Written by:
Jenna V. Loceff
Photographer:
Peter Samules
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this Issue of Curve:
17#9
GroundSpark has just released yet another in its ever growing cache of documentary films. It’s STILL Elementary addresses issues of tolerance and education about gays and lesbians in schools. It is a follow-up of the film It’s Elementary: Talking Bout Gay Issues in Schools, released in 1996, which documented several classrooms around the country where teachers brought up the subject of gays and lesbians with young people ranging from elementary-school to high-school age. Academy Award winner Debra Chasnoff, executive director and senior producer of GroundSpark, chatted with us about her films and the inspiration to make them.
I watched both It’s Elementary and It’s STILL Elementary and I really enjoyed them. Can you tell me about why you made the first film, and why you are revisiting it now with It’s STILL Elementary?
We started working on the first one in 1992. We made it because at that time it was unheard of for schools to say the words “lesbian” or “gay” in the classroom, let alone do any kind of education to address the prejudice against gay people. The prevailing cultural belief was that you should never talk to children about these issues or those people and we really wanted to challenge that. So much of the energy of the lesbian and gay civil rights movement was focused on securing equal rights for adults, or beginning to talk about youth. But when they said youth they were talking about high school kids. Very little was being focused on why we have antigay prejudice in the first place and I really felt strongly that if we wanted to change the culture we have to change the messages that kids get. That was the impetus for making the film. To show people that you can talk to kids about these issues and that there are age appropriate ways to do it. Now it’s been out for a decade and it’s time to put it out on DVD. When we realized that, it was time to look at the impact it had made.
One of the things I found to be very interesting was seeing the children from the first film 10 years later. How was that for you? Was it difficult for you to find them?
It was really hard to find them. All we had was the permission slips that their parents had signed for them when they were in third or fourth grade. One of the partners of somebody on our board of directors is a private investigator. He helped us find some of them. It was really fascinating for me to find these students because there was nothing special about them. When we filmed them they were just the kids that happened to be in the classes. They hadn’t been hand picked or anything like that and so I really loved just having a snapshot of these random people and what the effect on their lives was of having had that kind of education. I found it incredibly validating and affirming and inspiring.
When we made the first film we were really touched by how much the children really wanted to talk about this issue.
In between the films what have you been doing?
I have been directing our company, which is now called GroundSpark [formerly Women’s Education Media], and in that capacity we have made several other documentary films and also launched other educational campaign. We have a major project called the Respect for All Project, which is focused on supporting communities to build safe inclusive schools that are free from bias.
What were some of the influences that really got you thinking of the subject?
For me personally I got focused of this topic when my first child came along. I was really concerned because he was in the first wave of children born to out lesbian couples. Everyone was worried what would happen when he got to school and I felt incredibly responsible for him. This was the way I knew how to make a difference.
What do you have planned for the future?
We are in the middle of production on a yet another film for high school students. Straight Laced follows in the footsteps of the Respect For All series.
Is there anything else?
When I think about my filmmaking career, my first film was called Choosing Children. It was released in 1984 and was advocating this really wacky idea that lesbians could have children. If you came out you were signing away your option to have kids; that was part of the deal back then. Now I think about the vice president’s daughter. She is an out lesbian and had a baby. I think sometimes when we are right in the middle of it we fail to appreciate how quickly the world is changing around the whole issue of children and gays and lesbians.
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