|
|
Reviews for: Beyond
the Butterfly: Middle School Girls Speak Out!
Middle
school girls open up in PBS documentary
By Joanne Weintraub
MIlwaukee Journal Sentinel TV critic
Serious
and silly, profound and poignant, dissing Barbie and dissecting the
images in Seventeen and Glamour, they are girls, uninterrupted.
"It's kind of weird, because we're, like, the opposite of butterflies,"
muses a Michigan teen named Ashley in "Beyond the Butterfly: Middle
School Girls Speak Out," airing Monday night on Channel 10.
"They start out as (caterpillars) and go into the cocoon and become
something better. . . . They've become free. (But) we're free when
we're little and then probably (get) more closed off when we get older."
The idea that adolescence robs girls of something precious that they
may never regain has been written about endlessly in recent years,
but it's rarely been put as succinctly as it has by Ashley.
That grab-you-by-the-lapels immediacy is a hallmark of this superb
documentary, a production of Wisconsin Public Television and Northeastern
Wisconsin In-School Telecommunications that was seen earlier on other
PBS affiliates in the state.
The program results from a good idea executed with great skill: Give
four middle school students a video camera and send them off to interview
200 of their Wisconsin peers, 12- to 15-year-old girls from Bayfield
to Elkhart Lake, with a sprinkling in Michigan and Illinois.
Simone Underwood, then in seventh grade, and eighth-grader Vanna Edwards,
both of Forest Park Middle School in Franklin, were part of the quartet
of young videographers who went out last year to tape interviews with
girls from some two dozen schools and community groups. Producers
Eileen Littig and Larry Long then pared 100 hours of tape down to
an expertly edited hour.
The unself-consciousness of the talk - on puberty and parents, body
image and boys, drinking, divorce and depression - probably couldn't
have been elicited by adults, however sensitive. Much of what these
Caitlins, Carries and Nicoles tell their peers is as intimate as a
therapy session, as fizzy as a pajama party, as spontaneous as an
outburst of giggles or tears.
The producers have already enlisted a group of boys to document middle
school life on the other side of the gender gap. If it's as good as
"Butterfly," it will be worth the wait.
"Thank
you for sending a copy of Beyond the Butterfly. I viewed it with
several of my colleagues here and was quite impressed."
--Janalee Jordan-Meldrum, Manager, Community Action Programs, AAUW
Educational Foundation.
"Thank
you for giving Tempo members an opportunity to view your excellent production
of Beyond the Butterfly! What a pleasure it was for all of us
to have you share your experiences in producing the video. Too often
we do not stop and consider the challenges that children face in our
fast-paced lives."
--Jan Campbell, Vice President, Tempo.
"I
finally had a chance to watch your videotape Beyond the Butterfly
and I was extremely impressed! This is one of the best videotapes on
gender that I have seen in a long time. The middle school girls who
took the raw footage deserve a lot of credit, of course, but the editing
needed for the final, polished product was also well done."
--Kent Koppelman, University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.
The Green Bay News Chronicle
November
19-21, 1999
"Teen girls speak frankly on issues in their lives.
Middle-school girls send a personal message in a public TV special:
Listen to us" by
Patti Zarling
"They
pretty much tell me exactly what to do and when to do it and could
care less about what I think usually."A girl named Sandy makes
that comment about adults during a powerful documentary for, about
and by girls ages 12 to 15. Beyond the Butterfly: Middle School
Girls Speak Out, is a one-hour film produced locally by Eileen
Littig of NEWIST and Larry Long of Wisconsin Public Television.
The
producers provided video cameras to girls throughout Wisconsin, Illinois
and Michigan. Girls were asked to talk about a variety of subjects
from divorce to eating disorders to boys.The
producers then trimmed over 100 hours of tape into a one-hour segment.The
show mostly consistes of clips taken from the girls' tapes. Facts
and figures about issues raised by the comments flash on screen between
segments.The
program includes frank thoughts about sex, drugs, smoking, peer pressure,
sexual harassment, school violence and relationships with parents.The
show will be shown on Wisconsin Public Television at 8pm on January
25. The producers also are selling the video, along with a teaching
guide, to interested schools or libraries.
The
program works because the girls took command of the project and were
able to open up to each other, said Rudy Senarhighi, a guidance counselor
at T J Walker Middle School in Sturgeon Bay."It
really empowered the kids," he said. "It wasn't adults saying
what's going on. They knew people were really going to listen to what
they had to say."Said
one girl, about boys: "I try not to judge people on how they
look, but sometimes I wouldn't mind if I had a really hot boyfriend.
But I mean, the guy has to be smart, and he has to be healthy, and
he has to wear deodorant and everything."
"Ashley"
said of gossip, "I think people are really, really cruel to other
people--most people, anyway. I think it's horrible that they talk
behind their back and are so mean to everybody. They didn't use to
be." Ashley
also said she realizes "the world isn't as perfect as I used
to think it was."
Many
girls in middle school feel their parents do not take the time to
listen to them or find out who they are or what's on their minds,
Senarhighi said.
Because
of the success of the first film, Littig and Long now plan to do a
similar segment by and about preadolescent boys. They
often suffer because our society no longer affords them a clear rite
of passage from boyhood to manhood, Senarhighi said. "In
the Industrial Age, boys had short pants near their bed one day, and
when they woke up the next, they had long pants, and they knew they
were adults," he said. "Many of them also had mentors who
weren't their fathers. We don't have those things any more."
Boys
today struggle with many of the same issues girls do: body image,
sex, drugs, drinking, divorced parents and peer pressure. But
getting them to open up may be a challenge, Senarhighi said. His school
has agreed to pilot the project. "Some
were eager, but others said they were too busy," he said. "When
I asked them later, some said they felt uncomfortable, or that it
wasn't macho. With the girls, I had them coming out of the walls."
Littig
realizes the producers will be fighting against a 'boy code.'
"Showing
emotion gives the perception they're weak," she said. "It
will be interesting to see what happens."
###
"Congratulations
on an outstanding program. In the tradition of The Discovery of Dawn,
you take us behind the scenes so that we experience "the wonder
years" and this "so called life," not from the perspective
of television programmers and their fictional teens, but in the words
of the early adolescent females currently populating the nation's schools.
"Beyond the Butterfly offers a compelling chronicle of what
is to be young and female in the United States. Those familiar with
the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development and its reports, Great
Transitions and Fateful Choices will find little surprise as the girls
chronicle their experiences with sex, substance abuse, parents, domestic
violence, eating disorders, self-esteem and of course school. What they
will find is an engaging companion that brings that data to life in
such a way that it should be required viewing for parents, administrators
and teachers of all middle-school aged students.
"Best digested and discussed in bite size segments, this program's
sombre account sounds a clarion call to all who claim to address the
needs of at risk kids. After a battery of potentially depressing data,
the girls themselves rise to the occasion and address themselves and
their future, positioning themselves as survivors and achievers, in
spite of much of their environment."
--Dr David Considine, coordinator, Graduate Program in Media Literacy,
Appalachian State University.
"I loved the film. It's the best thing out on adolescent girls!
Bravo."
--Mary Pipher, author, "Reviving Ophelia"
"Boy, do they ever speak out. This fascinating documentary from
Wisconsin Public Television is the next-best thing to being a fly on
the wall, as middle school girls spill their guts about, like, body
image, sex, eating disorders and other cataclysms of puberty. The producers
sent videocameras to 20 groups of girls in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois
and Ohio, allowing them to film the kinds of candid conversations that
adults rarely get to hear. "I wish I were model-sized," says
one mournful 13-year-old girl, sounding a depressingly common theme.
At regular intervals, the screen will display a statistic--"only
11% of white girls in middle school say they like their appearance:--that
puts the individual testimony in a national context."
--Dean Robbins, Isthmus
Green Bay Press Gazette
January
23-29, 2000
"Programs highlight girls, immigration" by
Warren Gerds
Green
Bay this week will put its best foot forward in the instructional
TV field. Two programs made locally will be broadcast statewide.
One
program has won multiple honors, and the other is destined to because
of the track record of its makers: Northeastern Wisconsin In-School
Telecommunications, Cooperative Educational Services Agency 7 and
Wisconsin Public Television-Green Bay.Producers
Eileen Littig and Larry Long have a way with getting people to speak
openly on camera about difficult topics. In different ways, honesty
is at the heart of the programs, which will air locally on WPNE, Channel
38:
Beyond
the Butterfly.
This
is the broadcast premiere for the ambitious program. It captures what's
in the minds of middle school girls today. Twenty
groups of girls participated. Some were from six area schools. Others
were from outside the area. About 100 hours of footage was taped.
This
is an age group with "tons of emotion flowing all the time,"
as one girl says on the program. So it's no surprise that the topics
would cover a vast landscape: Boys, friends, parents, divorce, family,
sexual harassment, racial and religious bias, trying to be perfect,
eating disorders, sex, celibacy, pregnancy, smoking, drugs, media
images, TV phoniness, video game violence, violence around the girls,
equality, suicide, first periods, rape and popularity.
There
is nothing like this program for girls and their families. It's valuable.
###
Green
Bay Press Gazette
November 20, 1999
"Middle
school girls open hearts, minds in TV project" by
Warren Gerds
In the
words of a girl, early adolescence is "tons of emotion flowing
all the time."
About
200 girls were part of the challenging project. Many of the girls are
from the Green Bay area. The one-hour program was edited from about
100 hours of footage. Much of the program was shot by the girls themselves.
The
idea was to capture what's going on in the minds of middle school girls
today. Is
that impossible? Not really. Not if you know what you're doing and know
how to organize a mass of thoughts and feelings. Providing the know-how
are the experts at Northeastern Wisconsin In-School Telecommunications,
Cooperative Educational Services Agency 7 and Wisconsin Public Television-Green
Bay.
Beyond
the Butterfly is another in a long line of documentaries made by
the team. The programs often are interesting because they involve real
people talking about real things. In
Beyond the Butterfly, girls pour out their hearts and minds about
a stunning array of topics: boys, friends, parents, divorce, family,
sexual harassment, racial and religious bias, trying to be perfect,
eating disorders, sex, pregnancy, smoking, drugs, media images, TV phoniness,
video game violence, violence around them, equality, suicide, first
periods, rape, popularity at school and more. One
girl says she is closest to her mother. Another girl says she is closest
to her father. Another girls says her family is close-knit. Another
girl says her family is split.
What Beyond
the Butterfly ends up telling girls amid this seeming chaos is this:
You are not alone. Whatever you are experiencing, there are other girls
out there thinking, feeling and living the same thing. For
adults, the program is a refresher course--and perhaps a reminder to
stop and listen once in a while.
Beyond
the Butterfly also will have a follow-up. "We're going to try
the idea with boys," said project director Eileen Littig.
###
Wisconsin
State Journal
January
18, 2000
"Girl
talk: New documentary gives middle schoolers a voice" by
Dee J. Hall
Ever
wonder what's really going on inside the head of that sometimes sullen
teen-age girl living in your house? Girls, ever wish your parents
would get the message that you still need them? You know, without
having to tell them? Soon,
you'll get the chance. On Saturday, a one-hour documentary produced
in Wisconsin in which middle school girls discuss their problems and
their plans for the future will be screened for a Madison audience.
Then a week from today, January 25, 2000, viewers of WHA-TV (Channel
21) can see Beyond the Butterfly: Middle School Girls Speak Out
as it is televised for the first time statewide.
The
film was inspired by studies, surveys and books published in recent
years shining a spotlight on some of the negative trends affecting
adolescent and teen girls. The documentary was put together by Cooperative
Educational Services Agency 7 and Northeast Wisconsin In-School Telecommunications
in Green Bay.
Project
director Eileen Littig used an interesting technique to get inside
the girls' lives: she turned the video cameras over to them. After
a brief training session, girls in 25 locations around Wisconsin and
in a few places in Michigan and Ohio carried their small Sony cameras
to school, home and out with friends to explore the real thoughts
and feelings of their peers. Teens in the Madison area from the Atwood
Community Center and Briarpatch, an agency that helps and seeks to
prevent problems among youth, were among the participants.
"What
we couldn't get over was that we had 100 hours of field tape and how
good the quality was," Littig said. "We told them they were
the journalists and the camera was their notebook." Littig
said she was "amazed" by the candor of the girls. One girl
recounts being raped, another talks about her pain over her broken
family, others speak about drugs and sex and smoking. Some discuss
their embarrassment at having their first menstrual period; others
talk about their attempts at suicide or violence in their families.
"The
most interesting thing I found was that they were so willing to talk
about these issues, and they were so blatantly honest," said
Littig, who also moderates a program for Wisconsin Public Television
called "Teen Connection."
One
of the most poignant moments involves a girl named Katie, 13, who
talks about her struggles through her mother's two failed marriages.
"I
really didn't like my step-dad for a long time because I felt like
he was trying to be my dad, and I didn't want a new dad. I wanted
my old dad. And now my mom wants to get a divorce again just when
I started to," Katie sobs, pauses, then begins again, "just
when I'm starting to get close to my step-dad."
But
not everything is down-beat. Some of the teens maintain a quirky optimism.
Some say they can talk freely to their parents and are satisfied with
their lives.
Littig
said the reaction to the documentary so far is positive. Audiences
of teen-age girls have told her, "That's me up there." Littig
said she got a letter from Mary Pipher, the author of the 1994 book,
Reviving Ophelia, who previewed the film. "She
wrote, 'It's the best thing out on adolescent girls. Bravo!'"
Littig recounted. Leslie
Ross worked with young women from Briarpatch youth groups who participated
in the video. "I
think for the girls it was exciting for them to have their voices
heard," said Ross, who is prevention-services coordinator for
Briarpatch. "I think they felt honored that someone cared what
they said. "I
think the concept of the video was wonderful. We need to know what's
going on in their lives, not just what we as adults think is going
on."
The
video is moderated by four teens, two from Milwaukee and two from
Michigan. Snippets of interviews with dozens of girls, identified
only by their first name and age, are interspersed with sessions in
which the four moderators talk while sitting at a picnic table. In
addition, the producers chose some girls for "eyeball-to-eyeball"
interviews in which they speak directly into the camera. The
film also flashes sometimes startling statistics on the screen, such
as the American Association of University Women survey finding that
81 percent of high school girls had reported unwanted sexual behaviors
directed against them as early as middle school. Said Andrea, 12:
"I don't think a girl goes any day without being sexually harassed."
A study
guide that accompanies the film sums up the main challenges facing
girls today: "For
too many girls the transformational state of puberty is too difficult
to survive intact. Some are overpowered by the various negative forces
bombarding them. They become involved in drugs and alcohol, cigarettes
and sex. Some take the media-propagated images of perfection too seriously
and develop eating disorders." Still,
the guide concludes, "the majority of girls emerge from adolescence
as mature, competent, capable young women."
Although
some of the film may be upsetting to watch, Littig hopes that teachers
around the state will use the video and study materials. And she hopes
parents and teens either go to the screening at Warner Park Community
Center on Saturday or tune in next week. "I
hope that other girls will see the video and realize that they're
not alone and that they're not the only ones having these problems,"
Littig said. "I also hope that people who work with middle-school
girls see their potential."
 
Beyond
the Butterfly is co-produced by Wisconsin
Public Television and NEWIST/CESA
#7 (Northeastern Wisconsin In-School Telecommunications).
|
