Although
Housatonic offers myriad activities and opportunities, the Civic Life Project
is a unique experience that brings current, and often controversial, issues to life by
putting students behind the camera. This project focuses on current events that
relate to the Constitution, and puts them on film. According to Mr. Osora, the
project began when the documentary filmmaker Dominique Lasseur brought the
concept to the high school. He wanted to engage students in contemporary issues
around the country while giving them the opportunity to conceive of and produce
their own documentaries. According to the project’s mission statement,
“[The] Civic Life Project is working with
young people to increase citizen engagement through the use of documentary film
and social media.” As a consequence, these documentaries
would initiate conversation among students and adults alike. Julia
McElroy, one of the nine students involved in the Civic Life Project, discussed
her interest in the process: “[I] got involved […] because it’s a different
kind of community service and outreach project. Not outreach in the sense of
community service, but in the sense of educating and helping others become more
knowledgeable on a subject.”
Mrs.
Carter, an advisor for the Civic Life Project, explained the mission of the group
by saying that it combines the, “documentary film process [with] exploring
issues in a democratic society.” Recent topics that the film-making groups from
Housatonic studied include the legalization of marijuana, free speech for students,
and the Doninger project, a study of one student whose Internet life crossed
into the school building.
Currently,
Mr. Lasseur works with students who are enrolled in Mr. Osora’s Film Studies
class who are advised by Mr. Osora and Mrs. Carter. This year, the group shot a
film about the Occupy Wall Street Movement, especially its presence in New York
City. In February, they visited Manhattan and interviewed occupiers.
They also participated in Occupy Wall Street activities themselves. The students
shot footage of the protests, which truly brought the movement to life, and
allowed those outside the picket line to feel as if they were, for a moment, in
the middle of a political battle.
Creating
these films takes countless hours in and out of school, and includes fieldwork.
Students learn how to research, interview, film, add sound to their film, and
edit. While the process continues throughout the entire year, the product is
not completed until the spring.
Housatonic
is not the only school participating in this project. Since its inception at
HVRHS, Mr. Lasseur has introduced the project to other schools. In fact,
several schools now take part in the program. HVRHS students and advisors have
gone to events throughout the year in which films from across the state,
including that which our students made, were screened. This year, on June 2nd,
The Civic Life Project hosted the WVFF (the Westport Youth Film Festival). This
event, which took place between 2 and 7pm, featured all of the films that were
shot by student film teams and highlighted the two that were considered the
most successful, which were chosen by an earlier vote. While Housatonic’s film
was not chosen to be in one of the top two slots, it was still a film that
conformed to the mission statement, highlighted an interesting and timely
topic, and showed the hours the students put in to making the film.
While
the project was presented as an option to students in Film Studies, next year
students will have an exciting chance to approach the project in a different
way. The course of studies book now includes a Civic Life class. The
first semester will be taught by Mrs. Carter and will focus on Civics. In the
second semester, Mr. Osora will take the class to create the final
documentary. This course will fulfill the Civics graduation requirement and one
semester of English. For more information, please see Mrs. Carter or Mr. Osora.