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Jennifer Wolowic |
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Abstract: Malcolm X Academy in Hunter’s Point, San Francisco, is a safe zone for its 170 students contending with daily terror in a neighborhood isolated from the rest of the city. Like so many underserved inner-city schools, the majority of its students receive discounted lunches, fight to raise test scores, and attend the after school program. External funding provides the students with homework help, as well as art, cooking, gardenin g, and photography classes, but remains understaffed. Having spent nine months with the after school program, we developed relationships with students and incorporated their insights into this community-based participatory film project. Malcolm X Academy brings you back to the playground and into the minds of children. Covering the topics of conflict resolution, neighborhood dynamics and education as a key to the future, these articulate youth reveal their amazing insights and potential. Production Date: 05/30/2006 Distributor: Jennifer Wolowic 3590 Spearmint Ln Shingle Springs, CA 95682 Phone: 604-250-7593 Running Time: 11 Medium: DVD Email: jwolowic@gmail.com Film Purpose: The purpose of the film is to recruit support and funding for Malcolm X Academy and to share the interpretations of its students. The film also combats dominant negative mainstream media representation of the Hunters Point in San Francisco. Using the their voices to investigate topics of conflict resolution, success, identity, and education the film also serves to empower marginalized youth. Film Audience: The primary intended audience are individuals interested in tutoring or volunteering for Malcolm X Academy. The film has also been screened for school district supervisors and helped create further support for the school. For general audiences, "Perspectives and Potential" offers a community-based representation as an alternative to mainstream media representations. For anthropologists, the film is a critical ethnography of inner city youth and the messages being negotiated into their identities. Role of the Anthropologist / Collaboration: As students of anthropology and cinema and San Francisco State University, we spent 8 months observing, participating, and filming the Malcolm X Academy after school program. Through participatory action research we collaborated with teachers, community members, and especially with the youth of the school to define the topics of the film and its purpose for the community. We spent two months developing relationships with the youth, teachers, and community and then spent four months shooting and investigating topics via video with the youth. Two months were spent editing and gathering feedback from youth and the school. We then held public for the community and San Francisco State University. Filmmaker / anthropologist: Jennifer Wolowic, SFSU/UBC Keywords: participatory action, inner-city youth, empowerment |
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