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young asianz
rising!
offers a fresh, innovative take on how teens today make sense of
the many forms of violence they encounter in relationships with
friends, family and dating partners. In creating the film, nine
young men and women, all of Asian or Pacific Islander descent, took
on the roles of both filmmaker and subject--working in front of
and behind the cameras--to explore and document their perspectives
on domestic violence, dating violence, sexual harassment and sexual
assault, particularly within their own Asian and Pacific Islander
communities. The video project grew out of the group's commitment
to take action to challenge the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors
that contribute to violence against women and girls. The crew's
documentary footage includes moving accounts of teens' experience
of violence: the terror and helplessness of growing up in a family
in which parents' arguments explode into physical assaults and beatings,
the shock and betrayal of gay and lesbian teens subjected to abuse
by dating partners. Young women explain how incidents of harassment
contribute to girls' fears of being sexually assaulted. Roving,
hand-held camera shots of teens on the streets, in their homes,
and in the studio capture the sense of exposed vulnerability expressed
in interview segments and give the film a spontaneous, up-to-the
minute feel. The video suggests that the young film crew's search
for answers may itself be a part of the solution to the epidemic
of violence erupting in communities across the country.
This
film is recommended for teen and adult members of the Asian/Pacific
Islander communities who are working to prevent youth violence as
well as allies from other communities interested in supporting their
efforts.
© 1999,
28 minutes. Available from the Asian Domestic Violence Prevention
Collaborative (a collaborative project of Narika and Nihonmachi
Legal Outreach) by contacting:
Nihonmachi Legal Outreach
1188 Franklin Street, #202
San Francisco, CA 94109
Phone: (415) 567-6255
Web site: http://www.youngaznlife.org
"In order to
prevent domestic violence we need to prevent all forms of violence
against women...we wanted to connect all the issues together to
show how they interrelate."
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