Documentary

Introduction and Reflection

“How do you creatively and truthfully portray a significant person, group, place, idea, or issue in the community?”

During Junior year, students have the opportunity to tell a story about an interesting person, group, place, idea, or issue in their community. Through the collection of primary and secondary research sources to create an educated perspective, students are expected to create something that depicts this subjects importance. This year, we created research-based papers in English, magazine articles in Digital Media, a Documentary in Film, as well as a website page. Through the documentary unit, students take on the challenge of learning narrative-style journalism. 

My specific documentary was about how eating disorders and body image issues have been affecting teenagers over the pandemic. Through this project, I interviewed three different people, two of which were student athletes, to learn more about what they’ve noticed has changed over the past year, along with research and evidence to back up what they have stated. I did this as a way to pinpoint how lifestyle changes over quarantine have affected peoples’ relationships with food and their own bodies.

I valued hearing the experiences of ED survivors and experts alike, and I really appreciated the seriousness and thoughtfulness of my interviewees. Additionally, none of this could have gotten done without the work of my partner Izzy. She was an incredible help and was as equally invested in this project as me. It really helped to know throughout this process that the people I worked with and sought after to interview cared just as much about raising awareness and sharing their experiences on this topic as I do.

After interviewing all three people, Izzy and I created transcripts and did more research to help back up what we had heard. We then individually began to write essays. Instead of focusing on the general topic we had chosen, we each decided to write an article focusing on one of the interviewees. My article, Skills We Need For Life, describes high school junior Amanda Gamble’s journey to recovery from body dysmorphia.

Film Production

I made my mockumentary with my friend Dana, who I have been making videos with since ninth grade. I decided to have her act in my mockumentary because I love her sense of comedic timing, and her unique and zany humor is contagious. I made up a character, a crazy middle-aged abstract artist, knowing that Dana could play this character successfully. From there, I followed her around with a camera like I was doing a 73 Questions with Vogue interview, stopping every once in a while to get a testimonial.

Magazine Article