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SILVERDOCS Round-Up Before Our Screenings
By Kristy | June 21, 2008
I have had a chance to see a few films, visit with a few friends, meet filmmakers from all over, and get to know downtown Silver Spring, Maryland. Which seems like a very new, somewhat mall-ish community, that is both incredibly well-planned and surprisingly and refreshingly diverse. Yesterday we took Ariana and Rigo (Dawn’s son) on the DC Walking Tour of the Washington Monuments. We were all excited to see the fireflies (!) come out at dusk…something we don’t get to see in California…and we were also excited to see the national monuments.
Ok, maybe Dawn was the only one super excited to see those, but it was pretty cool to stand where Martin Luther King Jr. stood and delivered his “I have a dream” speech on the ‘63 Civil Rights March on Washington, DC.
I also got a chance to see the Douglas High Marching Band, as featured in the Raymonds’ film–coming soon to HBO–Hard Times at Douglas High…
–and I got to see the World Premiere of The Garden–a truly great film about the aboslutely outrageous demolition of the South Central Urban Garden by the city of Los Angeles. You go Scott Hamilton Kennedy! I loved it and it made me cry a few times over!
Finally, I read an interesting article today in the Washington Post about the last day of 5th grade and all that it means emotionally, psychologically and practically to graduate from elementary school in our public school system. The article, “On and Up, With a Longing Look Back,” reminded me once again about some of the reasons we made Going on 13, and some of the experiences we had as we followed our girls from fourth to seventh grade. I suddenly remembered how poignant the 5th grade promotion (yes, they do not call it a graduation) ceremony seemed–no longer in the film, but which will definitely be on the DVD extras; how dramatic the last day of school was: saying goodbye to their teacher, their elementary school, their classroom, on the brink of something unfamiliar, scary and puzzling; how viscious the rumors about middle school seemed and how inevitable that everything was going to suddenly and uncontrollably change overnight. And indeed, kids returned after that summer to middle school with schedules, and lockers, no more recess, and many of them–mostly the girls–well on their way to adolescence, the others left behind in the dust.Even as an adult I have always felt that pang of sadness at the end of the school year. Remembering how sentimental I always felt as a student, leaving what I had survived and conquered behind to enter a wide-open abyss of unknowables. As a teacher, watching the students I had come to know move on without me, only to have their memory of me completely erased by the long string of teachers to follow. The article captured the essence of all this quite well and just reminded me of how we were once very much in touch with these same emotions for the girls in our film. And how once upon an even longer time ago, I was going through the same exact thing.
Topics: DC, SILVERDOCS, documentaries, festivals, friends, leaving elementary school |
Well, I saw the film on Friday night 6/21 at SilverDocs and I Loved It. This is such a tough time for parents to make that journey with their child, their daughter, as they transition from little girl to young adult. Poignant, sweet, illuminating and worrisome for the dangers that we adults know can hold sway over them. What really struck me was seeing the transition from rules-based decision making to values-based decision making with the overlay of cultural/ethnic values in these girls lives and families. These girls were all fortunate to have such on-going support from their families, even with their parents struggles as a back-drop. I thank you for capturing their stories from this period in their lives so well. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the families, but I know you tried to tell the stories from the girls’ perspective. Powerful! And I so look forward to collaborating with you in the future.
Posted by: Denise on June 23rd, 2008 at 7:43 pmThank you, Dawn and Kristy, and thanks to SilverDocs as well. Ciao!