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Thursday 29th November 2007 12:00 pm
Erica Rosenfeld Halverson: Identity Production in Youth Filmmaking
Youth are using digital media to work through complex issues of who they are and how they do (& don’t) fit into their communities.
Since coming to the University of Wisconsin as an assistant professor I have had the privilege of working with the Games, Learning and Society research group. As you likely read in Jim Gee’s introduction, this group takes seriously the idea that digital media, and games in particular, are identity spaces. That is to say that playing games fundamentally makes you a different kind of person. You can become a “gamer” and a student, a leader, and even try on identities that are a bigger stretch like a scientist or a journalist.
In my work, I take this connection between identity and literacy practices to be a central relationship to participation in digital media spaces. I have been looking at youth filmmaking as a narrative-based digital media practice, as a way to explore this relationship between identity and media production. What I mean by “identity,” is something slightly different than that of my colleagues. Jim talks about identity as trying on, and eventually becoming 21st century learners and citizens.
It is in the process of making movies about the stories of their lives that these youth can actively construct a sense of self that merges these different identity strands with the purpose of constructing a representation of their personal story that is meant to be shared with a public audience.I think of identity as a much more personal process - youth, particularly those who feel marginalized from their schools, have trouble making sense of the disjunction between the way they see themselves, the way others see them, and the way they fit into the communities to which they belong.
Youth filmmaking
There are tons of great examples of organizations that work with youth to make films about the stories of their lives. One of the organizations I am studying, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, is a great one to check out - they have many of their films on their website; you can really see how the films themselves are complex identity products. ListenUp! is also a great repository for youth-produced films supported by organizations across the country.
There is also some great emerging work on youth production of films without the institutional support of a Reel Works-type organization. Some examples include Sonja Baumer‘s work on remixed videos and Patricia Lange‘s work on sharing videos as a form of affiliation. I am interested in looking at films that have a specific identity focus (stories about the filmmaker or the filmmaker’s community) to understand the connection between identity and filmmaking when there is no organizational support. I suspect that the explicit ties between the tools of film and identity processes are drawn through working with experts in organized contexts; strengthening the case for building the kinds of designed experiences Kurt talks about in his research.
The relationship between identity and production
Writing this blog could not have come at a more appropriate time. Very recently, an 18-year-old Finnish high school student opened fire in his school, killing seven of his classmates and his principal before shooting himself. This awful tragedy was preceded by the student’s use of digital video as a means to express his rage; he had posted over 89 videos on YouTube, including a video just prior to the shootings entitled, “Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007” in which he uses images of his school and himself with a gun as well as music also referenced by the Columbine shooters. Why do I bring this horrific event up here? Well, it seems to me that the use of digital media like film and digital story to explore and express issues of identity is happening whether we acknowledge it or not. Marginalized youth are using digital media to work through complex issues of who they are and how they do (and don’t) fit into their communities, often without institutional support. And while I am not saying that this tragedy could have been prevented by supporting youth like this in constructing artistic products of complicated senses of self, rather than blaming the media, ("those kids, they get all their violent ideas from videogames"), we should work toward designing interventions that take seriously the relationship between identity and production.
Editor’s Note: See Jim Gee’s thematic overview & index for more posts in this seven-part series on digital learning and identity.
Category: Ecology-of-Games, Identity
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Comments
http://mediaeducationlab.com
Posted on November 30 2007 11:42 AM
It’s been my experience that when kids work independently to make videos, they often reproduce some familiar genre, like music videos or action-adventure scenes. This type of production is often perceived as a pleasurable, empowering experience. My son, for example, tries on the identity of the gangster or spy when he makes videos on his own.
When youth work in organized settings, it is often the adults who offer the invitation to “tell us about yourself and your community” through video. Working collaboratively often means negotiating between fantasy identity play and real-world identity construction.
Kathleen Hoppe
interested reader
Posted on November 30 2007 3:14 AM
This concept is intriguing, and I have seen it playing out in my nephew’s expression of his experience in Iraq. Andy was sent to Iraq as a 19 year old who had signed up with the National Guard expecting to protect only continental borders. He has used his video camera to create short films with his Army buddies and at times Iraqi citizens that alleviate his tension, and give us a bit of a window into his experience. This technology is fantastic, as it allows Andy, and many others like him, to be expressive and to share in a way that they might otherwise keep bottled up. I love that he is able to free up any of his emotional journey. Thank you, Erica, for your work in this field.