About
Youth Directed
Critical What? A 70 minute documentary that will present a student centered point of view on equity issues.
In addition, the youth will direct and produce their own short documentaries.
Critical Thinking
Washington State youth volunteers, ages 9 to 16, will learn and practice critical thinking.
Media Literacy
Youth engage with peer mentors and experts to learn media literacy skills.
Questions?
What is Critical What?!
Critical What? follows the journey of a group of young people ages 9-16 as they become empowered to tackle equity issues with the tools of media literacy and critical thinking.
What equity topics will the youth research?
The youth will explore, research, and with a camera in their hands, document their experiences with equity and inequity in their chosen areas: homelessness, censorship, education, policing, health, the metaverse, treatment of girls and women, banning of books, and gentrification.
How will they learn critical and creative thinking?
The youth will increase their critical and creative thinking skills through workshops on storytelling, research and interviewing and the essentials of documentary filmmaking.
Who is right?
A major arc in the documentary is the historic role of “solidarity” that breaks open and questions the idea that we live in a zero sum society where some groups win and some groups lose.
Isn't this a national issue?
Though Critical What? is a locally based documentary, it examines the national controversy that grew from the banning of books, restrictions on language and areas in history that speak to practices of inequity as well as equity labeled by some as Critical Race Theory.
When can we see the youth documentaries?
Each youth will produce and direct their own 10 minute documentary with help from a professional editor. The student documentaries will be screened in December at Northwest Film Forum and another regional venue and then entered into appropriate film festivals.
What's coming in 2024?
The youth footage plus interviews with experts, scholars and key people in the equity and solidarity sphere will be edited into a 70 minute documentary that empowers people to tackle equity issues.