You may remember the entry I posted about my West Marredpally class’ first video “Our Stories Our Important.”   I’m pleased to report that the conversations around sexism, representation and girl power that project continued long after we wrapped.

In the above noted entry, I wrote about impressed I was with the ability of the girls to recognize the need for complex, honest female characters, rather than simply strong female characters.  For our second video, a fast-paced action flick about four super-heroines taking on two evil villains planning to commit infanticide against baby girls, the students worked hard to create characters that were not only tough, but also relatable: one hero struggles with her parents having doubts in her.  The students were also adamant about creating two female villains because they wanted to disrupt the portrayal of girls as sweet and nice.  Their sense of empathy and ability to write and portray complex characters stems from a true self-awareness that many of the girls possess.  They are immensely capable of thinking and working independently and I had no trouble sending small teams out on shoots by themselves.  Despite the fact that the story was rooted in fiction, many of the actresses drew on their own experiences or those of women they knew well when approaching a scene instead of copying what they’d seen in the theater or on their televisions.

Four Superheroines from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

With this in mind I decided to propose a final project that would center on self-representation.  Many of the students wrote poems about themselves and they worked in pairs to frame self-portraits.  In stark contrast to the trepidation they displayed at the beginning of the semester, most were ecstatic to be totally in control.  Their willingness to present themselves as they are astounded me; I loved seeing that some of them wrote lines like “Angry (sometimes!)” in their poems.  I hope you enjoy learning more about them as much as I have!

West Marredpally self-portraits from The Modern Story on Vimeo.