Concerned
Citizen Artists’ Statement
After having cycled through a couple
of ideas, we finally came to choose Christopher Allen as the subject for our
piece, whom Elise only came in contact with a day or so before we filmed
him. It was a huge stroke of luck for
us, since Christopher most exemplified the idea of a concerned citizen out of
all our possible subjects by far.
Chris lives here in Provo and is a
student at BYU. After having been raised
in a conservative family, Chris found that his own opinions differed from his
upbringing, and has since found a calling of sorts to advocate his beliefs by
interacting heavily with his community through different means. He vlogs,
attends clubs, groups, and rallies with the same beliefs, and even occasionally
gives impromptu speeches at these rallies.
As discussed in class, we tried to
keep in mind throughout both filming and editing that our piece was not about
the issues being advocated by our subject, but solely about our subject and how
he interacts with his community as a result of his beliefs. This was more difficult than it sounds. Chris is very passionate about his beliefs,
and was very willing to express his opinions extensively, and we were willing
to listen. A solid amount of our footage
is Chris doing this very thing and it was sometimes hard not to use it simply
because it was such a bulk of our content, and because it showed so much about
Chris’s character. Nonetheless, we’re pretty confident that in the end, our
video simply presents the subject and his activism and does not focus on the
beliefs themselves.
There are plenty of documentary
films out there that are strongly pushing a certain ideology, some so much so
that it’s a little overwhelming, even to the point of it feeling negative. We obviously didn’t want to do this, mainly
because the assignment doesn’t call for it.
We wanted to approach our piece with an air of positivity, but without
having it lean one way or the other with regards to the opinions expressed by
our subject. In a way, it’s sort of like
the “I’m a Mormon” ads, and not just because our subject says that line. That’s a coincidence. But our piece presents the subject, lets him
express his beliefs, and shows the various ways in which he does so. The lack of music is actually very
significant to keeping this piece neutral, because music tells you how to feel
and when to feel it.
In our reading this last week,
Goldbard says, “…artists are pointing the way to what is emerging: a new
understanding of reality grounded in human stories and connection…” Though it
might be a bold claim, I would say that this is the purpose of our Concerned
Citizen project. Despite the fact that
our goal is not to advocate the beliefs directly being presented by the
subject, we are still advocating a set of beliefs. Our presentation may have an air of
neutrality, but by simply depicting someone so actively involved in their
community, we are advocating such involvement and activism, no matter the
belief. In this way, we as the artists
are attempting to create “a new understanding” by grounding it in a human
story, as Goldbard suggested.
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