[Each
of the last few
years, I’ve made
a number of holiday
wishes to the AmericanStudies
Elves, things I’d love to see happen in the coming year. As you might have
always known, the Elves are really all of us—so let’s work to make these and
other great things happen in 2017! I’d love to hear your wishes, and causes or
individuals or projects I can support as well, in comments!]
On how you can
support a young filmmaker, now and moving forward, and why it matters.
Through my Honors
Literature Seminar on the Gilded Age last semester, I had the chance to get
to know Christine
Coutts, a Fitchburg State University Honors student and Film/Video Major
who is also a budding documentary filmmaker. At the end of the semester,
Christine and her crew premiered Praying for Change,
her 30-minute documentary about homelessness in America; I wasn’t able to make
the premiere but have heard very good things, and she’s looking to expand the
documentary into a feature-length film and take it to film festivals. As of
right now there are still a few days left in her IndieGoGo
pledge drive for supporting that documentary and those efforts, and I’d say
it’s a very worthy cause on multiple levels. (And if you watched the trailer
hyperlinked at the film’s title above, I think you’ll agree with me that this
is a seriously professional project on every level too, one belying any
stereotypes we might have about student films.)
I also had the
chance at the end of the semester to hear Christine’s presentation on her next
film, which will also fulfill her Honors Senior Thesis project. Another
documentary, this film, inspired by Jose Antonio Vargas’ MTV
documentary White People, will be
entitled I’m Not Racist … But, and
will feature Christine herself taking part in numerous conversations about
race, racism, and culture in America. Christine plans another IndieGoGo page to
support the making, publicizing, and distribution of this film, and when that
page is up I’ll hyperlink it here. But I wanted to mention it now because,
quite frankly, I think it’s extremely brave to make a film on racism—and in
particular to talk to white Americans about racism—at a time when we’re seeing a
resurgence of racist and bigoted rhetoric and hate crimes. The day that I’m writing
this post, a Fitchburg area colleague shared on Facebook pictures of swastikas
that had been drawn all over the city, just one of so many such crimes. The
product of a biracial, Asian and European American family, just like my sons
are, Christine knows full well what such rhetoric and crimes might mean for so
many Americans, and is engaging directly with the issue in this new project.
Both that
personal identity and perspective and that shared communal moment make
Christine’s new film well worth our support. But I think she and her work also
emblematize the overarching role and importance of student art. In the English
Studies department where I teach, we’ve got great such art appearing regularly
in both our online magazine Detour and our literary journal Route 2; I’m proud of all the students who have worked on and
contributed to those efforts, as well as colleagues like Steve
Edwards and Elise Takehana (and our past colleague
Ian Williams) who have helped make it all happen. But Christine helps me
highlight the wide variety and depth of quality of work being produced by
student artists at Fitchburg State, as well as at institutions of higher
education around the country. As with Christine and so many of those student
writers, I’m quite sure that much of this student art is taking risks,
experimenting, pushing their genres in new directions, engaging directly with
some of the most difficult and important questions facing our society and
world. So, AmericanStudies Elves, I wish that this vital and vibrant art in
general, and Christine’s films in particular, can get the support they need to
continue doing their crucial cultural work.
Next wish
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Wishes or causes you’d share?
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