girlhood documentary megan diagnosis

After her release, 19-year-old Megan appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" alongside another troubled teen, Shanae. Abandoned by her mother, a heroin addict turned prostitute, Megan ran away from then different foster homes before being arrested on assault charges. Girlhood Directed by Liz Garbus A riveting documentary about two young offenders serving time in a Baltimore juvenile facility and their struggles over a three-year period to forge a new life for themselves against formidable odds. The primary objective of the film is an exploration into the social implications for the increase of crime committed by young women such as Shanae and Megan. Profile of Liz Garbus by the Center for Social Media, Movie Fire Craker Website (Liz Garbus Film Website), Your email address will not be published. This paradoxical relationship with her parent is evident (Brody & Dwyer, 2016). Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. When we meet Megan at Waxter it is clear that she is something of a troublemaker but probably more out of boredom than any malice (Garbus in her DVD commentary says that Megan is actually a very respectful young woman and that one of her main criticism of the Waxter Facility is that there is not really much structured activities for the inmates.). At Waxter, Megans need for attention and affection, her vulnerablity, are on display for everyone to see. Her future appears shaky. murdering another girl after the two got into an argument. Confronted with her crime, Shanae is strangely detached and has little memory of the incident. Girlhood[Motion Picture]. Wake up to the day's most important news. She has a total of two children and she has graduated from college. Additionally, the film has been criticized for having the drama move the film along. Anyone can read what you share. The relationship between staff and the young women at Waxter is for the most part warm and friendly. Follows two female inmates - victims of horrific violence and tragedy - who are serving time in a Maryland juvenile detention center.Documentary chronicling America's justice system. Megan, after a failed escape attempt from Waxter, goes into another foster home. Question: In the documentary "Girlhood, " the two main characters Shanae and Megan had two very different reintegration experiences after being placed in a detention center. The difference between one girl supposedly climbing out of her bad situation and the other continuing in her dead-end path, is seen as a matter of good parenting and a child willing to change her bad ways. After Megan and her mother have falling out and are no longer speaking, the film again shifts focus to Shanae, who has now just lost her mother to heart failure. Girlhood Movie Analysis. No matter how optimistic I am, when I am reaching out to young women, I need to understand different backgrounds. On Not Rejecting Girlhood: A Conversation with Megan Milks and Marisa Crawford. Megan had given up, and even ended up back in jail. Her father's locked up. Garbus interest in and empathy for her subjects and, more importantly, the way in which she relays their girlhood, makes for an entertaining and emotional documentary, but perhaps an incomplete one. The popular phrase "Out of sight, out of mind" expresses the indifference of most Americans toward young offenders serving time in juvenile facilities. She portrays this by her apprehensive response that she gives to her parent. I was just doing anything to kill myself, honestly," she says. The length of her stay at Waxter will depend on whether she can acknowledge what she did and show appropriate remorse. In the lower security facility interview, Shanae reveals that five men gang-raped her when she was young. At the beginning of the documentary, Shanae and Megan are 14 and 16, serving time for murder and assault, respectively. Antoinette refuses to allow Shanae back home until she is convinced that her daughter has really changed and has gotten all the help that she needs. At one point she tells her parents that the girl she murdered actually has it easy because shes just dead whereas Shanae is suffering because she is in detention. ''Girlhood, which was shot in 16 millimeter, is a bare-bones affair, as spare as the juvenile institution in which much of it was filmed. At first, Shanae shows no remorse over killing another human being, but gradually she takes a hard look at what she did and is sorry. A wild, tough-talking girl of mixed race who has run away from 10 foster homes, she was incarcerated for attacking another foster child with a box cutter. In contrast to Shanaes successes, when out of Waxter, Megan soon runs away from her foster home with no consequences (despite the fact that staying in foster care is a requirement of her patrol), couch surfs for a while and eventually gets her own place with her cousin. She is a very smart girl who rejoices when given a chance to move on to another facility and then return home to her father and mother. Shanae even overcomes the death of her mom three months later from a heart attack and goes on to graduate from a public high school and enroll in a community college. Megan admits to having a special relationship with a fellow inmate which seems to be of a romantic nature. Furthermore, at the end of the documentary, she enrolls in a community college nearby. Directed by Liz Garbus; director of photography, Tony Hardmon; edited by Mary Manhardt; music by Theodore Shapiro; produced by Ms. Garbus and Rory Kennedy; released by Wellspring. Both of the girls have been in the system for years, Megan has been in and out of juvenile detention centers and foster homes for years and is . That Ms. Garbus was able to get so close to her likable subjects and allow us to see that they are not quite the monsters we might perceive from reading the newspapers about such bad girls, is what makes this film so special. That roster includes ''The Farm: Angola, U.S.A,'' an acclaimed film about the largest maximum-security prison in the United States, and ''The Execution of Wanda Jean,'' a sympathetic portrait of the first black woman executed in America in the last 50 years. A lot of this seems due in part to her mother Antoinettes support. FILM REVIEW; A Documentary Illuminates Young Lives at the Crossroads of Redemption and Devastation, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/movies/film-review-documentary-illuminates-young-lives-crossroads-redemption.html. Having been abandoned by her mother, with whom she has a very complicated relationship, Megan is desperate for attention and affection. Dennis Schwartz: Ozus World Movie Reviews, Copyright 2023 - Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews. The other protagonist is Megan, a troublesome mixed race teen who has a tattoo going up her right arm and is always giggly thinking everything is not serious. Additionally, the film has also been criticized for ignoring the workers at Waxter. ~ (Source: Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide). Girlhood was shown at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival and at the South by Southwest Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. This problem has been solved! ''Girlhood,'' which follows Shanae and Megan over three years beginning in 1999, doesn't pretend that a place like Waxter can hope to do the job by itself. Shanae Owens and Megan Jensen in girlhood. In the second segment, she runs away from foster homes to try to live with her mother. The domain that best explains Megans attachment issues is the ambivalent/resistant attachment. A riveting documentary about two young offenders serving time in a Baltimore juvenile facility and their struggles over a three-year period to forge a new life for themselves against formidable odds. At 14, she was hit by a stray bullet during a gunfight. At twelve years old Shanae was involved in a fight that ended with Shanae stabbing and killing a young girl. "I'm happy now.". Megan is not malicious, and her mischief is probably a cry for attention. From there she enrolls in high school, where she places fourth in her class, and plans to attend a community college. girlhood tells the story of Shanae Owensand Megan Jensen. When Megans mom got released from jail, she even lived there for awhile. Required fields are marked *. The staff never followed up Megans progress as they should have and she was unsupervised when she suddenly left the foster home and lived with friends, thereby returning to drugs and her former East Baltimore street life. With the help of her mother, Shanae can graduate from high school. She was there as a member of the community and Shanae was a child of the community and therefore her child. During this scene Megan whines that nobody loves her, she seems to be half joking but one has to wonder. Megan also shows that she has self-efficacy. Even though she does not get the chance to further her education, she avoids returning to a life of crime (Garbus, 2003). While Shanae, the victim of a horrendous violent crime herself as a child, has difficulty coming to grips with the murder she's committed, she's clearly an intelligent, charismatic, and, most importantly, motivated girl. The project, titled "Hood Girls," will be written and directed by Miriam Kruishoop ("Greencard Warriors") and produced by Atlantic Screen Productions. Documentary chronicling America's justice system. Volatile, articulate and desperately needy, Megan seethes with bitterness at having been abandoned by her mother, Vernessa, a heroin addict and prostitute, who has spent many years in prison. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Megan is doing great for herself In this field, deadlines are super important. Thankfully, her parents point out that being dead is definitely WORSE than being in detention! Throughout the film, we are sympathetic to the challenges of Shanae and Megans girlhoods, but cannot substantively grasp, through the documentary, the unresolved nature of their status, as girls in a system that seeks to destroy not just girlhood, but life beyond girlhood too. [ClickEssay Writerto order your essay]. Girlhood focuses on the life of two young juveniles, Shanae Owens and Megan Jensen both incarcerated for violent crimes. Shanae and Megans girlhoods contain all that which other parts of life contain, and to think of Garbus idea of girlhood as winning at the end of the film is short-sighted and perhaps fails to move forward with Girlhood Studies attention to complexity and fullness (including pain) of this part of life for her subjects. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, t. The film pivots from the girls to their relationships with their moms, as Garbus follows their development from girls into young ladies. Your email address will not be published. Before starting the film girlhood, she actually meant to do a film about young men in juvenile detention centres because from her work on the film Angola, she was intrigued and disturbed by how many of the inmates there said they had learned the tricks of their trade from their experiences in juvenile detention. One characteristic of resilience that Megan portrays is her perseverance. This leads to her eventual rehabilitation from delinquency. Her divorced mom moved to the suburbs to get her out of harms way but Shanae, though never arrested, still managed to find again the wrong friends and display bad conduct at home. Megan's mother was a drug-addled prostitute, and after being placed in, and escaping from, nearly a dozen foster homes, Megan committed a violent crime. A story of mothers and daughters, crimes and consequences, and strength in the face of unimaginable adversity, girlhood is a testament to the faith and struggles of two girls just trying to grow up. Then, everything changed when Megan got pregnant. A child of the 1990s, I was a voracious reader of The Baby-Sitters Club book series by Ann M. Martin, which detailed the friendships of a group of young babysitters in Connecticut. As she grows up, she realizes that she cannot rely on anyone and starts to take better care or herself. Follows two female inmates - victims of horrific violence and tragedy - who are serving time in a Maryland juvenile detention center. She then had to go about getting permission to film. To think that one out of two might have straightened out her life, is not saying that the system works. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. She demonstrates that you can support and love your child while not making excuses for them. In the documentary, she is always trying to contact either the mother or the grandmother. Her emotional responses are not well adjusted. As a child, her mother was absent. This confused young girl ran away from ten foster homes and wound up attacking another girl with a box-cutter. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/movies/film-review-documentary-illuminates-young-lives-crossroads-redemption.html As the documentary end, it is clear that Megan is afraid to trust others. Megan, we are told, has been in 11 foster houses by the age of 16. Similarly, she seems to suffer from ambivalent attachment because she is always distressed when she is unable to receive affirmations from her mother. MPAA rating: Unrated. Everything is "for the children"; however, this is powerful evidence to the contrary. But not everyone has families like this. This led to a pregnancy at the age of 11 which her mother arranged for her to have terminated because it was feared that because of Shanaes heavy-drinking the baby would have fetal alcohol syndrome. One may wonder how Antoinette could be a good parent considering all the trouble Shanae got into at such a young age. All rights reserved. My Essay Writerwas started by an award-winning journalist who saw the need from students to have someone take care of their annoying assignments for them. At 17, she was living in her own apartment in a druggie neighborhood. How A Violent Teen Who Had Given Up On Life Turned It All Around. Shanae was only 11 at the time and had tumbled into a numbed existence of drinking and drugs after being gang-raped by five boys. Humanizing those who have committed crimes especially children is a good thing to do, and certainly expands the viewers capacity to embrace complicated narratives and emotions. Then, she got up and walked off set. Shanae's reentry into society was easy, and she does not seem to be struggling in any way. Inside, she is desperately frightened of becoming just like her. Megan, a pretty girl with a devilish gleam in her eye, tries to get by on charm, but she doesn't have Shanae's focus. Miriam Kruishoop ( Greencard Warriors) has signed on to write and direct Hood Girls, a narrative feature based on the life stories of the two subjects of Liz Garbus ' 2003 documentary Girlhood . Shanae moves into a lower security halfway house because her mother does not feel ready to take her back home. The film will center on two prisoners serving. I dont think girls are really less aggressive than boys, nor do I think we should somehow pathologize aggressive and violent behaviour by girls but see it as a given among boys. Step-by-step explanation. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.This Documentary/Film \"Girlhood\" is not for any personal financial profit or gain to TheeSymphony'sCulture Channel, but instead only for educational purposes and cultural research. Challenging Attachment Unfortunately, this meant that she wasnt around to supervise Shanae. In the movie, we were able to watch two female offenders in the juvenile justice system. Eysenck, M. (2015). When she grows older, it is clear that she is still affected by the feeling of neglect and she believes nobody is looking out for her interest (Garbus, 2003). Too often, I have seen parents make excuses for their children and this I feelhas actually stunted their childrens moral growth and led to them continuing to commit violent acts. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Liz Garbus's hard-headed documentary film ''Girlhood'' is prefaced with an unsettling statistic: in the last decade the number of violent assaults by under-age girls in this country has doubled. Documentary chronicling America's justice system. http://articles.latimes.com/2003/nov/14/entertainment/et-girlhood14, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1514431. Shanae Owens and Megan Jensen in girlhood. Megan on the other hand, has a more difficult time staying out of trouble and maintaining good grades. Megan, the more unruly of the two is a little older than Shanae. The documentary Girlhood offers an insight on the emotional, psychological, and social reasoning behind the girl's actions. Garbus, L. (Director). ''Girlhood'' is the newest entry in Ms. Garbus's long list of socially concerned documentaries made for theaters and television. By age 10, she had been committed to two psychiatric hospitals and diagnosed as manic-depressive. The juvenile justice system serves her well, because she's deeply involved in forging her own path. Follows two female inmates - victims of horrific violence and tragedy - who are serving time in a Maryland juvenile detention center.Documentary chronicling America's justice system. Feb 26th, 2022 Published. Copyright 2022 My Essay Writer. Shanae 1. The documentary follows the plight of Megan and Shanae (Garbus, 2003). The lack of a proper support system is evident because she does not achieve as much as Shanae who does not falter when her mother dies. Second, she is unable to regulate her emotions (Garbus, 2003). Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Shanae, after much perseverance, overcoming her appalling behaviours and graduate from high school. Garbus explains that she encountered the contradictions of Shanae and Megans girlhoods early on; she mentions that she was struck by [Shanaes] little girl-ness, her innocence, but this was complicated by what she learned about the violence of her crime. That is to say, Garbus sees crime and girlhood as opposite experiences. First, she has goals and aspirations. Third, Shanae becomes emotionally expressive. We follow them over a period of about three years. You'll get a detailed solution from a subject matter expert that helps you learn core concepts. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/girlhood But while researching junvenile detention centres she met Shanae who suggested that she make a film about girls. This difference in their experiences seems to be related to their familial relationships. The system essentially gives up on trying to control her and turns her loose to fend for herself. Volatile, articulate and desperately needy, Megan seethes with bitterness at having been abandoned by her mother, Vernessa, a heroin addict and prostitute, who has spent many years in prison. However, the film ignores their concerns regarding the young girls and regarding the system. She gets her place to live. See production, box office & company info. With its drab green walls and sparse furnishings, Waxter is no country club. By end fil There are a number of reasons for why Shanae was able to turn her life around whereas Megan was not. Garbus rigidity in framing the girls experiences does not allow for the expansiveness and complexity allowed by new theories of girlhood. That is not to say that traumatic experience, crime or drug abuse are good, but that in these stories they exist and persist, even when the girls triumph and go to prom or spend time with family. . Follows two female inmates - victims of horrific violence and tragedy - who are serving time in a Maryland juvenile detention center. Other aspects reveal themselves when she grows older. She is briefly reunited with her mother but cannot forgive her for not being there when she needed her most. Girlhood Directed by Liz Garbus Documentary, Crime Not Rated 1h 22m By Stephen Holden Oct. 29, 2003 Liz Garbus's hard-headed documentary film ''Girlhood'' is prefaced with an unsettling. "I didn't know how to love anybody or to depend on people because I never had anyone stable enough in my life to actually show me that kind of love and compassion.". This comment is echoed by Mr. Godsey, a staff at the facility, who states in the film that although the girls dont like structure they need it because they havent had it at home. Megan Terry, an Obie Award winner, a founding member of the Open Theater group and a prolific feminist playwright who wrote and directed a rock musical on the New York stage that . Megan, the other young offender continues to practise delinquent . Copyright 2006 - 2023 by CIStems, Inc., d.b.a. Shanae was ten years old when she was gang-raped by five boys. Our managing editor an award-winning journalist has spent the past 7 years refining our roster. But if the viewer pays close attention to the film and Liz Garbus commentary we learn that Shanaes mother was a single parent working two jobs trying to support Shanae and move her family out of the projects. Her crime was that at 14 she cut up another girl with a box cutter in a dispute, and since shes been at the facility has gotten into some kind of trouble every day. The number of girls incarcerated for violent crimes is on the rise. http://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-nov-14-et-girlhood14-story.html It is during Shanaes interview to get into the lower security facility that we learn that she was also gang raped by five men. April 24, 2023. Is the Megan inside Waxter the same Megan outside Waxter? "I am halfway through my Associates in Arts degree. And now I'm doing this film about a little girl, and in many ways she's a precursor to Megan. She does become bitter in her adult life, but she is self-efficient. This documentary really touched me and made me so much more grateful for my environment and support. She stays briefly at another foster home before running away to live with friends and eventually by herself in the treacherous East Baltimore neighborhood where she got into trouble. Garbus remarks during her DVD commentarythat she was torn while making this film because her ultimate conclusion during her experience following these girls lives was that Family Matters. In Garbus version of their lives, these experiences do not bring them down. They emerge triumphant; their girlhood, we end up hoping, will be salvaged. LA Times reviewer Manohla Dargis notes, Garbus obsession with levity ultimately triumphs, leaving us with an unfinished picture: [T]o turn complex and contradictory lives into palatable narratives, is one of the least-examined pitfalls in nonfiction filmmaking. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Find help here.]. 1103 Words. In the beginning, Shanae is not remorseful for committing murder (Garbus, 2003). Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. What factors do you think played a part in . Issues such as child neglect, failure of the foster care system, alcoholism and drug abuse. Obviously, the director, Liz Garbus, wants to achieve in a documentary the power and. The girls have traumatic experiences that affect their relationship with others. Shot on digital video and Super 8 film over the course of three years, "Girlhood" provides a partial account of what happened to Shanae and Megan under the state's alternately guarded and. ''GIRLHOOD,'' a new documentary, is a poignant and often distressing look at the lives of two teenage girls, inmates at the Thomas J. S. Waxter Children's Center for juvenile detention near Baltimore. Or do some simply have the psychological equipment to move on while others don't? "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" We can see for ourselves how much love they need and how dangerous it is to think that institutions alone can solve these societal problems. Shaffer, D. R., & Kipp, K. (2010). Mary Celeste Kearney writes that in approaching girlhood, sociological research, interestingly, often focused on female juvenile delinquency. In recent years, however, Girlhood Studies has grown to include and account for multiple narratives of girlhood, and actively attempts not to make girlhood inferior to womanhood, or take it less seriously. she has come a long way from this documentry i love and am so proud of my sistrr. But its staff emerges as a caring if overstressed group of people who do what they can to steer the girls in their charge toward a productive life. Megan's mother was a drug-addled prostitute, and after being placed in, and escaping from, nearly a dozen foster homes, Megan committed a violent crime. http://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-nov-14-et-girlhood14-story.html, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/movies/film-review-documentary-illuminates-young-lives-crossroads-redemption.html, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/girlhood-subjects-get-narrative-feature-829762, http://sites.google.com/view/ehdwjwbxfu/linkedlist-member-modification-c, this dissertation provides a compelling argument. In an interview with NPR, the films director, Liz Garbus, admits that Girlhood was originally a documentary about incarcerated boys, but the girls stories were more interesting to her. Follows two female inmates - victims of horrific violence and tragedy - who are serving time in a Maryland juvenile detention center. If the movie suggests that a strong mother-daughter bond is the key to a successful rehabilitation, it is too intelligent to belabor that notion.

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