The girls crimes obviously color their experiences of girlhood, but they are humanized by Garbus editorial choices through camera angles, the stories we hear, the presentation of various sympathetic or irresponsible adults that accessorize and control the girls lives. Having been abandoned by her mother, with whom she has a very complicated relationship, Megan is desperate for attention and affection. Similarly, she seems to suffer from ambivalent attachment because she is always distressed when she is unable to receive affirmations from her mother. Shanaes ability to feel remorse for her actions is seen as a key benchmark that needs to be achieved before she can leave Waxter. Footage of the two girls is then followed along with more title cards that give insight into the crimes they have committed. In her commentary on the film, available on the DVD, Garbus admits to being struck by Shanaes intelligence and cutesiness (she was wearing pigtails at the time) and then shocked to discover that Shanae was locked up for murder! Garbus in her commentary points out that Shanae does not believe that the gang rape should be seen as some sort of excuse for her murdering her friend. Issues such as child neglect, failure of the foster care system, alcoholism and drug abuse. Girlhood gives us a glimpse into the lives of two troubled young women who desperately try to forge a new life for themselves against formidable odds. At the opening of the film girlhood by Liz Garbus, viewers are informed that the rates of young girls being charged with violent crimes is on the increase in the United States. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. In this field, deadlines are super important. Of the two only Shanae receives that nurturing, and it seems to make all the difference. The system essentially gives up on trying to control her and turns her loose to fend for herself. AMCTheatres.com or AMC App New. A lot of this seems due in part to her mother Antoinettes support. Shaffer, D. R., & Kipp, K. (2010). The documentary Girlhood offers an insight on the emotional, psychological, and social reasoning behind the girl's actions. Feb 26th, 2022 Published. Garbus followed Shanaes suggestion and was determined to include her in her film. ''GIRLHOOD,'' a new documentary, is a poignant and often distressing look at the lives of two teenage girls, inmates at the Thomas J. S. Waxter Children's Center for juvenile detention near Baltimore. The films protagonists, Megan Jensen and Shanae Watkins. A wild, tough-talking girl of mixed race who has run away from 10 foster homes, she was incarcerated for attacking another foster child with a box cutter. FILM; A Filmmaker Who Chooses to Live Behind Bars This confused young girl ran away from ten foster homes and wound up attacking another girl with a box-cutter. The staff person made it clear that she wasnt there on official business. Girlhood Directed by Liz Garbus A riveting documentary about two young offenders serving time in a Baltimore juvenile facility and their struggles over a three-year period to forge a new life for themselves against formidable odds. "I was really, really, really confused at the time," Megan says. Then, she brutally stabbed another girl with a box cutter and ended up in juvenile home for some of the most violent young offenders in the country. Ecological Framework Open Document. ''Girlhood, which was shot in 16 millimeter, is a bare-bones affair, as spare as the juvenile institution in which much of it was filmed. Mary Celeste Kearney writes that in approaching girlhood, sociological research, interestingly, often focused on female juvenile delinquency. In recent years, however, Girlhood Studies has grown to include and account for multiple narratives of girlhood, and actively attempts not to make girlhood inferior to womanhood, or take it less seriously. The film left me with mixed feelings about the girls who crave love but seem so self-absorbed that they show so little concern for anyone else not in their radar, as I questioned what kind of punishment should there be for girls who commit violent crimes. These girls are the subjects of Liz Garbus' documentary, Girlhood. Liz Garbus made The Farm: Angola, USA in 1998, a riveting documentary about six men in a Louisiana penitentiary; it was nominated for an Academy Award. This problem has been solved! Lock 'em up and keep them off the streets is the familiar cry. Shot on digital video and Super 8 film over the course of three years, "Girlhood" provides a partial account of what happened to Shanae and Megan under the state's alternately guarded and. Garbus rigidity in framing the girls experiences does not allow for the expansiveness and complexity allowed by new theories of girlhood. In the lower security facility interview, Shanae reveals that five men gang-raped her when she was young. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. 005BroylesDocumentary.docx - EDPY 303.005 Dr. Armstrong 08 The early life trauma that these girls experienced impacted . Even though there is an intense argument, after she tells her mother never to talk to her again, she has a nervous breakdown (Garbus, 2003). Documentary chronicling America's justice system. What both girls crave is the stabilizing force of a caring and responsible mother. This presumption is damaging because ultimately Garbus makes uncomplicated subjects of the girls. The lack of a proper support system is evident because she does not achieve as much as Shanae who does not falter when her mother dies. Megan Terry, Feminist Playwright and Rock Musical Innovator, Dies at 90 While Shanae sublimates her anger and hurt and moves on with life, for Megan everything is right on the surface. Follows two female inmates - victims of horrific violence and tragedy - who are serving time in a Maryland juvenile detention center. From there she enrolls in high school, where she places fourth in her class, and plans to attend a community college. Second, she is unable to regulate her emotions (Garbus, 2003). Shanae is a plump black girl who mentions she lost her virginity in the Baltimore projects when she was 10, was raped by 5 boys at 11, and did drugs in her adolescent years as she hung out with the wrong friends. The relationship between staff and the young girls is also essential to how the girls grow and move forward with their lives. Second, Shanae develops a positive outlook. What was particularly sad was the uninspired rehabilitation measures tried by the staff at Waxter, as the girls received little help that was useful and seemed to be going buggy in an atmosphere where the staff might have been decent but were certainly clueless on how to treat the girls. Third, Shanae becomes emotionally expressive. But while researching junvenile detention centres she met Shanae who suggested that she make a film about girls. MPAA rating: Unrated. "I started using cocaine, I was strung out on drugs -- bad. Megan had given up, and even ended up back in jail. By end fil There are a number of reasons for why Shanae was able to turn her life around whereas Megan was not. I have three lovely kids," she says. Shanae was arrested for murder at the age of 12, after stabbing a friend to death. In the film's most compelling scenes Megan confronts Vernessa, who has been released from prison and who professes her love and determination to be an anchor for her daughter. In one of the scenes, she even says that no one loves her. Garbus explains that she encountered the contradictions of Shanae and Megans girlhoods early on; she mentions that she was struck by [Shanaes] little girl-ness, her innocence, but this was complicated by what she learned about the violence of her crime. That is to say, Garbus sees crime and girlhood as opposite experiences. Throughout the film, we are sympathetic to the challenges of Shanae and Megans girlhoods, but cannot substantively grasp, through the documentary, the unresolved nature of their status, as girls in a system that seeks to destroy not just girlhood, but life beyond girlhood too. We now have the best team of essay writers in the world. Girlhood misses some of the nuance of the girlhoods that it seeks to document in a few ways. Documentary chronicling America's justice system. The relationship between staff and the young women at Waxter is for the most part warm and friendly. In the second segment, she runs away from foster homes to try to live with her mother. When she originally returned to Baltimore, Megan's life went downhill. Everything is "for the children"; however, this is powerful evidence to the contrary. GIRLHOOD - Dennis Schwartz Reviews Shanae, an African-American who has been at Waxter for two years when the film begins, was sent there after stabbing a girl to death in a knife fight. 794 Words. Megan was shuffled through 11 different foster homes, running away from all except one. Megan grew up without the love and support of her mother who was in prison for drugs and prostitution. The film leaves us with a final mystery about human development. Miriam Kruishoop ( Greencard Warriors) has signed on to write and direct Hood Girls, a narrative feature based on the life stories of the two subjects of Liz Garbus ' 2003 documentary Girlhood . Today, the Baltimore native is living in North Carolina and acknowledges that she wasn't in a good place during her "Oprah Show" appearance. The Girlhood documentary highlights the plight of girls in juvenile centers with some psychological disorders. Then, she got up and walked off set. Film Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat [Need anessay writing service? The extent of Garbus access to the girls while in detention is remarkable (she states that she eventually had keys to the inside of the Waxter facility because the staff got tired of her and her crews constant requests to get into different rooms). Documentary chronicling America's justice system. If the movie suggests that a strong mother-daughter bond is the key to a successful rehabilitation, it is too intelligent to belabor that notion. The title of the film is overly simple and, to an extent, revealing in its simplicity. 4 Pages. A Conversation with Megan Milks and Marisa Crawford - BLARB Shanae was only 11 at the time and had tumbled into a numbed existence of drinking and drugs after being gang-raped by five boys. Documentary chronicling America's justice system. So the films have been very organically connected. There was nothing in this film that led me to believe that society has a handle on the current youth crime situation, and that made me sadder than the plight of these two confused girls who were trying to grow up too fast and came up short.
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