Having spent half my life in the most liberal city in America and half my life in one of the most conservative, I have learned an important lesson. how What Americans say to each other is just as important as what they say.
The San Francisco Bay Area gave me an excellent college education and a successful 20-year career as a documentary filmmaker. But as the country becomes increasingly polarized, San Francisco’s history as a safe harbor for immigrants, gays and other outsiders can sometimes feel like an echo chamber. Don’t get me wrong, finding my tribe as a young gay man and filmmaker in California has finally allowed me to say the quiet things out loud, something I never could have done growing up in a town known for right-wing, anti-gay fundamentalism.
Yet, 10 years ago, I left San Francisco and returned to my hometown of Colorado Springs. And nothing is exactly the same.
I envisioned that I would spend a year caring for my father, who had been diagnosed with ALS, after he taught documentary film classes and eventually founded the Youth Documentary Academy, a tuition-free film academy for young people in the area, similar to the Training Academy. I’ve seen it exist mostly on the east and west coasts.
My father always insisted on living in southern Colorado. a A staunch Democrat and teacher leader. A labor unionist and civil rights historian, he had no desire to move to a more progressive area where more people shared his values. Like his parents and grandparents before him, he loved the Pikes Peak region. Maybe my father enjoyed being provocative against the establishment, the eternal David vs. Goliath figure. Or maybe you understood something that I didn’t. That’s living next door. Having someone who doesn’t share your social and political viewpoints isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it may be quite an American thing.
Over the past decade, we have witnessed an alarming collapse in civic engagement. The boundaries between red and blue America became solid. In the same way, your heart and mind are screaming at you to be the loudest, if not the meanest. A voice echoes throughout the room. The problem with this paradigm is that the “rooms”, whether on Fox News or MS NOW, are often silos, where pundits and anchors walk in with fresh fodder each night., Effectively strengthens already established enemy positions. And every year, when my family gathers for Thanksgiving, I wonder why it’s so hard to have a conversation.
You don’t have to squint to find the antidote. The very thing that helped you reconcile with your childhood home may hold the key. Every summer at our academy, young people and their filmmaking mentors gather in a daily circle to begin learning how to translate first-person storytelling into impactful filmmaking. The daughter of a first-generation immigrant sits next to a boy from a four-generation family that has lived in the area since the 1920s. A trans student sits next to a student whose family is an active leader in the evangelical New Life Church. Black and other BIPOC students sit between white and Asian students. Autistic and ADHD students remind non-neurodivergent students how they learn differently, Meanwhile, children from veteran families share how their father’s PTSD has affected their family life. kids Civilian families also lean in and listen. Talk about American pluralism.
What these diverse American youth have in common is a desire for living access points to important stories and a deeper understanding of each other and our differences. After all, what is a documentary film if not to expand our abilities to listen and observe? Cameras and microphones amplify these urges, forcing us to stop talking and listen more carefully. These skills are the foundation of becoming a good documentary filmmaker. As it turns out, they are also important for a healthy democracy.
Many of our current leaders can learn a lot from my students, and so can they. Graduates of the Youth Documentary Academy are currently having their films broadcast nationwide on a public television series called .our time” They regularly go to high schools and host film festivals that open the door to conversations between courageous peers. Amid unprecedented attacks on public media, young people from the center of the country—And in historically ultra-conservative ZIP codes, we’re driving the debate in red and blue states alike, asking viewers across the country to stop, listen, and be curious.
When I was a student, I believed that stories (with a capital S) did not exist locally. existed Even in important places like New York and California. Now I know that everyone has a story to tell. We all benefit when young people see themselves and their lived experiences, or the experiences of their families and communities, as points of access to stories. And as adults become better at listening to the young people in our lives, we dare to broach even the toughest topics. The wall that separates us.
I still visit San Francisco often. When I tell people I meet there for the first time that I’m from Colorado Springs, they often say, “Sorry.” Or, “Oh, that’s really hard.” On the contrary, I’ve come to realize that I knew all along that staying home was good for me. And it’s important to include my story in the story of this complex place.
Americans are facing the upcoming midterm elections, and many are predicting a blue wave. Like many others, I want new and different leadership. However, there is a cycle that must be broken, and I would like to warn our compatriots in the “blue” strongholds. I wish people would stop treating places like my hometown as “flying” America. It is no exaggeration to say that this abandonment of resources and focus is part of the problem and why we are in the situation we are currently experiencing.
The more we can engage with our neighbors with curiosity and listen carefully, especially those who are very different from ourselves, the less negative we will be. And the more we choose to listen carefully and respectfully to the young people in our lives, the more likely we are to find common ground.
Sundance Award-winning documentary filmmaker Tom Shepard is the founding executive director of Youth Documentary Academy in Colorado Springs. He is the producer of the “Our Time” series, which currently airs and streams on PBS stations nationwide. PBS.org.
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