From the folks who made It's Elementary and That's a Family, Lets Get Real, which made a big splash in the Chicago school system, comes Straightlaced—the newest film by academy award winner, Debra Chasnoff. Local filmmaker Sam Feder was able to get a sneak and speak with Chasnoff before the Chicago screening Tuesday, April 7, at Oak Park River Forest High School.
Windy City Times: What a great film! I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. That might sound weird to say …
Debra Chasnoff: People keep saying, "I'm surprised by how much I liked watching this film." ... That's a common reaction. Maybe because of the topic they expect something plotting and somber.
WCT: You're right. I didn't expect it to be so playful in the beginning. Can you describe what we see in Straightlaced?
DC: We see what happens when you give teenagers permission to talk about what's going on inside their heads when dealing with gender-role expectations and with homophobia. To think about whether it's unconscious or conscious—the way it affects their lives and how they do or don't make sense of it.
SF: The students are incredibly composed and own their ideas.
DC: Yes; we asked what would you say to someone else in your situation, what goes on inside your head when someone is telling you what to or not wear, what goes through your mind when you get off the bus in the city and people are looking at you and what if people could see what is going on in your mind right now what would they see? This allowed them to articulate themselves.
SF: What's unique about this film?
DC: We ask straight-identified youth how they are affected by anti-gay prejudice. I'm struck by reactions from heterosexual men, both teenagers and adults, who have come up to me in tears saying, "The film just expressed everything I feel inside but never said to anybody. It made so much sense to me." Often, when we address homophobia, it is couched in this framework of equality for LGBT people and gay rights. It's homophobia and sexism that pushes everybody down … male and female, no matter what your sexual orientation is.
SF: Do you have any fears about releasing this film?
DC: There will be conservative voices that won't like that we are acknowledging that teenagers have sexual feeling, let alone behavior.
SF: What would you say to those conservative voices?
DC: Wake up! It's on teenagers' minds, and there are a lot of pressures to define yourself through sexual behavior and to have sexual behavior in some effort to prove your sexual orientation.
SF: What discussions have you elicited through Straightlaced?
DC: We have done a couple test classroom screenings and are getting two kinds of reactions: One is people feeling incredibly validated. People say, "This film made me psychedelically inspired," " I feel honored to be me" [ and ] "I wish I had seen this in 9th grade instead of 11th grade." Other people are saying, "This film made me so ashamed and embarrassed for the way I have harassed other people, I am never going to do that again."
We asked who they most admire, and a lot are saying they admire the transgender student at the end of the film. I was in North Carolina at a screening and I sat behind three male, teenage students. The film started and they were giggling making fun of it a little. The film went on and one of them started doing it again and the other turned to the him and said, "Shut up, I want to hear this." They were absolutely quiet for the rest of the film, and they were applauding wildly at the end. I think we are in a era in this country where there is potential for people to look at things and each other differently. I hope this film can bust wide open the very entrenched expectations that we have for males and females in this culture by helping teenagers rethink the assumptions about how they have to be just because they are male or female.
SF: Tell me about the Chicago screening.
DC: The Chicago premiere is part of a national tour to introduce the film while highlighting and supporting the work of local organizations that are working on issues that are relevant to the film. In this case we are partnering with Illinois Safe Schools Alliance. We are reaching out to a wide network of individuals and organizations who care about young people today. We are working with educators and school and organizations that are working on youth leadership, girls empowerment, school reform, domestic violence prevention.
SF: What do you want for the teenagers who were in it and for viewers to walk away with feeling?
DC: I want the teenagers who were in it to feel proud. They are contributing to something that will open dialogue all over the country. My son, who was a teenager when I was making this film asked me, "What do you hope happens with this, Mom?" I said, "Three things: One, that everyone who watches this film feels more embolden to be who they really are. Two, that they will think twice before they censor anybody else for being who they are and that they will be supportive of everybody else breaking out of these boxes. And, three, that schools communities could figure out a way they way the do business everyday. Whether it's in the curriculum, the policies, the social norms at the school. Schools need to rethink how they can loosen up the pressures that people feel around gender." And he said, "That's a really good list, Mom."
SF: So you got the stamp of approval.
DC: Yes, from my toughest critic.
Tickets are $10-$20. See groundspark.org/2252.
