Growing up in school, we learned about the different cultures, religions, ethnicities, and family backgrounds that are the backbone of society. Science teachers taught us about the social structure of the animal kingdom. In humanities, we learned about the structure and function of societies outside of our own. But what about learning about our own families - how are they different and what makes them unique? These were some of the questions addressed at the film screening of That's A Family at Barnum last Thursday.
The first Boston-area screening of Academy Award winner Debra Chasnoff's film drew an audience of about 100. The film is a follow-up to Chasnoff's last work, the 1992 It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School, which examined teachers' efforts to find creative, age-appropriate ways to counter anti-gay prejudice and gay invisibility. Chasnoff made the film to create age-appropriate resources for the classroom that would help teachers find ways to integrate awareness of homosexuality in the elementary school curriculum.
"We got all this feedback saying 'great idea, really needed, really, really needed,' but the political climate is such and the lack of awareness is such that we need to completely step back and reach the parents and the educators first," Chasnoff said while introducing the film.
Based on the positive reaction she received from parents and educators, Chasnoff and her production team began putting together a media series for kids called Respect For All. "That's A Family is the first video in this series that explores family diversity. The two other films, which are currently in pre-production, will focus on name calling and stereotypes," Chasnoff said.
"We started with the family because that's what the parents and teachers wanted," she added. "When kids are growing up, their first point of reference for understanding themselves and understanding the rest of the world is family."
That's A Family focuses on children's experiences in different family settings. The film addresses issues such as race, sexual orientation, divorce, death, religion, and adoption on a level that an elementary or middle school child could identify with and understand.
Throughout the documentary, the audience was presented with six children, each representing the six types of families depicted in the film - adoptive, divorced, traditional or nuclear, biracial, gay or lesbian, and interfaith. The audience gained a brief, yet personal perspective into each of the children's living situations. In the film, one girl of mixed ethnicity, a third-grader, described her family quite astutely. "We're not plain Chinese, plain German, plain this or plain that - we're mixed!" she exclaimed.
The question and answer session after the screening reflected mixed reactions to the film. Although all of the children in the film appeared content with their situations at home, one audience member asked whether the subjects were really as happy as they seemed or whether their situations were somehow manipulated.
"All the kids talked about what's great about their families and things that are hard for them about their particular family configuration," Chasnoff responded. "We weren't going to make a film about kids who were unhappy. The point of this film was not about whether you are happy in your family or not, the point of this film was to look at differences."
One student expressed that she was grateful the film dealt with the issue of death in the family. She felt that children who face death early in their lives are often ashamed to talk about these personal issues with peers and family.
"I wish that when my mom died and when I went to school that they had shown this video, so that when I said I didn't have a mom, people didn't try to shame me into saying that I was just kidding. Those are the things that kids are really afraid to talk about because of the shame factor," the student noted.
Obtaining the right families for the film was a long and difficult process for the filmmaker. Over 100 families were rejected from the film because the children couldn't sit still, were inarticulate about their families and their feelings, or because their stories were too common.
"[Finding subjects] was very, very challenging," said Chasnoff.
The film has recently come under scrutiny from the right wing because it explores lesbian and gay lifestyles in relation to the family. Chasnoff claimed that most of her attackers have not even seen the film.
"[The critics] say, 'In this film, a young boy is adopted by a heterosexual family. That's a family. A young girl beams with pride in front of her two lesbian moms. That's not a family - that's a tragedy.' This, of course, is the extreme, but you have to ask, what can you put in?" Chasnoff said.
Chasnoff hopes that others will benefit from the message of acceptance behind her film. "I was on a talk show and this Republican dad said, 'I had my remote control in my hand and I was ready to hate it, but I was so disarmed by the kids.... I realized that no matter what I think about gay people, I had nothing to quarrel with a child talking about his family,'" she said.
