Since the protests in May 2020, I have been engaged on a mission to capture the voice of my generation. More specifically, I have been trying to examine how BLM and the pandemic have impacted people my age.
After experiencing history on May 31st as thousands of BLM protesters came together to protest the repeated murders by police officers of black Americans, I found myself determined to hear more from youth speakers. Whether it was someone I had met at the protests or a politically engaged friend of a friend, I reached out to everyone I knew who might be interested. Ultimately, after many many hours of editing and narrative crafting, I was able to present my 26 minute documentary, Generation Hope, to the Poly community and beyond.
I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to share my work with the audience. I would like to thank Ms. Diederich most of all for making my presentation possible. The event itself was sort of surreal. I had only showed my film to a few close friends and family members, so to have over 60 people watch it at once definitely stirred the nerves. However, I was blown away by all the messages I received during and after the screening. Comments of both support and curiosity signified to me that I had done my job as a filmmaker: I had provoked thought in the minds of my audience.
I was so pleased to hear people asking such relevant questions afterwards- it made me feel like they had really engaged with my film. One of the common denominators in the comments overall was how excited people were to hear from young people, especially about things as important as politics and change. Therefore, I was overall super happy with how my Capstone project turned out, and so grateful to all of the people that came and made it possible.
If I had to do something differently, I would most likely have personalized the story a little more. While my film had an arc both in content and emotionally, I think it could have benefitted from a little bit more of a grounding character whom the audience could connect with. I have heard this comment from both of the professional advisors with whom I had the chance to speak with.
Going forward, I am super excited to continue to use my artistic voice to amplify people's stories/voices. I think that this documentary taught me loads about how to capture a narrative in a way that is both meaningful and pleasant to watch. I am looking forward to continuing my filmmaking career in college and hopefully make many more documentaries!