My So-Called Community

My So-Called Community

My So-Called Community is a gritty, first-person video documentary by seven young people over nine months in one hour of high impact television about identity, diversity, and their so-called community.

Although President Clinton called for a "national dialogue" about race relations, young people have been talking for a long time about how difference and diversity impact their daily life. My So-Called Community is a real-life television drama that responsibly presents the voices of seven young people across the country who are ready to face the challenges of living in a diverse society.

Armed with Hi8 cameras, these seven video diarists spent a year taking stock of who they have become--because of and in spite of their families. It was a year to think critically about the roles of race, religion, class and sexuality in their friendships and in how they will fit into the larger society as they take the precarious leap from school to the "real world." It was a year of taking risks, pushing boundaries and encountering conflict. These young people bring the audience along the bumpy path of their discovery, which is often heartbreaking, occasionally humorous and always compelling.

My So-Called Community diarists' stories

My So-Called Community is currently in post production and is expected for broadcast in early 2000 .

Production Staff
Frances Reid, director, is an Academy Award nominee
Jane C. Wagner, editor, won the documentary Grand Jury Prize at 1997 Sundance Film Festival
Stephen McCarthy, cinematographer, was the Director of Photography for MTV's "Real World" in Boston
Tony Deifell, executive producer
Alison Byrne Fields, producer
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© 1998 Institute for Public Media Arts
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