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Listen to thisHi there,
Back in April this group was discussing movies about youth ...
When I was in the Child and Youth Care Program, one of my assignments
was to watch the movie "Once Were Warriors" and complete the assigned
tasks. This is an older movie made in New Zealand. I had a very hard
time finding this movie, but it is an excellent movie. It is not based
on just a youth, it's based on a family.
Enjoy!
Amanda Popoff
...
A few years ago just about every group home in our agency had a DVD copy
of White Oleander. While I wouldn't recommend it for younger children,
it definitely shows a picture of youth in care. Other Good ones in my
opinion: Millions (grief and loss issues, moral questions), Crash (for
older youth), The Freedom Writers. The Whale Rider. Antwone Fisher.
I think that any movie with a GOOD story can be used in the same manner,
One can even pull life lessons out of Comedies (Malibu' Most Wanted – satirizing racial stereotypes), and sometimes horror and Sci-fi (Signs – dealing with grief). But too often my clients are drawn to endless
watching of Austin Powers movies.
A film buff Youth Worker
Kent Harmacy
...
Here is a running list that I keep... if it is of any help.
Listings of films for group care staff who don’t want to think
about ratings and content.
Local Hero
Field of Dreams
The Straight Story
The Iron Giant
The Secret Of Roan Inish
How to Make An American Quilt
The Princess Bride
Billy Eliot
Cast Away
Finding Forrester
Bend It Like Beckham
Secondhand Lions
The Dish
You Can Count on Me
Rabbit Proof Fence
Standing in the Shadows of Motown
The Fast Runner
Concert for George
Westside Story
Whale Rider
It’s A Wonderful Life
The Incredibles
Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius
Touching the Void
Millions
Off The Map (teens)
March of the Penguins
Robots
To Kill a Mockingbird (teens)
Last Holiday
Akeelah and the Bee
Summercamp
In the Shadow of the Moon
The Great Debaters (teens and with natural discussion time) Wall E My
Sisters Keeper (teens and with natural discussion time)
CYCW Educational Films
Tumbleweeds (Mom and daughter)
Life as a House (Parents and Son)
Dogtown and Z-Boys
Pieces of April (Sibling development)
Bend it Like Beckham
Whale Rider
Raising Victor Vargas
Better Luck Tomorrow
Tarnation
The Lost Boys of Sudan (Resiliency)
Brother to Brother (Intergenerational)
The Return (Dad’s and sons)
Bus 174
Elephant (or Zero Day)
Girlhood
Mean Girls (as long as relational aggression has been talked about)
Into the Realms of the Unreal (the impact of being in care?)
Imaginary Heroes (siblings, family dysfunctions))
Off the Map (depression)
Palindromes (grad students working on gender or girls issues)
Grizzly Man (mental health issues)
Edukators (for Radical Youth Work)
March of the Penguins (attachment Theory)
Troop 1500: Girl Scoots Behind Bars (attachment)
A Year w/o Love (HIV)
The Squid and the Whale (depression and SED onset)
Crash (racism)
Summercamp (normalcy and resilience)
The Great Debaters (scene where professor brings student back into the
debate class… great golden nugget)
Boy A (re-integration)
The Oscar Nominated Shorts: Live Action 2/21/09
New Boy (Ireland) (resiliency in context and social development)
Up (imaginary dad issues)
My Sister’s Keeper (family ethics, child development)
Peter Rosenblatt
...
Of interest:
https://www.cyc-net.org/today2005/today050722.html
https://www.cyc-net.org/today2005/today050704.html
Eds.
...
Dear Kent,
Thank you for your movie catalogue which I found myself agreeing
with, and enthusing about, in its entirety. You included Bill Forsyth's
Local Hero and I thought his 1981 film Gregory's Girl might fit the bill
also. One outstanding film I recently watched on dvd was Laurent
Cantet's 2009 film Entre Les Murs which was entitled 'The Class' when it
was distributed in the UK. This film really touches the spot of the
subtleties of the power used by seemingly reasonable liberal adults
whose nominal function is to help and to educate youngsters – in this
case a class of immigrant 14-year-olds at a school in Paris. I
think youngsters and workers should watch this together.
Best wishes,
Charles Sharpe
...
Without a doubt, my all time favorite is "SMOKE
SIGNALS" adapted from Sherman Alexie stories. The poem at the end is
magical.
For one about grief and loss and abuse, I would recommend "The Champ"
with Ricky Schroeder and Jon Voight.
Alfonso Ramirez, Jr.
...
Charles,
Interesting. Good points, but we don't often get many European movies
here in Canada evenBritish ones .... unless there's a big name star in
it that is. Some just end up in "Art House"theatres that few people go
to. There are some "sleeper" hits though (e.g. Bend it Like Beckham) And
to get them on video one has to really search out specially video
stores. Fortunately there's one not far from me that has a whole wall of
Brit films and TV shows on video on Region 1 format too. Funny you
mentionedLocal Hero ... I caughtit on TV a couple of months ago.
Alfonso,
Oh no!! Not The Champ. I still have memories of seeing when I was
a kid..Bawled my eyes out. I wouldn't subject anyone to that tear jerker
:). However,have heard that the film Ricky Schroederdirected called
Black Cloud is quite good.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363475/
Kent Harmacy
...
While working withyoung peopleof all ages I found watching "Happy
Feet" quite entertaining but yet educational – it address issues of
relationships as well as co operation etc. One thing we as caregivers
did was to ask the group what lessons they had learned while watching
the movie. It helped them as well as us to look for life lessons in all
we do!
Ruth. M. Bantham
...
Hi there,
I don't know if the group still discussing movies (about youth
issues)is still on-going, but I have been watching some recently that
work towards different things that youth deal with that I think can be
important.I did also want to add that I think thatmovies/music/etc can
be one of the best ways to get kids involved and to talk.
A movie we watched recently at my Practicum (in a Calgary Board of
Education Assessment Program), is "Odd Girl out". This dealt with
bullying,specifically with teenage girls, butcanalso be directed
towards boys. It was surprising to see how many youth had experienced
both sides of bullying. All of them stated that at one point they had
experienced some level of bullying, and how at other times they
experienced different levels of being bullied. The discussion that we
had around this topic after the movie, was quite solid with what the
kids had to say. It was an experience for me to discover my feelings
towards bullying as well, as I was bullied in school. I found it
interesting to hear the different experiences of bullying with youth
today.
Another movie we have watched recently, again in my practicum, was "Lord
of the Flies". I understand that for a lot of people (in Canada at
least), it was mandatory to read the book or watch the movie in school,
but I never read the book or saw the movie. It is a movie in which youth
are essentially stuck on an island. The movie goes through the struggles
with leadership (or lack thereof), and how without working together as a
team, things can really quickly go bad. We talked about how this works
in society. We need leadership that is there to make the decisions about
what is happening in our countries (whether we like the leadership or
not), we need leadership and help along the way as a young person in
school, at work, etc. Teamwork and leadership are vital and key for
anything that is important in our society today.
Lastly (although I could continue), is a movie called "Pay it Forward".
This is a movie about a young boy who makes the effort to create a
better world by "paying it forward". We watched this movie with some of
the youth and it was powerful in the sense that the youth were
surprised to see how a single kind act can help someone in need (even if
it is not forwarded). I personally think that this movie is a movie that
can help youth think a bit more about their actions towards friends,
families and even strangers, and realize that an act of kindness can
stretch farther than ever imagined.
Thanks
Alicia Mcleod
...
The discussion about movies has been interesting. Alicia Mcleod
offers some interesting suggestions.
We tend to talk a lot about children's behavior.Beliefs and values and
feelings and emotions have more to do with behavior than the
consequences that adults arrange.They motivate behavior and determine
which consequences affect behavior -- real life consequences rather than
rewards (bribes) and punishments.Carefully selected movies are an
excellent way to teach children about feelings and emotions and to help
them develop values.
I wonder if there is a resource list of movies with a brief description
of what they can help to teach that would help practitioners to plan.
John Stein
New Orleans
