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Structures of Everyday Life Using
DVcam technology, this 56:40 minute program weaves together narrative
and visual vignettes with expressive footage of rave music events. The
vignettes are selected from months of intense videotaping during school
lunch breaks, at parties, at night, with friends and even during the most
intimate moments. Topics include honest expressions of sense-of-self,
sexuality and teenage pregnancy, drug use, feelings of isolation, and
finally, healing. The rave, an underground music scene catering
to adolescents, thrives in the Reno area and in nearby Sacramento. These
visually dynamic dancing and music 'performances,' perfect metaphors for
adolescent expression, are the warp of this program; the vignettes are
the weft. The central theme of the program is about adolescents speaking
their language, their views, and expressing their desire for acceptance.
Healing is the concluding passage into adulthood. Background:
Adolescents live in the best of times and in the worst of times. Statistical
analyses reflect greater participation by adults in adolescent's lives.
Since the early 1960s, the quality of all child-care programs has improved
dramatically, and most communities like Reno have a wide variety of challenging
and beneficial options available for adolescents [Odyssey of the Mind,
'Kids University' at the University of Nevada, Reno, and highly organized
sports leagues]. School districts have implemented health and "Share"
[content-approved sexual education courses] curricula, after school 'latch-key'
learning opportunities, and local arts agencies have funded and maintained
arts programming [Spectra Art]. Many adolescents have a dramatic interest
in new media, including computer technologies and television production.
But these are also dangerous times. The variety of after-school programs,
while frequently beneficial to adolescents, reflects busy adult lives.
Families are not what they seem. The terrible prospect of AIDS and sexually
transmitted diseases complicates the adolescent tendency to experiment
with themselves and their bodies. Body scarification, tattooing, and piercing
are now common marks within middle class adolescents. Drug use among adolescents
has exploded, and sexuality is hotly debated. While some adults preach
"just say no," adolescents are trying to reconcile their changing
bodies in an environment where parents are separated, divorced, politicized,
or removed from daily mentoring. Where is the healing? Treatment:
Structures of Everyday Life begins with a survivor's statement,
"I think sometimes that we treat children or adolescents as little
strangers, you know, little 'others.'" Children wearing Halloween
masks parade around a neighborhood. Masses of High School students surge
down a hallway. The 'warp,' the foundation of the visual narrative, is
revealed as the rave. The 'weft,' the interlacing of many vignettes, creates
a unique visual pattern. [(vin yet/) n., 1. A decorative design; 2. An
engraving, photograph, drawing or the like that is shaded off gradually
at the edges so as to leave no definite line at the border; or 3. A short,
graceful literary sketch]. This initiative is a concerted look at adolescent life weaving elements of selected individual's worldview into a fabric that reveals what I believe to be the Structures of Everyday Life. This program is designed with a high level of visual energy, montage editing, and first-person 'informant' views. Videotaping will happen in low-light, without the usual technical support, and in specific settings-such as rave sites-where the stories, scenes and events inevitably happen. The flexibility, ease-of-use, and versatility of the digital video are essential. The Structures of Everyday Life includes chapter sub-headings, briefly introduced by the central narrator. |
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