Last fall I went into the Brooklyn Free School (a democratic school where the students create their own curriculum) and proposed a project to the middle schoolers: to film a melodrama with me. With that broad prompt, the students, ages 11-...See moreLast fall I went into the Brooklyn Free School (a democratic school where the students create their own curriculum) and proposed a project to the middle schoolers: to film a melodrama with me. With that broad prompt, the students, ages 11-13, began creating a story. Week by week, throughout one semester, the plot grew and characters and relationships were formed. Improvising most of their lines, the students played with the idea of cinematic romance, drama and tragedy. I created ideal worlds for them based on scenes we envisioned, making cardboard convertibles, clay ballrooms and plaster vanities. The characters and scenes that the students began to realize were a mixture of disturbingly real emotional plots about jealousy, heartbreak and revenge, and their strange idealism of adulthood. The film explores the idea of romance in italics and TRAGEDY in all caps. It's the notion of feelings and experiences learned through genre. It's about a naïve view of emotions and relationships, one that doesn't necessarily disappear after adolescence.
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