A 17 year-old soccer playing Latina tries to make a video, "How to Start a Gay-Straight Alliance in Your High School," and runs smack into her principal's homophobia instead. After taking part in the Girls! Action! Media! workshop at Horizons, 16 year old Zaida Sanabia partnered with Beyondmedia to make this sobering and heartfelt documentary on school and family life for queer students. This Beyondmedia video is currently in distribution locally and internationally, and is used as a training tool on LGBTQ youth, school safety and homophobia. Zaida Sanabia, Beyondmedia's Youth Coordinator and the video's producer, conducts an ongoing program of screenings with discussions in high schools, drop-in programs, universities and organizations around the Chicago metropolitan area. A Fish has also shown on cable television and at 15 film and video festivals throughout the US and beyond, garnering two first-place awards. Zaida received Chicago Foundation for Women's Ripple Affect award as "a shining example of the triumph of women and girls when given the opportunity." Sanabia has since been inducted to the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. See https://beyondmedia.org for more information.
00:02Copy video clip URL Montage opening with music. Carl Schurz High School girl’s soccer team plays, footage from Chicago Dyke March.
00:32Copy video clip URL Voice intro over montage with the onscreen text “How to Start a Gay-Straight Alliance in Your School” where we are introduced to the subject and director of the video, high school student Zaida Sanabia.
00:50Copy video clip URL Title card “A Fish Almost Eaten by a Shark” followed by discussions about Spirit Club. Onscreen text: “SPIRIT: Student Promoting Individuality Respect Integrity Tolerance” Sanabia interviews members of the Spirit Club about coming out to friends.
02:15Copy video clip URL Onscreen text: “A typical high school student hears anti-gay slurs twenty-five point five times a day.” Sanabia discusses the importance of having a Gay-Straight Alliance Club (GSA) in school. Additional onscreen text: “Anxiety and depression occur three to four times more frequently for queer youth than for their straight peers.” and “LGBT youth are four times more likely to commit suicide than straight youth.”
03:13Copy video clip URL Montage of students discussing their experiences after being open with their sexuality and expressing it freely.
03:56Copy video clip URL “Welcome to my room. . .” Sanabia films herself in her room and shares some vulnerable thoughts.
06:04Copy video clip URL “Every year, thirty percent of youth who become homeless are LGBT.”, Sanabia talks about how a GSA can be a source of support for students who don’t receive support at home because of their sexuality. Students share stories of having to hide their sexuality from unsupported family and friends.
08:36Copy video clip URL Sanabia talks about the lack of choice some people have to come out of the closet. Students discuss their decision to participate in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting silence faced by LBTQIA+.
09:25Copy video clip URL “Twenty-eight percent of LGBT youth end up dropping out of high school.”
9:59Copy video clip URL Sanabia shares that a teacher was mocking the GSA club. Onscreen text: “The principle demanded the tape of my interview with the teacher who was making fun of the club.” Sanabia discusses the anxiety she felt after the principle stopped supporting the making of this video.
13:07Copy video clip URL Onscreen text: “The principle barred my from school until I brought her the tape of the teacher’s interview.”, Sanabia recites her poem about being scared. Discussions of getting a lawyer to advocate for Sanabia at school against the principle and assistance principle.
14:30Copy video clip URL Footage from the Chicago Dyke March
15:58Copy video clip URL Credits
0 Comments
You can be the first one to leave a comment.