RE: I believe the children are our future

Wow, NFFTY is too quaint a word to describe the experience of screening the National Film Festival for Talented Youth two weekends ago.

My family and I attended 2 of 3 days of the event, viewing dozens of short films written and produced by people ages 12-21, and were seriously blown away by their vision, their audacity, and their amazing storytelling skills. I am reminded, once again, that teenagers get a bum rap for simply being young. My experiences over my lifetime repeatedly debunk that notion, for I am usually inspired by the efforts, the thoughts and dreams, and the healthy energy of young people who have a vision for their own future. They are all poised at the very beginnings of their journeys and we need to be there to help them along the way to do the things that we couldn't or wouldn't do when we were their ages. The future starts with them.

The films were divided into four categories: narrative, documentary, animation/music video, and experimental. As for subject matter, let me give you just some of the topics we viewed to show you what's on the minds of American youth:

DOCUMENTARY
homelessness • family history • depression • civil war in Colombia • art • community-supported agriculture • book banning • children of war • Hurricane Katrina • bipolar disorder • the death penalty • environmental justice • memory • girls' self image • body decoration • racial understanding • religion • organized farm labor • the uses of fear

NARRATIVE
espionage • immigrant identity • dreams • random acts of kindness • drug addiction • cycles of life • female glam superheroes • unrequited romance • the dangers of LSD • intergenerational ties • WWI aviation • suicide • STDs • WWII battleground humanity • murder mystery • apathetic Americans • the final moments of an elderly man • love triangle • sci fi journey

MUSIC/ANIMATION/EXPERIMENTAL
farmyard supremacy • animal rights • dyslexia • cultural identity • unexpected friendships

While all of the films were amazing in their own way, there were a few standouts that deserve some special attention here in this blog. Please visit the links if you can (some of them offer ways to see the same movies we saw, right off your own computer) and show them support either through an email, donation, or a letter to your congressperson.

Afuera: An Argentinian teenaged girl emigrates to Los Angeles and sells the one relic of her past to support herself, a gold necklace with a Star of David pendant her grandfather bequeathed to her. This film sheds light on what being an immigrant in America could mean.

Big Bad Wolf: An excellent documentary on the way various cultural institutions use fear to motivate people. I'd say this is required viewing for all Americans who don't think voting and politics are worth the discomfort they bring. Directed by students ages 15, 17 and 18.

Bittersweet: A very simple narrative about how the way we treat each other can create a domino effect in our community.

Cows With Guns: Extremely funny claymation music video that walks viewers through the political challenges of animal rights activism. Whoever wrote the lyrics deserves some sort of grand award and recognition. I laughed so hard I cried. Reminiscent of the America Rock! videos of the 70s, but edgier.

Dis Order: Lovely and well-articulated piece about a dyslexic girl trying to take a test. The graphics show wonderful insights into the different ways that creative minds work and prove that dyslexics can still be true geniuses.

The End Is Near: Funny narrative about a boy so caught up in his college applications that he doesn't see the world falling to nuclear holocaust all around him. A pretty decent rendering of the apathy among Americans in general, who are usually too caught up in busy-ness to pay attention to anything important around them.

Invisible Children: MUST SEE. If you screen this film and don't leave with tears in your eyes or a stomach ache, then you aren't a human being, period. Three teenaged boys naively take their video equipment on a random trip to Africa and end up uncovering a terrible atrocity in Uganda: children who must hide at night from rebel forces or be abducted into a bloodthirsty regime of brainwashed boy soldiers. This film will make you laugh, cry, get really pissed off, and hope. This film has changed foreign policy.

The Last Stand: It's really touching to see sensitive movies about reaching the end of one's life produced by young people. This one shows a man making a choice about the way he will die. I was blown away by the filmmaker's lighthearted compassion.

March Point: MUST SEE. The filmmakers were at the festival and I am certain they have no idea how much power their film wields. Three young men from the Swinomish Tribe decide to make a film and end up uncovering an environmental atrocity in their own back yard which still hasn't been fairly addressed by politicians, despite the fact they went to the state and federal Capitols to seek assistance. I voted for Christine Gregoire and Patty Murray and was outraged at their response to the efforts of these young men, who simply asked for an audience. I've already written my letter of complaint to the both of them. Contact the filmmakers through Native Lens

Nice Touch: Oh, this one's so sweet! An elderly lady who plays the piano everyday breaks her fingers in an unfortunate accident. The neighborhood is not the same without her daily music until a little boy pays her a visit and she teaches him how to play the piano.

One Light: A 13-year-old Sikh's efforts to share his cultural identity with his non-Sikh neighbors makes a perfect rendition of the idealism of youth, and it seems to be making a difference in larger circles. I was proud that my children saw this film. Click the link to see it for yourself.

Release: Two suicides rock a small family. Heartbreaking in content, but the narrative was so artfully done that it ended up being one of the most beautiful films in the batch.

A Second Look: True stories from the streets. This filmmaker made a great effort to reveal the faces of the homeless, and they're not who you think they are.

Speaking Truth to Power: The Story of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee: I had no idea that there was a contemporary farm labor movement in the American South! This story features a current day Cesar Chavez, Baldemar Velasquez, who has worked tirelessly to get his people fair wages and better conditions. I want to express my thanks to the filmmaker for taking the time to tell their story.

The power of filmmaking takes on new meaning when you see the world through the eyes of creative and talented young people. Not only that, but it can open the eyes of people who are much older who may think that American youthsare only interested in sex, drugs and video games.

I have come away inspired and informed.

One caveat: these films, for the most part, are not suitable for kids under 12 without the supervision and engagement of a thoughtful parent. Even at age 12, the subject matter and approaches involved can be rather sophisticated and daunting for some children.

Let's face it, even my husband and I weren't prepared for the intensity of some of the films.

But no matter. You can parent your children by giving them only the safe view of the world or by opening their eyes (and your own) to the realities of the larger world. We chose the latter because the fact that these children took on these subjects and did something positive about them is enough reason. These could be our own talented children trying to solve the world's problems, after all. How could we not support them?

I took my 10- and 12-year-old daughters and found that the best way to deal with some of the subject matter and other more adult aspects of these films (including language and some violent imagery) was to have a solid bedtime discussion with the both of them to answer questions they had and to address their concerns, fears or discomforts over some of the films they saw during the day.

In the end, we are all still talking about the films and what we learned, and both of my children are now interested in studying filmmaking themselves (at the local level, starting with workshops taught at the public access TV studio).

And I couldn't be happier about that fact. The world doesn't need more people wearing blinders and earplugs. If we can all raise children to look and to listen, then we have done our world a favor.