Additionally, the film has also been criticized for ignoring the workers at Waxter. What Parents Need to Know. Parents need to know that the French movie Girlhood is a bleak but affecting look at life in the housing projects outside Paris, where young people have few options and little chance to improve their lives. At the Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village. ''Girlhood,'' which follows Shanae and Megan over three years beginning in 1999, doesn't pretend that a place like Waxter can hope to do the job by itself. Girlhood Directed by Liz Garbus Documentary, Crime Not Rated 1h 22m By Stephen Holden Oct. 29, 2003 Liz Garbus's hard-headed documentary film ''Girlhood'' is prefaced with an unsettling. New York: Cengage Learning. Shanae Owens is incarcerated after murdering a friend at age eleven and Megan Jensen for assault with a deadly weapon on a foster sibling. These girls are the subjects of Liz Garbus' documentary, Girlhood. The new documentary Girlhood isnt a horror movie, but there isnt another movie this year that chills the blood as quickly as the brief exchange caught on camera between a 15-year-old girl and her parents. Strength-Based Approaches Through abbreviated, seamlessly edited scenes, the girls are observed lurching through the juvenile penal system by awkward fits and starts. In 1997 on a Baltimore street, Shanae got into a fight with 13-year-old Chineye Mills, allegedly over a boy. The interview in this work in combination with, Most boys stay fourteen days or less. As a child, her mother was absent. That was 11 years ago. Third, Shanae becomes emotionally expressive. The documentary Girlhood offers an insight on the emotional, psychological, and social reasoning behind the girl's actions. This documentary does look at the intersections of various identities and even struggles, but it fails to count them as essential facets of girlhood for Shanae and Megan. As she grows up, she realizes that she cannot rely on anyone and starts to take better care or herself. This fact, combined with the lack of familial support that Megan got, certainly contributed to her continuing to run away from foster homes. We now have the best team of essay writers in the world. The history of American documentary cinema is rife with well-intentioned filmmakers like Garbus who have trained their cameras on the abject, the neglected and the powerless. The film is intense and very blunt but it also does a great job of showing the human side of these two young people over a three year span of time. Cannes, this is how its done: projects from female filmmakers are set to kick off and conclude both AFI DOCS and Provincetown International Film Festival. Waxter Childrens Center in Laurel, Md., some 20 miles from Baltimore. As for the staff of the Waxter, they were awesome. Original music Theodore Shapiro. This film is not rated. If the movie suggests that a strong mother-daughter bond is the key to a successful rehabilitation, it is too intelligent to belabor that notion. The primary objective of the film is an exploration into the social implications for the increase of crime committed by young women such as Shanae and Megan. Girlhoodshows day-to-day scenes in the girls' lives at Waxter, allowing you to really familiarize yourself with them. In this field, deadlines are super important. That's when you really knew how much time and love were put in for the girls in this particular place. This documentary follows these two bright but troubled young girls at the Waxter Juvenile Facility in Baltimore as they struggle their way toward redemption and understanding. The documentary follows the plight of Megan and Shanae (Garbus, 2003). Subsequently, she was always looking for that support and without it had less incentive and means to create a change in her life. Age discrimination, How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Rainn Wilson, Review: Thoughtful whimsy animates Haruki Murakami adaptation Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, An earthquake made Makoto Shinkai a disaster artist. Web.18 April. Your email address will not be published. "I was really, really, really confused at the time," Megan says. Megan, the more unruly of the two is a little older than Shanae. Exclusively at Laemmles Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills (310) 274-6869. 2 Working within the filmic fairy tale adaptation cycle that emerged between 2005 and 2015, this thesis investigates how girlhood is cinematically constructed through the lens of These girls are the subjects of Liz Garbus' documentary, Girlhood. She Alba Sotorra is an independent filmmaker and producer based in Barcelona. This is the latest feature-length non-fiction film from documentarian Liz Garbus, who has spotlighted imprisonment in 2002's "The Execution of Wanda June" and the 1998 Oscar-nominee "The Farm: Angola USA." As with those two films, "Girlhood" looks at the incarceration of violent-crime offenders. Girlhood Movie Analysis. After Megan and her mother have falling out and are no longer speaking, the film again shifts focus to Shanae, who has now just lost her mother to heart failure. Summary: The documentary filmGirlhoodfollows two girls whose actions result in their incarceration in the Waxter Juvenile Facility in Baltimore, Maryland. The girls have traumatic experiences that affect their relationship with others. Theres no denying the seduction and importance of a lot of this work, but sometimes it isnt enough to turn a camera on other peoples catastrophes. "I just lost all respect for myself," she says. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/girlhood ABSTRACT The teen horror film The Craft (1996) has remained a cult classic with girl audiences for two decades. This age difference is crucial because there is a mutability associated with Wake up to the day's most important news. Her mother was largely able to chart Shanae's problem for the duration of the movie, because she cared about her and wanted to see her do better. This trend of progression is surging ahead at a rapid pace; however, it is very unfortunate to declare that many of the social dilemmas also exist in this industrialized world that is making millions of residents suffer from its drastic outcomes. Of the two only Shanae receives that nurturing, and it seems to make all the difference. When Ms. Hill choked on her tears for Shanae leaving - it was heartfelt. Scholarship about the film has focused on its negative representation of girls' friendships, sexuality, and desire for power. She specializes in academic writing, copywriting, business plans and resumes. Finally, budgeting and staff elements are examined, with a need to create measures for evaluation to later test facility efficiency. Movies about murdered prostitutes and serial killers who prey on women are so ubiquitous as to be banal, and perhaps not even shockingly these stories tend to be about the cops or lawyers investigating the crimes to which they have fallen victim, and not about the women themselves. Megan, the other young offender continues to practise delinquent . They focus upon the history of corrections, the history of juvenile corrections, and the history of the standards of juvenile corrections. The relationship between staff and the young women at Waxter is for the most part warm and friendly. Im excited and honored that Atlantic Screen Productions embraced this extraordinary true tale and understands the urgency of making this film now. Follows two female inmates - victims of horrific violence and tragedy - who are serving time in a Maryland juvenile detention center. Megan, however, never received such support from her mother, or from the rest of her family. You could hear the emotions and felt the anger, the sadness. His first civics lesson? One of the biggest criticisms that Garbus, It is typically more difficult for adults to change their patterns of behavior than it is for younger people. Like Us On Facebook | Follow Us On Twitter. Directed by Liz Garbus; director of photography, Tony Hardmon; edited by Mary Manhardt; music by Theodore Shapiro; produced by Ms. Garbus and Rory Kennedy; released by Wellspring. In the end, it seems the title Girlhood is both revealing and a misnomer: this film is about the liminal space of girlhoods colored by destabilizing events in their lives (and the larger systems and circumstances dictated by a society that easily discards the humanity of girls, people of color, queer people, differently abled people and poor people). Once Shanae begins to face the reality of what she did, she is transferred to a group home and begins to flourish. In the lower security facility interview, Shanae reveals that five men gang-raped her when she was young. The two attend classes, hang out (rarely with each other), argue with their adult keepers, pout and rage and confess their secrets to Garbus carefully unobtrusive camera. Editor Mary Manhardt. As the documentary end, it is clear that Megan is afraid to trust others. With these questions in mind, I use feminist textual analysis to examine three filmsNausica of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), and Princess Mononoke (1997)by acclaimed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki in which girl characters and girlhood play prominently into the film's construction as a whole. The title of the film is overly simple and, to an extent, revealing in its simplicity. Eighty percent of cases do not, Juvenile Detention Standards The hard cases penned up here are girls whose youth, bright smiles and flashes of irritation at being kept under lock and key belie their grim, violent histories. Megan, the more unruly of the two is a little older than Shanae. When Megan talks of her mother, it is apparent that Megan suffers from her neglect and lack of structure. Documentary film is a powerful medium for psychology course instruction, providing examples of concepts, issues, and theoretical principles, embedded in the realworld human experience. Megan gets out earlier, but never stays in one place very long. "Excuse me," she said. Not Hollywood, not L.A., not the country, At 19, he won a local school board seat. When she originally returned to Baltimore, Megan's life went downhill. Unlike Megan, who ends up bitter, Shanae has a positive outlook that things will become better. Finally, she becomes distraught when her relationship with her mother ends. The most salient factor in Megan's reversal of fortune however was the tireless work that her mother did to ensure that her daughter became an upstanding individual. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: GIRLHOOD MOVIE REVIEW. Because the film does not incorporate the juvenile system that fails Megan and others like her, the focus of the film becomes on the distinction between mothers who neglect their children and mothers who do not. Brody, R., & Dwyer, D. (2016). 794 Words. I have three lovely kids," she says. Girlhood made its U.S. premiere at SXSW 2003, where it won the Audience Award for Documentary Feature. Shanae was arrested for murder at the age of 12, after stabbing a friend to death. Shanae, after much perseverance, overcoming her appalling behaviours and graduate from high school. Unfortunately, this meant that she had no time to supervise and spend most time with Shanae. Megan's mother was a drug-addled prostitute, and after being placed in, and escaping from, nearly a dozen foster homes, Megan committed a violent crime. "I didn't know how to love anybody or to depend on people because I never had anyone stable enough in my life to actually show me that kind of love and compassion.". As to be expected, the revelations are often heartbreaking, at times infuriating, but because the film runs a total of 88 minutes theyre also manifestly unenlightening. It indicates that she is wary of strangers (Garbus, 2003). The lack of a proper support system is evident because she does not achieve as much as Shanae who does not falter when her mother dies. The documentary "Girlhood" follows the lives of two girls, Shanae and Megan, from 1999-2002, during and shortly after their release from Waxter Juvenile Facility in Maryland. Miriam has proven to have an incredibly strong voice when it comes to tackling tough, timely and complex stories that often take place in urban settings but resonate far and wide, said Atlantic Screen Productions CEO Simon Fawcett. Your email address will not be published. ''GIRLHOOD,'' a new documentary, is a poignant and often distressing look at the lives of two teenage girls, inmates at the Thomas J. S. Waxter Children's Center for juvenile detention near Baltimore. "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" By what name was Girlhood (2003) officially released in Canada in English? It was so true and it left me with a nice feeling knowing there are people out there that do love what they do. (See also: her 2003 documentary Girlhood.) However, Garbus suggests that this is due to the lack of adequate recreational activities in Waxter (Garbus, 2003). Shanae's family -- and her mother in particular -- repeatedly demonstrated that they loved her and wanted her to make a change for the better. Additionally, she still struggles after growing up, but she ensures that she never becomes an addict (Garbus, 2003). In the film's most compelling scenes Megan confronts Vernessa, who has been released from prison and who professes her love and determination to be an anchor for her daughter. data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAKAAAAB4CAYAAAB1ovlvAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAw5JREFUeF7t181pWwEUhNFnF+MK1IjXrsJtWVu7HbsNa6VAICGb/EwYPCCOtrrci8774KG76 . "I started using cocaine, I was strung out on drugs -- bad. This paradoxical relationship with her parent is evident (Brody & Dwyer, 2016). Co-producer, sound Amy Goodman. The film opens with the title card, In the United States, during the last decade, the number of young girls committing violent crimes has more than doubled. A narrative feature based on the two subjects of Liz Garbus' 2003 documentary "Girlhood," young female inmates Shanae Watkins and Megan Stahl, is in the works. ~ (Source: Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide). You get a sense of just how complicated when Shanae finally cops to her guilt. It isnt just difficult to do justice to Shanae and Megan in an average of 44 minutes apiece; as it turns out, its impossible. Developmental Psychology: Childhood & Adolescence: Childhood and Adolescence. From there she enrolls in high school, where she places fourth in her class, and plans to attend a community college. Liz Garbus's hard-headed documentary film ''Girlhood'' is prefaced with an unsettling statistic: in the last decade the number of violent assaults by under-age girls in this country has doubled. Juvenile Delinquency Mary Celeste Kearney writes that in approaching girlhood, sociological research, interestingly, often focused on female juvenile delinquency. In recent years, however, Girlhood Studies has grown to include and account for multiple narratives of girlhood, and actively attempts not to make girlhood inferior to womanhood, or take it less seriously. Once Shanae begins to face the reality of what she did, she is transferred to a group home and begins to flourish. Copyright 2023 . Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Megan had given up, and even ended up back in jail. Shaffer, D. R., & Kipp, K. (2010). Revise AS Level Psychology. In Garbus version of their lives, these experiences do not bring them down. They emerge triumphant; their girlhood, we end up hoping, will be salvaged. LA Times reviewer Manohla Dargis notes, Garbus obsession with levity ultimately triumphs, leaving us with an unfinished picture: [T]o turn complex and contradictory lives into palatable narratives, is one of the least-examined pitfalls in nonfiction filmmaking. Megan also shows that she has self-efficacy. ET on OWN. The article by Livers & Kehoe (2012) is quite contemporary and that is one of the main themes of the article. Documentaries are also excellent tools for presenting complex The project, titled Hood Girls, will be written and directed by Miriam Kruishoop (Greencard Warriors) and produced by Atlantic Screen Productions. Our managing editor an award-winning journalist has spent the past 7 years refining our roster. Then, she got up and walked off set. The film was shown at 30 festivals around the world and won over a dozen prizes. The girls the film follows for three years are Shanae and Megan, as the film begins in 1999. Treating the girls girlhoods as linear stories of overcoming erases the fullness, pain and challenge of all that comprises their girlhoods. Miriam has proven to have an incredibly strong voice when it comes to tackling tough, timely and complex stories that often take place in urban settings but resonate far and wide, Fawcett said. Abandoned by her mother, a heroin addict turned prostitute, Megan ran away from then different foster homes before being arrested on assault charges. In class we watched the video Girlhood. 5 Pages. Girls like Shanae and the films other principal subject, Megan, a disarmingly appealing teenager who, bounced from one foster home to another (11 total), landed in Waxter after slicing open another girl with a box cutter. The impulse to end on an up note, to turn complex and contradictory lives into palatable narratives, is one of the least-examined pitfalls in nonfiction filmmaking. Some are held while they are waiting for a bed in a treatment center. Gender Roles In The Film Girlhood. Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. Most of these reasons were actually some of the primary themes in Liz Garbus' documentary Girlhood, which followes the lives of these young women for three years from the Waxter Juvenile Detention Center to the streets of Baltimore. New York: Psychology Press. Garbus encountered the girls at the Waxter Juvenile Facility in Baltimore while making a television documentary about the boys incarcerated there. After graduating from the Comosun College's journalism program, she went on to work at community newspapers throughout Atlantic Canada, before embarking on her freelancing journey. Girl Hood Winner of the audience award for documentary at 2003 SXSW Film Festival, Liz Garbus' "Girl Hood" is a grim but engrossing look at lives of two troubled teens who must convince . Part of HuffPost News. Girlhood misses some of the nuance of the girlhoods that it seeks to document in a few ways. "I'm happy now.". All rights reserved. 2023. Garbus rigidity in framing the girls experiences does not allow for the expansiveness and complexity allowed by new theories of girlhood. Even though she does not get the chance to further her education, she avoids returning to a life of crime (Garbus, 2003). At the beginning of the documentary, Shanae and Megan are 14 and 16, serving time for murder and assault, respectively. The main character joins a girls' gang and is soon stealing, extorting money from classmates, and beating up . http://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-nov-14-et-girlhood14-story.html Theres no suggestion that the teenager feels any true remorse, only that shes learned how to deploy the same hollow psychological platitudes as her jailers. Genre:. ''Girlhood, which was shot in 16 millimeter, is a bare-bones affair, as spare as the juvenile institution in which much of it was filmed. Her parent is evident ( brody & Dwyer, 2016 ) in 1997 a... 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