grrrl

"Today’s Made Us Think comment comes from "Elly," who writes in response to Missy Schwartz’s interview with Jane Campion,

I suspect a large reason there are so few well-known female filmmakers may be that so many female writers, directors etc. are too focused on the lack of "just for women" entertainment, and so tend to turn out stuff with distinct agendas for distinct female audiences — i.e. the ‘empowerment’ Campion spoke of — instead of just focusing on making a good product. I see it all the time in books – I rarely read sci-fi or fantasy by female authors, because the story is usually just there as a weak afterthought to help move the rant along, the real point of the book being to obsess over what patriarchal pigs men can be. Case in point: Margaret Atwood.

That’s one theory, and it certainly got us thinking. What about you?"

As to be expected, responses in the comments section ranged from ignorant to sound:

DVR ALERT!

The ambitious, and successful, documentary Going on 13 will begin broadcasting on Public Television this September. The 73 minute film (which is in English, Spanish and Hindi, with English subtitles) takes place over a period of four years and reveals the interior lives, family commitments and school days of Ariana, an African American, Esmeralda, a Mexican American, Isha, an immigrant from India, and Rosie, a mixed race Latina, as they navigate crossing the threshold from childhood to adolescence.

Directors Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Dawn Valadez’s award winning project is an intimate look at a difficult transitional period for any child; their compassionate study is landmark not only in its ambition but that in it addresses the concerns of a diverse group of pre-teen and urban girls of color.

Moments we get to share include Ariana crying at her mother’s wedding, Rosie discovering Allen Ginsberg at a local bookstore, Esme’s sister’s Quinceañera, and Isha’s trip to India. We see them questioning the changes their bodies are making – or what they’ve heard those changes will be. One schoolmate asks, "Have your parent’s talked to you about pube-er-tee? Do you have internal or external bleeding – or something like that?" Another friend says about a boy crush, "They are in love, even though they don’t know what love is." A later scene featuring a woefully unqualified male schoolteacher conducting a sex education class makes it all the more painfully clear that our children receive mixed and confusing messages at a critical time, and that girls in particular are in need of female role models and support systems.

But they grow up anyway –with or without it. As Esme wisely puts it, "I’m turning into a young person and I’m supposed to change. I can’t stay little all my life. I would if I could, but I can’t so I shouldn’t."

Co-directors, Guevara-Flanagan and Valadez graciously took the time to answer interview questions by email on their filmmaking careers, finding the girls (and where they are now), the logistics of such an ambitious project, and what they’re currently working on. The first part follows; part two will be posted on Friday!