"Chain Camera" (2001)From Netflix: "Award-winning director Kirby Dick gave video cameras to 10 students to record their lives at Los Angeles's John Marshall High School (the same high school used in the filming of Grease and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) -- with no limitations on what they could shoot. After one week, the cameras were given to 10 new students, and so on, forming a virtual chain letter and a portrait of young America at the turn of the 21st century."
This documentary takes place in LA during the 99-00 school year...Just as the description above says, several students were asked to document their lives for a week, then pass the video cameras on, making a chain letter of sorts. Of the hundreds of students that participated, 16 of their stories made it to the film. The videos are completely uncensored, so it's an eye-opening view of modern teenage life that very few people get to truly experience unless they've lived it...I started high school the year this was filmed, so I relate to the stories in here, and though I haven't lived these particular stories, there are elements I feel I have lived myself, or that maybe someone I know has been through.
The first girl is a very pretty Asian girl...she seems relatively normal at first glance, but she soon lets us know that she was bulimic at some point, that she runs away from home and frequently finds herself homeless, begging her friends for money and underwear, and that she aspires to be a stripper. Another featured student is an Ethiopian girl who is underwhelmed and disillusioned at the American experience because the propaganda in her country led her to believe she'd have many more rights and freedoms here. Considering that the city I live in is predominantly comprised of immigrants, and many of the kids I went to school with were born in other countries, this is something I can personally relate to. And then there's Cinnamon, the "boring" girl that is so smart and opiniated, that people automatically are intimidated by her and write her off. That I COMPLETELY identify with. I was THE smart girl in class since I can remember, and I always felt invisible because of it. In high school, I decided to take advantage of my intelligence and turn my smarts into a weapon, so I became "the girl you don't want to mess with", which I MUCH preferred but meant much drama in order to keep people in check. Ahh, the wisdom of age, when you realize you don't have to be any ONE thing to be happy and self-actualized...
I found watching this kind of surreal, because I see a seventeen year old as a kid (My little brother is 17 now) and yet I remember being seventeen, and making very adult decisions that I was sure I could handle then. These kids are months away from being adults, and yet they are KIDS. It's such a crazy time in one's life...What made it even more surreal is that I used to have a video diary when I was 17 that I recently ran into, and it AMAZED me at how candid I was about sex, relationships, therapy, EVERYTHING. I was so much more AWARE than I give 17 year olds credit for, even though I'm only 23 now. On the one hand, it seems that maybe my 17 was more mature and had more of a spark than today's 17 (and most of the time, that's EXACTLY what I think), but on the other hand maybe my parents thought the same way about me. Crazy.
Incredibly interesting film about racism, eating disorders, peer pressure and other important issues straight from the people that LIVE them. Definite must-watch. Unless you're in high school and you want something to watch with your parents...easiest way to get preemptively grounded! :)
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