Page 26 - the NOISE MAY 2016 Edition

eAcH ONe TeAcH ONe
STAR School students in the process of filming for upcoming “Each One Teach One” film screenings at NAU.
StORy aND PhOtOS By
EmPOWERING yOUth thROUGh FIlm
A. SAYlOR
Tripods and cameras are set up in the cinders among overturned pine stumps and shade projects about water, connecting each lesson of the story to our current water situations:
trees. Greenhouses and solar panels, wind generators and volcanic cinder cones create a backdrop for the scene. students from Northern Arizona University are “on location” at the STAR School collaborating with young filmmakers to tell unique stories about indigenous culture and valuable resources.
The sTAR (service to All Relations) school is a charter elementary school near the southwest corner of the Navajo Nation. It serves preschool through grade eight students from the rural areas of Leupp, Tolani Lake and parts of Flagstaff — and it’s also an ideal place for the students to gather and record video and audio to illustrate the topics of their films.
Two sTAR students, Sawyer Allison-Begay and Jasmine Redhouse, demonstrate their science fair project “How To Make An edible water Bottle” for the camera. Their project stems from a desire to find a solution to a problem they have seen in their neighborhood. “we kept seeing plastic water bottles on the ground and then we saw a dog trying to eat one, so we researched and found how to make edible water bottles,” said Ms. Allison-Begay.
Other sTAR students handle the cameras and audio while documenting the project. Abigail O’Brien, an nAU student assisted them with filming. Ms. O’Brien is a senior at nAU and a political science major. she says the kids have taught her more than she’s taught them. “It’s a neat concept, a platform — each one teach one,” she says.
Creative Filmmaking for Social Change, a course offered by northern Arizona University’s school of Communication, brings together three communities of creative minds to tell stories through filmmaking. Along with nAU and sTAR school students, native American students living in the Kinlani Dormitory are also involved. Kinlani houses students from nearby reservations while they attend Flagstaff High school.
The concept of “each One Teach One,” is at the foundation of the filmmaking class. It originated from an African-American proverb coined during the time of slavery, when Africans were denied education and therefore denied the opportunity to be literate. If an enslaved person did have the chance to learn to read, it was in turn their responsibility to teach someone else to read and to become literate.
In Creative Filmmaking for social Change, the lesson is applied to media literacy in a time when the world is becoming even more saturated with media. nAU communication students have the opportunity to become media-literate, and according to the philosophy of “each One Teach One,” it is their responsibility to teach media literacy to others, in this case, the students of sTAR, and the young people of Kinlani.
Along with working with sTAR and Kinlani Dormitory residents, the nAU students are expected to produce their own short films. students Haley Leonard and Sunday Miller co-produced a short piece set at the Galaxy Diner in Flagstaff. Swinging Through The Galaxy is about the nAU swing Dance Club. “They open the meeting to the public and a ton of community members come by to learn swing and have some fun,” Ms. Leonard explains.
Filmmaker and former sTAR school media arts teacher, Professor Rachel Tso, teaches the collaborative, creative media and film course at nAU. “In traditional literacy we teach reading and writing, whereas with media literacy, we teach students how to conscientiously produce and consume media,” Professor Tso says. “The partnership between sTAR school, Kinlani Dorms, and my class allows the nAU students to teach this important literacy to the youth of our community.”
Two of the sTAR projects are about water, and one features a traditional story about “snail girl.” Snail Girl Brings Water is a traditional story the students are retelling through light-box animation,”ProfessorTsoexplains. “Thestudentsaretyingthistraditionalstorytotheirscience
salinity of water, cleaning contaminated water, having enough water, and even about how to carry water in a sustainable method. we are following a place-based media storytelling curriculum which engages students in the community and culture of our unique place here.”
Five young residents of the Kinlani Dormitory came together to tell their personal stories through film. Three of the stories are the subject of a short film about those experiences, including one vignette illustrating the duality of living in two worlds. It is told using a “split- screen” technique.
On one screen, the young storyteller is seen in traditional clothing and on the other she is shown navigating through her life as young woman in the modern world. The film highlights the struggles of indigenous youth — the things most teens deal with, but with an additional layer of creating identity and attempting to find a place in the external world where belonging and safety are present.
On a Friday afternoon, sTAR students take the school bus to campus. nAU and sTAR students meet again to edit films and go over the script for the light-box animation piece. Volunteers are asked to read for different parts and then led to the recording booths at Cline Library.
The necessary technology and tools of film production and post-production are available for students to use. Anyone in the room, regardless of formal involvement in a specific project is pulled into the creative process, handed a pair of scissors to cut out characters for the light-box, or asked to assist with the camera.
“An added benefit is the sTAR school and Kinlani dormitory students spend time on campus working with the college kids in a comfortable atmosphere,” Professor Tso says.
nAU students bring their filmmaking experience and act as teachers and mentors to the young people at sTAR and Kinlani, giving them the tools and knowledge to tell their stories. nAU students get the opportunity to practice their filmmaking skills through teaching and assisting youth in producing a film. The students work together to capture video and audio and then they gather to organize and edit the footage.
A few students gather around a computer where they are viewing the final edit of their film project while other students place characters made of tissue paper on the light box, and snap photos for the animated piece.
everyone has the chance to learn, regardless of experience. There are no limitations placed on a student’s potential, and it is a safe environment in which to embrace the opportunity to interact with technology with the support of many other students of different levels of expertise.
Professor Tso hopes the collaboration, in its second year, will continue, “Media literacy education is a critical literary (topic) that unfortunately is rarely covered in our elementary and secondary schools. My students are privileged to be able to learn how to both produce and intelligently consume media.”
The “Each One Teach One” Film Screenings will take place May 2, 7PM at northern Arizona University’s School of Communication, Room 118. sTAR student and Kinlani dormitory student films will be shown along with the personal place-based nAU student films. The screening is free and open to the public.
| a. Saylor is always chasing tornadoes. arts@thenoise.us
26 • MAY 2016 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us