Last week, Elena and I found ourselves in one of the most intimidating places on earth: center stage in a middle school auditorium.
The principal and teachers of the middle school featured in “The Council” had invited us to do a screening and Q&A about the film for all the 8th graders. We were excited to do it, but more than a little nervous to hear their reactions and questions.
It turns out they were pretty easy on us, and the questions were mostly soft balls:
How do you pick the music?
Are you going to do a sequel on next year’s student council election?
Can you do a documentary on the lacrosse team next? You totally should.
But there were the inevitable tricky ones too. Most notably (and predictably):
How did you choose Leah, Cara and Ryan?
It’s hard to answer questions about your storytelling choices when you’re face-to-face with your subjects and a room full of their peers. We knew those questions were coming, so why put ourselves in that situation to begin with?
Journalists and documentarians are often accused of parachuting in, taking what they need from the community they’re covering, and then disappearing never to be seen again. We would never suggest that a journalist compromise the integrity of his or her work in order to please the subject of the story. But not all stories are investigative journalism, and sometimes parachuting in and disappearing is more of a cop out than a moral high ground.
The truth is, it’s a huge responsibility to tell someone’s story, and whether it comes out exactly as they’d like it to or not, you owe it to them to be willing to answer their questions. Plus it’s a good exercise in being able to back up the editorial choices you’ve made.
So why did we pick Leah, Cara and Ryan? The short middle-school-auditorium-proof answer is because they are great, and together they were a good representation of all the candidates. The longer answer (and what we told them individually) is they each represent something different that made the story matter.
Leah was the shoe-in for the election, but she is also a departure from the stereotypical “popular girl.” She is smart as a whip, and as far as we can tell doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She’s popular because people like her, not because they are scared of her. She proves that you don’t have to mean to be popular.
As the new girl, Cara had her work cut out for her. But her insight into the workings of the world really hit the middle school nail on the head. There are more unpopular people than popular people. And in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter if you sit at the popular table.
As for Ryan, as evidenced by the number of people who told us they were rooting from him (including a few #teamryan tweets) choosing Ryan was a no-brainer. Sure he was a self-proclaimed underdog, which everybody loves. But more importantly, he has a unique humor and quirkiness that while sometimes lost on a middle school audience will undoubtedly make him the kind of college kid and adult you hope finds his way into your circle of friends.
– Catherine