Running for the future

Somehow I always wind up randomly seeing interesting films at the Tribeca Film Festival, even though I think the greater festival is a commercialized scam with a lot of trendy but hollow offerings.

The Third Monday in October was a great documentary about elections for student council president at four middle schools. It was slightly reminiscent of Spellbound in that took an offbeat look at some at-times vulnerable, often funny, diverse adolescents.

Its 'cast' of eleven was:

-Mick (serious and idealistic Filipino-American) vs. Jenny (sortof flighty and hard-to-read Chinese-American) at a slightly scruffy San Francisco school;

-William (short, nervous Caucasian) vs. Sam Arabian (uber-motivated, comfortable in his own skin sortof-Caucasian) vs. Beau (tall, hiding-behind-a-smirk Caucasian) vs. Katie (pretty, coltish Caucasian) at a very-suburban Marin County school;

-Sam (free spirited liberal Caucasian) vs. Dustin (surprisingly thoughtful Caucasian originally from France) at a progressive religious Austin school;

-Kayla (ambitious cheerleader African American with a driven mom) vs. Noelle (surprisingly competitive cheerleader African American) vs. Teekia (cheerleader captain African American) at a dirty-on-the-outside-spiffy-on-the-inside Atlanta school.

It's a lot of kids; hence the filmmakers resort to the shorthand of Asian Americans/suburbanites/granola private school/African Americans. It'd have been nice to have some real diversity inside the schools (no Hispanics?!) but it's not an issue after a while.

Cause the kids are great. They all come through in their various personalities and wonderful inconsistencies; Beau, for example, seems like kind of a spoiled jerk, the kind of kid who's a bit too comfortable pushing it with teachers--but one of the most poignant moments of the film reveals how much he cares about this race he passes off as a lark.

Dustin gets off one of the greatest lines, musing that elections really should be the leaders "representing each others' stories". Who knows where he picked that up--like all young kids he's a random sponge; indeed, one of the themes of the film seems to be how unpredictably but profoundly kids are influenced by the people and the world around them.

The African American girls aren't really differentiated as well as the other groups; all we really know is their once-tight friendship suffers as a result of the campaign, as they each discover how badly they want to win. There are some funny scenes of Kayla's mom, who's apparently a Democratic junkie, quizzing her about politics, with Kayla blurting out 'Shirley Chisholm' at one point before her mom can even laughingly ask the question.

The advisors and teachers don't come across that well for the most part--in three of the four cases they seem to have agendas, with some particularly head-shaking scenes involving the San Fran advisor (who seems to have good intentions and God knows she's got enough structural problems to deal with) but who has a bit of a condescending attitude and really seems to miss the whole point of democracy.

She actually tells Jenny after her speech she's upset and disappointed because she mentions school problems she promises to fix--put a positive spin on things for the younger kids what she, no kidding, tells the distraught girl.

And the San Marin teachers and principal just seem like self-absorbed, unpredictably insecure adults, who actually may be doing serious damage to their you'd-think-blessed students with their whole half friends/half dictators approach to education.

As for the parents--they're almost entirely absent from the San Fran part (the young but idealistic and trustworthy director said afterwards like many immigrant parents they work long hours to give their kids their dream of a better life), and a bit claustrophic for the Marin County kids. For the most part they come across as well-meaning, but a bit clueless, and definitely not great at communicating with their kids, or getting what drives them.

Which is this interesting mix of idealism, ambition and, once they get into things, genuine desire to do something, however fumbling. The filmmakers juxtapose a bit of the Bush-Kerry 2004 campaign with clips of the kids making posters, practicing their speeches and talking politics (in normal kid-like ways). It leaves you wishing someone--maybe a major donor?!--would force professional politicans to watch the film, and write an essay about what they learned.

My favorite kids, not all of whom win their election, are Sam from Marin County--because he and his peeps make like 900 stickers and he's savvy enough to come up with a catchy slogan (Student Action Man, complete with dressing in a Superman outfit); Sam from Austin, because he's the kind of nerdy verbal kid with a different passion every year who sometimes grows up to change things; and Kayla, because she's so unexpected and gets upset about things that matter.

Most of all, I--like the director--like Mick. Ah, what a great kid; the classic good immigrant striver, without a lot of the advantages of the suburban kids, but clearly more intelligent and thoughtful.

And with an appropriate perspective on life. Like he gets a bit bummed out when someone rips parts of one of his precious two posters, but when asked who he thinks did he, he thinks for a moment before shaking it off with, "someone who doesn't like paper."

Uncredite image of Sam Arabian via Tribeca Film Festival website.