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This
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.
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 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
DVcam are essential. MORE
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