7/8/2014

A Teacher's Guide to Use of Personal Essay Films | Center for Media & Social Impact

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A Teacher's Guide to Use of

Personal Essay Films

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Personal essay films have been widely diffused to teachers and community organizations,
because they so powerfully evoke responses from and make connections for audiences. They
are also favorites of film scholars, who use them to demonstrate with all the drama of the
personal voice, the formal structures in filmmaking.
Film scholars have been among the first to seize on these resources for teaching. Teachers
used them to show formal innovation, combination of techniques, and the way in which
films deal with questions of identity. It is easy to see why teachers like such films for this
purpose. They are not only creative approaches to the medium, but they engage viewers'
curiosity and empathy with their personal stories. They are useful in many different
classroom settings. For instance, the films we have selected for case studies could provide
the basis for a film production-related or media studies course that might be called A New
Personal Documentary. Some combination of these units would provide students with plenty
to discuss, about stylistic choices, their relationship to what is said and shown, and the
impact on audiences:
1. The Persona of the Person in Personal Film. Films such as "Sherman's March" and
"Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter" allow discussion of the crafting of a personal voice,
as a stylistic choice, not a transparent representation;
2. Collage as Critique. A film such as "History and Memory" or "Intimate Stranger"
demonstrates the representation of documents and objects as a poetic device and in
support of an argument;
3. Enactment, Reenactment and Mockumentary. Films such as "Bontoc Eulogy",
reenactment scenes in "Means of Grace" and "Halving the Bones" raise the questions
of what makes the difference between fiction and documentary, why documentarians
often turn to some form of fiction or recreation, and how different reasons for that
choice result in different stylistic choices;
4. Diaries. Films such as "Legacy" and "Kelly Loves Tony" offer contrasting examples of
ways to shape a diary film and ways to work with the diarist; in comparison with other
films in the course, they can prompt a discussion of the difference between a diary and
an essay;
5. Journeys. "Regret to Inform" and "Family Name", among others, demonstrate the
opportunities and limitations of such structuring, and raise questions about the
relationship between viewer and filmmaker
6. Testimonial and witness. "Blood Lines" and "Calling the Ghosts" offer an opportunity to
talk about private and public issues and spaces, and how they are defined;
7. Collective personal voice. "A Question of Color" and "Tongues Untied" are two examples
of a filmmaker's choice to construct a collective voice, led by his or her own;
8. Family secrets. With films such as "Personal Belongings", "Delirium", and "A Healthy
Baby Girl", family relationships become public, and sometimes painful. Each of these
categories can also be an opportunity to either imagine or make a video based on
students' own lives, social networks, and concerns.
Teachers use these films for other subject areas, precisely because of their emotional
richness and the way in which they perform the problems they discuss. Students find
themselves drawn into an experience rather than studying a problem. In literature classes on
autobiography, these films are rich texts. In sociology classes and within social work
programs, they vividly address questions of power and culture. In communications classes,
they demonstrate the relationship between media and power.

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A Teacher's Guide to Use of Personal Essay Films | Center for Media & Social Impact

They are particularly good at dramatizing the human implications and consequences of large
social forces. These small personal stories can be well used in relation to such broad issues
as:
The conflicts of World War II and their impact on the innocent--the Holocaust ("Letter
without Words"; "Children of Chabannes"; "Tango of Slaves"; "Diamonds in the Snow"), the
U.S. Japanese internment ("Rabbit in the Moon", "Family Gathering", "History and Memory");
Anti-colonial struggles that put an end to European imperialism and began an era of new
struggles ("Allah Tantou"; "Lumumba");
The Cold War and its far-flung implications and aftermath ("Personal Belongings"; "Theme:
Murder"; "Means of Grace").
These films work to illuminate big issues in history because they are small statements about
big things. They are about resisting the voice of the powerful, and about claiming the power
of representation. Sometimes they work to connect the disconnected, including students who
have refined their skills at not caring about people who want them to learn.
They are interesting films to raise moral and philosophical issues, because they deal with
how individuals can and do take responsibility in a life where very large forces set the terms
and limits of action. Macky Alston's search for family relationships across race lines in "Family
Name", Ross McElwee's challenge to the traditions of white male elitism in "Sherman's
March", Barbara Sonneborn's questioning of the male terms of war in "Regret to Inform",
Judith Hefland's indictment of corporate profiteering at the expense of women's lives in "A
Healthy Baby Girl", Patricio Guzman's struggle to break through official silence on repression
and torture in Chile in "Chile Obstinate Memory" are all great launching pads for discussion
about morality and society.
These films have some special advantages for classroom use. They are often shorter than
fiction feature films, and they can easily be excerpted, with a short backgrounder. They
function somewhat like inviting a guest speaker into the classroom; they are rich in the
personality of the maker, and they have the authenticity of documentary. They are good
discussion starters, because you can go right to the question of the speaker's perspective,
and what shapes and motivates it.
They also raise basic philosophical issues about how we know what we know. Because they
are personal and individual stories, they make a claim to the truth of a perspective, and they
also raise real, big questions about what we think we know, who tells it to us, how we know
they are right, and whose version dominates. They are also testimony, each of them, to the
importance of history, the importance of a public memory, of a record that represents the
subjectivity of the participants. So these films are excellent tools to encourage critical
thinking about the role of media in public life, the role of history in a culture, the role of
representation in the maintaining of social power.
Finally, these films have had vigorous and varied lives as community and social activists have
put them to work. Environmental toxics campaigns have found "A Healthy Baby Girl" a way to
galvanize viewers into a realization of the connections between corporate action and public
health. Caregivers organizations have made common cause using "Complaints of a Dutiful
Daughter". Activists have used "Golden Threads" to secure better treatment for elderly
lesbians in nursing homes and senior communities. Human rights organizations have
organized campaigns using films such as "Sacrifice" and "Calling the Ghosts". Bereavement
groups have turned to "Theme: Murder" to educate members and spur discussion.
The stories that these films tell, open-ended as they are, are only the beginning of the
connections to be made with them.

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