![]() Just an hour long, Snitow and Kaufmans documentary offers a fascinating overview of a case that encapsulates many of the bitterest divisions of our era. Cynthia LowensBattlegroundoffers some insight on that score. We hope that students can move past that so that they can articulate their feelings and hear others in an atmosphere of compassion and giving people space to say how they feel.Would You Pay to Live in Facebooks Metaverse? White supremacy, grounded in the Doctrine of Discovery the absurd claim by European Christians and their American descendants that they were more entitled to our lands than we were was the rationale for dispossession. There is a lot of fear in teachers and students of saying the wrong thing and getting called out. Can you question your own biases? We’re hoping to generate secondary thought process in the students who watch.” MM: Do you worry that the discussion among the students may become a little intense?ĪS: “The movie sets the conversation up in a way where it’s not just going to be a shout-fest. The conflict over censorship is all around us right now.” MM: The film doesn’t seem to be biased at all in its presentation of the argument over the mural.ĭK: “We’ve had people come away from the film and say, ‘I agreed with everybody!’ It’s like… yes! We want to encourage doubt. But there’s also what’s going on right now in libraries with LGBTQ+ books. Sometimes, when it’s Hitler, or Stalin, or Confederate monuments, there are really good reasons to do that. There were so many times throughout history when people tore out the previous regime’s imagery to move forward. It’s a complex issue.ĪS: “There’s a long history of controversy over art. It’s okay!” MM: Issues of censorship reverberate throughout the movie. Young people feel pressure to take a position, but they can actually be open to multiple, opposing ideas. People can have both good and bad exist within them. We want to create an atmosphere in which young people can think through the nuances and have two opposing ideas in their heads at the same time.”ĭK: “George Washington had all of these good ideas, and he was a slave owner. One person in the film says that nuance is an old way of thinking and that it doesn’t exist anymore. People are going to have a scattering of all kinds of views about the issue. That’s what education is all about, right?”Īlan Snitow (AS): “We showed an excerpt of the film to college students, and the teacher said that the discussion afterward was one of the most exciting she had had in the class all year. We hope that meeting with the students engenders critical thinking and opens up further inquiry from them. ![]() We hope they can, as a result of the film, ‘break the binary’ and not look at debate as a zero-sum game. ![]() ![]() All of these issues are being discussed among high school students anyway, so we hope the film can continue that.” Photo courtesy of Fatosh Photography MM: How do you expect the students to react to the film?ĭK: “We don’t want to recapitulate the argument at the center of the movie when we speak with the students. The question that is raised in the film is, does the intent of the artist matter? The film also covers the impact of generational trauma and the need for trigger warnings. We really hope that the film is something that students will discuss in terms of history, but also in terms of art and questions of censorship. Marin Magazine (MM): What do you have planned for your presentation with the students?ĭeborah Kaufman (DK): “We’re working with MVFF to put together a study guide to accompany the film. We spoke to Kaufman and Snitow ahead of their visit to MVFF. As a part of MVFF Education, co-directors Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow will be meeting with local students to discuss the film. Thought-provoking documentary Town Destroyer, one of the films that will be screened at this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF), examines the debate from all angles and perspectives, presenting opinions from a diverse group of onscreen personalities. Should the mural come down, or should we be honest about the brutality of our nation’s origins? The controversy centers on a mural on the school’s walls depicting the life of George Washington, including images of his history of owning slaves and overseeing the slaughter of Native Americans for their land. A heated debate emanating from San Francisco’s George Washington High School has been making national headlines for the past three years running.
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