want to talk about that I think's important", it's not hard to start buying in after that because people are listening and they're paying attention to you.

- Awesome.

All right, so tell us about the next one.

- So the next film, we just watched "Appalachian Life", now we're gonna watch "Appalachian Life And COVID".

- [Cheri] Oh, okay, there you go!

- (laughing) So, yeah, the titles are very similar but there's a little bit of a difference and this one is by Emma, Macie and Andrew, also from South Gallia, of course.

So, let's take a look at "Appalachian Life And COVID".

(contemplative music) - [Female Narrator] In previous years before now, sports were way more enjoyable.

Sports this year, due to COVID, have been pretty different.

- [Football Coach] Take your right!

(players shouting) - [Female Narrator] Football was the first sport of the year and adjusting to it was pretty difficult.

(coaches and players shouting) Barely anyone could get into the games to cheer our team on (players shouting) due to limited amount of tickets.

These bleachers were hardly filled.

- [Cheerleaders] S-G-H-S, fight, fight, fight!

- [Female Narrator] Even the cheerleaders couldn't go to away games, which I bet was hard for them.

Now, basketball is a different story.

This sport was probably the hardest one to cope with due to the pandemic.

(fans murmuring) Due to players getting Corona, not just on our teams here at South Gallia, but even players on the other teams that we play can affect us.

If you are sitting on the bench you have to keep on your mask, which is hard for the players that have been playing a lot, because it's really hot and they're sweaty.

The varsity girls basketball Coach Corey Small is here to tell us some more about it.

- I guess the main difference was we had to take temperatures before practice and before we left for games, but the worst part was putting tables up and down.

- Oh yeah, that was bad.

(laughing) - Before and after practice and before games.

So yeah, that's the worst.

- Um, who could the players give their tickets to, like, their friends or just like their family members or stuff like that?

- Yeah, so at the beginning of the season, it started off as only immediate family and then towards the end of the year the COVID cases started to go down, so we allowed the players to give them to people outside of the immediate family.

- Was that stressful for you with the tickets or did it not really affect you, just the players?

- It didn't affect me at all 'cause that wasn't, I wasn't in charge of that, that was the school, so.

- [Student Interviewer] Do you think next years season will be any different or go back to normal?

- I really can't say, but I'm hopeful that it's normal.

(contemplative music) Only thing makes me think it's gonna be normal is I saw where Dewine's gonna have the county fairs at full capacity, so hopefully that'll lead to no regulations on the percentage of people at our games and stuff like that.

- [Female Narrator] I'm sure the athletes are very excited for when it returns to normal, (football crowd cheering) so they can return to hearing the roar of the crowd.

(basketball crowd cheering) (contemplative music) - [Second Female Narrator] COVID-19 has made a drastic impact on not only our younger generations day-to-day lives, but especially our older.

- Well, when I was growing up, I didn't have any video games or cell phones or computers, so whenever you wanted to play, you had to go knock on a neighbor's door and go, "Hey, you wanna play a game?"

or "Hey, wanna walk around the neighborhood?"

or you had to actually go and interact a lot more.

(contemplative music) - [Second Female Narrator] Most of the year, grandparents and relatives did not even get to see their younger relatives participate in sports or school awards.

(contemplative music) Many events and typical plans that take place throughout the year were canceled due to COVID-19.

(contemplative music) - I'd say my job has changed due to COVID 'cause we had to be more cognizant of where the kids sat and make sure that they maintained a good distance, and there was a lot of, you know, cleaning, wiping down tables and chairs and it really did change the whole aspect of being here this year a lot.

- [Second Female Narrator] What about the older demographic?

How does this compare to their childhood?

How did they feel not being able to see their grandkids, nieces, nephews participate in things?

- Well, I tell ya, in the beginning it really, it bothered me a lot because I couldn't see any basketball games and I couldn't go to the games even here unless I sold tickets, but it was, it was hard because my one grandson is actually playing football and baseball in college and I was not allowed to go to the games, even if they were like close by our house, to watch him play.

I had to watch on a video screen where he was like this big.

(contemplative music) - [Second Female Narrator] It is very upsetting that these individuals have had to miss out on watching their families grow so much this year, and have had to adjust to a whole new lifestyle that they have not had to deal with in their lives.

Hopefully, for the next year, COVID-19 numbers will drop and things will begin to turn to normal.

- I've been quarantined twice so, two separate occasions.

The first was quarantine for 14 days, I've been lucky enough that the health department here dated it back several days so I only got quarantined for 10 days the first time and, like, eight or nine days the second time.

Quarantine is not a fun time.

you know, I'm in my house, isolated.

I have a two story house so my wife and my son stayed downstairs while I was upstairs being quarantined.

My wife works at a hospital, so I gotta make sure I stay isolated away from her because she can't be taking a risk exposure to her patients when she goes to work and I don't get to see my family or anything.

I watch television or I'm on my phone but it's not the same, you don't get to enjoy being outside or whatever.

Have to have food brought to me.

I didn't get to exercise or workout.

So being quarantined for those two, two separate times was not fun.

So, last year when we got shut down from COVID in March, again, I wasn't in the classroom setting.

I wasn't quarantined but I wasn't in a classroom setting, so that was kinda boring.

But, you know, I got to work on my golf game a little bit, got to travel a little bit, being at home while we're supposed to be in school, so that was fun, but I wouldn't recommend being quarantine for anybody because it's just a lonely feeling those 14 days that you're isolated by yourself.

(contemplative music) - So, we've talked about this before, but I was surprised we didn't get more films about COVID, but what did, why did this group decide to tackle that?

- They wanted to tackle this film, I believe, and this topic because they wanted to show how COVID, not impacted them from a medical standpoint necessarily, a little bit of that, obviously, but also how it impacted their community.

You know, grandmothers and grandfathers not being able to watch their kids play sports.

That's a big deal.

- That is, mm hm.

You know, and I think back of my mom and dad coming to my football games and cheering me on as I stood on the sidelines.

(Cheri laughing) That's important, though, I will always remember hearing my mom's voice up there and to not have that in a small town where everyone's coming to the high school basketball game or football game on a Friday night or Tuesday night or whatever, - Right.

that's a major part of our community.

And from the outside, that may seem not that important, but this is where we gather, places like this where we see each other.

It's where you see your uncles and your cousins and your friends from down the road that you may not have seen in a while.

And so, I think it was great to see them be honest about that and how that affected them.

- Awesome.

Well, after, you know, watching these films, one of the things that I realized was these students have the opportunity through social media to tell their stories all the time.

I don't think in this way they've ever thought about it before, but how do you think this will impact them going forward?

- You know, I hope that they recognize that their social media platform can be just as valuable as creating films.

You know, I think as a filmmaker and as an, you know, someone who works in television, we often look down at TikTok or Instagram 'cause it's, beneath us.

- Mm hm.

It's not, that's just not true.

- [Cheri] Right.

- TikTok is a, especially for high school kids, is a, it's a documentary platform as far as I'm concerned, with some other comedy things in there- - Yeah.

(laughing) - but it can give you a very real life look at someone's life, and I hope that they take some of the lessons they learned about storytelling and about, most importantly, being proud of where they're from, and instead of trying to hide who they are.

I've done that in my career, you know.

I'm Evan from Meigs County, but sometimes I've kinda hidden that- - [Cheri] Mm hm.

- a little bit earlier in my career and I hope that this gives them the confidence to go out and say, "Yeah, I'm from South Gallia and I'm proud of it and let me tell you about it, 'cause it's an amazing place."

- And WOUB is now getting ready to do this project again for next school year.

We're really excited about it, we're bringing two new high schools in, Alexander and Wellston, and we're also adding and expanding by including a cross cultural exchange component with high school students in Cincinnati.

- I am so excited for this because, A., we're adding more Appalachian Ohio students to keep expanding this project throughout the schools in our local area, but then hopefully their plan is to have a chance to have these students here in Southern Ohio work with students in Southwest Ohio in urban Cincinnati and find issues to make a film about that both communities may face and how they challenge or how those challenges affect them, how they may take on those challenges and how they can work together.

So, I'm excited to see what comes out of this project next year.

- And learning about each other, right?

- Exactly!

And we're gonna learn about ourselves first and then learn about each other together afterwards, and I can't think of anything more exciting for this type of project then to have that cross cultural exchange and to see what comes out of it.

I don't know what's gonna come out of it, but I think it's gonna be good.

- It's gonna be great.

We didn't know what was gonna come out of this year- - Nope.

- and look at what happened.

- Exactly.

It was awesome.

Well, thank you so much for joining us.

To learn more about this project and all of the educational programming and services offered by WOUB, please visit our website, woub.org.

Thanks for joining us.

(upbeat music)