OT: Our Town

This is part of some research I did for the documentary by watching a similar doc that follows a group of high school students performing for the first time. The other girls in our Shakespeare doc group also watched a commented on this film. It helps us visualize a little of how we wanted our piece to look like and the possibilities that were available for editing, visualization, character development etc.

OT: Our Town

First thing I noticed about OT: Our Town, was the style of the filming. Given that it was shot in 2001-2002, the quality is still somewhat poor and almost all of it hand held. The high school kids claim their town as ‘the ghetto’ and so the grainy and low quality look creates a grittier feel that compliments the on screen action.

With this sort of feel for the entirety of the film, I felt like the relationship between filmmaker and the subjects, was very personal and non-intrusive. When the filmmaker was filming the students in a round table –classroom setting, it felt like we were part of the discussion and everyone could- and was being natural in front of the camera. The camera was just a part of what was going on. It was acknowledged by the high school kids and put into the environment like another character.

I cared for these subjects because the story was told through the kids and not as much through any authoritarian figure. While the teachers were also interviewed, it was the kids that drove the plot forward. With the interviews Kennedy did, I was impressed with how much the kids revealed on camera. The relationships I think, were key between filmmaker and subject. It made for a more meaningful film because it was like the filmmaker was a friend to everyone rather than stranger watching.

A really good editing choice in my opinion, was the idea to have ‘Our Town’ the film version of the play, being interjected between shots of the kids rehearsing their own version. Juxtapositioning these two different performances added meaning to the changes that kids were making themselves to their play. It showed a stark difference in the passion that these kids were putting into their play and what is means to them to be residents of Compton, California.

I do wish that most of the story-telling could have been more observational rather than based on the narration of interviews of the kids and the teacher. After doing some research on the film, it looks like the filmmaker is/was actually involved romantically with the teacher. This explains why perhaps the kids felt comfortable with Kennedy the filmmaker because I imagine he would have spent quite a lot of time with his subjects.I think a lot of the success of the film can be attributed to this: the relationship between subject and filmmaker. I could tell that he cared about these kids and if they succeeded or not. While I don't think that Kennedy was probably living or grew up in Compton or 'the getto', he definitely had something to say about accepting and loving the good and bad about our own town's.