Schools at the Festival

(2024 Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Essay Contest)

Many of the films I watched inspired me in various ways. There was incredible creativity in all the films, and the effect of the movies is evident in my recent writings. I express myself mainly through poetry and monologues, as well as through my current book, which is in the planning stages. In this essay, I will explore the film “Choices” and how the message had an effect on me.

“Choices” shared a message that really spoke to me. The message of how pregnancy, sex, and abortion are treated as taboo or dirty (especially around black and people of color) is an incredibly pressing topic in our current society. The film showed three black high school girls: one who had an abortion, one who was pregnant, and one who was waiting for the result of a pregnancy test. I’ve heard many conversations in the past few years about the choices when it comes to pregnancy: giving birth or having an abortion, keeping the baby or giving it away. I was thirteen, and I didn’t exactly understand all the adults talking about how if a person has a uterus, then their body must be controlled in a stricter way than the United States controls guns.

When Roe v. Wade was overturned, I was living in Texas, where I was born and raised. Quickly, mine and countless others’ lives were turned upside down. My mother stocked up on Plan B pills for me, my brother, and our friends. Rumors spread around school about who was anti-abortion and who was pro-abortion. My mom taught me about how this would affect everyone, not just people who were having sex. She told me how it would cause countless deaths and that black women would be more vulnerable than others. When I moved to California, I realized how differently some people thought. Not everyone had been convinced that abortion is murder, that a period is manslaughter, and that people’s bodies belonged to whatever was inside them. The film presented the message that every person should have a choice, without constant restrictions and restraints on what they decide to do with their body and their life.

The film “Choices” captured my attention from the beginning, with a father speaking to his daughter about how she is not a little girl anymore. The next part that truly made me feel engulfed in the message was the scene after she takes a pregnancy test—those few minutes of not knowing where your life would go. It turns a few minutes into an eternity. The last scene I found was an extremely courageous choice from the writer; the decision to not let the audience know if the character who may have been pregnant really was. Interpretive endings are complex and a delicate thing to work with in film and media. However, I think that the ending provided added more to the story and message.

(2024 Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Essay Contest)

Make Art, Morgan!

I struggled to choose one film. I told myself that I needed to choose the most abstract film so that I could write a sophisticated and complicated essay. Ironically, I chose the film about feeling pressured to fit a mold as an artist. Like the main character Reese’s friend, Venus, I used to draw every single day, mapping out ideas in my mind and then drawing, painting, or sculpting them without hesitation. But my subconscious had already realized others only saw value in my ability to entertain. I became competitive; my passion for art turned into jealousy and self-criticism. I felt a volatile urge to replicate or ‘improve’ any visual, literary, or musical piece. I held myself to standards that could only be reached with the patience Venus had, unlike me. Then, the pandemic began. The longer my already struggling eleven-year-old self was isolated, the more erratic and depressed I became. I lost the ability to function and create without becoming angry, panicking, and shutting down.

Make Art, Reese! captures a process that has taken me five or six years in under ten minutes. I saw myself in Reese, the main character; seeing magnificent, powerful art, feeling so much, seeing myself, questioning my own abilities, and feeling pressured to create a “masterpiece.” Reese receives encouragement and ideas from their friends. I loved the montage of responses when characters were asked what they want to see, and what they think others want to see, in art. Every answer was different, but all indirectly proved that people want to see themselves reflected in art. We are all blind to our connection with each other. Throughout my life, I have seen injustice and erasure, and so I have been a mirror for others, helping them to feel understood and appreciated. But art isn’t really about serving others, is it?

While Reese overcame the frustration that stopped them from painting, I have yet to. I still have rare bursts of motivation that miraculously bring me to create. Maybe I’ve left visual art out of hopelessness. But I’ve found poetry; my words flow with ease and create visuals as detailed as the paintings I’ve longed to create. I’ve sang all my life, but now I’ve found my voice and it is powerful. And I’ve found photography. Being disabled, I’ve needed to find accessible forms of expression which don’t bring such frustration that I burn out and leave my work indefinitely untouched. Watching this film has reminded me that I don’t need to be anything, my self-expression is mine to define. I am fifteen years old, and as long as I am alive, I have time. If I take care of and express myself as I am, and that encourages others to do the same, I have been all I need to be, and I have been an artist.

(2024 Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Essay Contest)

I tried to write down everything I loved about Dídi the second the credits rolled, even before the lights had turned back on. I’d listed a lot of things. the cinematography, the attention to detail to make it a 2008 time capsule, the realistic dialogue, how relatable it was, the characters and their relationships, everything. It took me three pages of scribbled notes before I properly realized what made me adore it so much: the insane amount of love in the film.

Dídi as a film centers on the isolation that comes with being a teenager, how you’re so often pushing others away in hopes somehow of being able to grow closer to people. Watching it in the theater with countless other teenagers I’d never met, there was this beautiful closeness I felt. We’d all cringe at something that’s happened to everyone, sit completely still with bated breath as Chris was deciding whether or not he should add a heart emoticon to the end of a message, and laugh at all the jokes teenagers have been repeating since the beginning of time. We’d react to other things, too. I’d hear people next to me cry when Chris argued with his mom, when his sister left her hoodie for him after leaving for college, and when he slept in the park at night. Everyone had been brought together due to a love for film, the same feeling of loneliness that we assumed nobody else could understand, and therefore, love for each other as complex human beings. Dídi’s themes of isolation are intentionally portrayed in a manner just as relatable as its quintessential teenage experiences. They’re so carefully shot, scored, and acted so you can relate to it, relate to feeling alone, and then it will remind you that you are surrounded by people who feel the exact way you do.

Dídi so easily achieves immersion–one of the most challenging aspects of filmmaking–through how authentic it is. You’re able to see everything Chris loves through his eyes before he realizes how much he loves it. The film is steeped in nostalgia, where watching it elicits the same reaction as looking back on your life with more experience as a person. You can recognize things you miss, things you could have done better, and reminisce on everything that made you happy, and everything you love. The sense of nostalgia carries a dull melancholy that you can only feel because you were happy before, which serves as a reminder that you will be happy again. Every scene with such a raw portrayal of sadness, loss, or seclusion still implies that not only will things get better, but they will be better than before. It’s done with the same amount of love and care that comes with giving advice to a friend, and it’s executed perfectly.

Dídi is a film about connecting with others, it’s a film about love, and that message is so easily communicated because its reason for existence and message are exactly the same.

(2024 Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Essay Contest)

A JOURNEY IN FILMMAKING

What makes a good film? Is it the eager expectation that makes the audience hush as the lights dim and the film begins? Is it the intricate weave of the plot itself or the artistry of how the film was created? After my experience watching Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story, I now have a better idea of what truly makes a film great. The film drew the audience in with its varying camera angles, from aerial shots to camera views in the sea. The videography perfectly complemented the heartwarming story of a man in Scotland learning about the delicate balance of when and when not to interfere with nature. Yet as I reflect on my experience in that theater, I realize that he wasn’t the only one to learn a thing or two. The film taught me, as well, when I looked past the basic plot into how the film was created.

I’m part of a scouting group, and this year, I earned the Cinematography badge. Before I had earned the badge, I had already been interested in photography; during hikes around the various ecosystems of the Bay Area, I enjoyed taking pictures of birds, wildlife, and scenery; and on a recent trip to Europe, I took many photos of different cityscapes, castles, and canals there. While completing badge requirements at the same time, I learned a little bit more about the video side of using a camera as I made a short video about my scouting group, tried creating different sound effects, and paid special attention to special effects in a live-action movie that I watched.

Because of what I had learned from the badge, I watched Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story with a little more attention to the effects than I would normally. I wondered when Billy had thought to make his story into a documentary and who had been behind the camera when he stood in the vicious wind as icy waves crashed against the rugged Scotland coast. Who was in the office with him as he worked? Which part of the documentary was reenacted with Molly later on, like when he first met her eating crab on the dock, and what portion was recorded as the events unfolded? I believe that some of these unanswered questions are marks of a good film because they make the audience ponder these questions, whether they be about the filmmaking process or the plot itself, long after the lights come on and they return to their homes.

A good film makes its audience want to know more, to think about the story after it ends, and Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story does just that. Part of the excitement of a story is when the viewer ties up some of the loose ends for himself or herself, because when he or she interacts with the story, the story somehow becomes more personal, more important. This film made me think a little more about my own hobby of photography/videography, and when a film teaches me and makes me think while having a great plot, then it’s everything a film should be.

(2024 Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Essay Contest)

“We are girls, and together we are fearless.” This is a powerful quote from the She Creates Change movie. I gazed my eyes upon the magical movie theater screen at the theater as it began, thinking that the film might be dull. Little did I know that what I was about to witness was remarkable, unlike any other documentary I had watched before. After my experience with this screening, I’ve begun to feel more appreciative of the opportunities I have to attend school and not take any of my privileges for granted.

While watching this astonishing film, my mind shifted and became more thoughtful about the issues these brave girls experienced. To begin with, I was aware that many girls in the world do not have the opportunity to attend school. However, even knowing this, I was shocked to find out that at least one hundred and thirty million girls in the world cannot walk to a classroom and are forced to quit for several reasons. Reasons such as poverty, cultural norms, and child marriage. After I arrived home, I thought about how unfortunate it is for girls to not be able to attend classes. All children deserve a significant education that teaches them about what they can do better in their areas of growth.

Additionally, I was aware of some topics the movie featured, such as sexual harassment, beauty expectations, and safety insecurities, but I was still surprised to find out what horrors the girls had to experience. Something that was completely new to me was that families across the world forbid their daughters to attend school for a week because of having their period. It was horrific to discover that families force their daughters to be all alone in a house and that they need to use towels and water to sanitize themselves. Although I was alarmed to find this out, I appreciated becoming enlightened on this issue.

Expressing these topics through drawings brought up so many emotions, experiences and realities. Metaphors of birds in cages, seconds of process of how a shy but brave girl mastered karate, and bricks shattering in a home due to fights, were all so vivid and meaningful. The animation of the movie focused on the pain the girls had to experience, but also the way they made it through. For example, I adored the story in Sri Lanka about a girl who was almost forced to live in the city and work far away from her family because of a drought. The way the movie described how the drought had affected the girl and her family was tragic to watch. However, it was magnificent to see how one piece of knowledge can help an entire family and a small village. If I had learned this through a different way, such as a class lecture or book, I may not have grasped the subject as well as I did in the animation. This is because I believe verbal mediums do not express experiences as powerfully as drawings, even though words have power to influence and inform minds.

This movie inspired me to dig into these issues and learn a similar topic to menstruation getting in the way of girls’ education. While reading an article by UNICEF, I learned women in Senegal are helping girls have menstruation products due to non-functional toilets and lack of access to hygiene products. Due to this, many girls are forced to take many days off or drop out of school. I discovered that women in the Kaffreine region are currently committed to creating affordable reusable pads for young girls in school and are training women and men to stitch recycled clothing fabrics into pads. Adding on to period poverty, I’m part of a club called Social Justice in school where we are holding a menstrual products drive and donating our products to an organization in San Francisco called “La Casa De Las Madres”.

In conclusion, I had an extraordinary experience at the theater watching She Creates Change. I hope Room To Read will continue to make movies just like the amazing one I watched to help raise awareness about other important issues in the world.