The TA's role as mentor

I often talk about the stories we tell and how disappointed I am with the stories Hollywood chooses to tell, and the lack of women and women's voices in the stories coming out of the media industry. The thing is I don't think I'm going to storm Hollywood and change the industry. But what I can do is be a mentor to the next generation of storytellers. That's part of why I want to teach, and what I enjoy about teaching. However, I don't have to wait for that elusive professor job because right now I am a TA and even when not, I'm a grad student in with a bunch of undergrads.

Today we had our first Production 3 class. The kids have to apply to get in. They are making what could be called senior thesis films. As a group they will make 8 films. Today we workshopped the scripts for three of them. Out of 20 kids in the class there are only 4 guys. So I'm happy about the chances for good work that the ladies are getting, and for their drive and ambition to make it happen. That's where the women's voices are going to come from. I was very impressed with the class discussion. They were engaged in the process (most of them) and were good at giving feedback that didn't tear anyone down, but rather helped them work toward better scripts.

But then one of the scripts that we read today, which was written by one of the women, had a cast of 5 boys and 1 girl (all 8-9 years old). The girl was the victim of bullying by 3 of the boys and needs to get rescued by the other 2 boys. It was a fairly standard hero's journey, learning to use his brains rather than his lack of brawn over the big bad bully, and his reward for success is the girl. She is a commodity for the boys to fight over. That wasn't the story this director was trying to tell. I don't think she even entirely realized that's what she had done. When I gave her the feedback of "Can you give the girl any bit of agency at all? Let her work with the geeky boy to over come the bully maybe?" Her response was (paraphrased), but she has agency because she's choosing to be the victim to protect her little brother. Sigh. A) that didn't come through, and B) how about she chooses not to be a victim to protect her little brother.

The scripts are meant to be works in progress at this point, so that's ok, there's time. What gets me is the fact that she didn't quite see the message she was sending, or understand why it might not be a message she wants to keep perpetuating. She just wasn't thinking about it. That's why this is so important. Humans tell stories. It's what we do, and have always done since the dawn of time. So you can't say stories don't matter. They are everywhere: movies, television, books, obviously. Ads are nothing by 30 second stories. News articles. Blog entries. Songs on the radio. They help us make sense of the world and ourselves. To the point where we internalize the stories and themes we hear most often. When a young woman chooses to tell a story where a little girl's only active choice is to choose to become a victim I see a real problem. So if I can nudge her to make more deliberate decisions about the kinds of stories she wants to tell, and the kinds of themes she wants to perpetuate, I will.