Journal Issue 4.1
Spring-Summer 2012
Edited by Agatha Beins, Jillian Hernandez, and Deanna Utroske
Editorial Assistant: A.J. Barks
Editorial Intern: Vera Hinsey

Creating Spaces for Community Engagement through Documentary Film: My Social Action Project
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By Anna Zailik

    I showed the whole film, which tells the story of two lawyers trying to free a Mexican man wrongly imprisoned for murder by using a camera in the courtroom, with my own pre-planned pauses at moments when I thought we should discuss the storyline. I asked the teens how they felt about the situations in the film and we explored the benefits the filmed trials had for the protagonist, and the following discussion solidified the mission for their community screening. Presumed Guilty not only portrayed issues in their own community, but it showed the power film has in changing mindsets and raising awareness leading to social action, which is what the teenagers were trying to achieve through the screening. Because they saw similar injustices in their community and knew people in similar situations, they understood that even though this wasn't their story, they could still relate. This film triggered their emotions, resulting in a unanimous vote to use this film for their community screening.
   For the screening, the students planned their own questions to ask the audience, which was their first time public speaking. This part of the project allows the audience members to participate in a dialogue, reflect on the issues, or just think about how the film relates to a story they know, all of which are meant to increase the chances that these people will continue to think about issues in the film even after they leave the screening. Using social-issue documentary film to engage youth outside the traditional classroom can be the tool necessary to verbalize the unspoken dialogue in a community, and youth have the power to lead it.
   
Works Cited
Figueroa, Maria Elena, D. Lawrence Kinkaid, Manju Rani, and Gary Lewis. 2002. "Communication for Social Change: An Integrated Model for Measuring Process and Its Outcomes." Communication for Social Change Working Paper Series. Johns Hopkins University's Center for Communication Programs.
http://www.communicationforsocialchange.org/pdf/socialchange.pdf.

New Muslim Cool. 2009. Directed by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor. San Francisco: Specific Pictures.

Off and Running. 2009. Directed by Nicole Opper. New York: First Run Features

Presumed Guilty. 2010. Directed by Roberto Hernández, Layda Negrete, and Geoffrey Smith. Brooklyn: Icarus Films.

Anna Zailik (annaleigh.zailik@gmail.com) was a double major in Women's and Gender Studies and Journalism and Media Studies and was selected to be a scholar at the Institute for Women's Leadership at Rutgers University. She formerly interned at POV, the nonfiction social issue documentary series on PBS, in addition to Films for the Feminist Classroom. She graduated in May 2012 and is looking to continue her future education in the field of human rights.