Hanoy Urtarte (left), Marianna Sann (center), and Amy Kohn (right) discuss the Al Jazeera America documentary series “Edge of Eighteen” which Urtarte and Sann star in at a screening held in Eaton Theater on Oct. 1, 2014
Hanoy Urtarte is a New Jersey native struggling with his relationship with his conservative father after he came out three years ago. Marianna Sann is a Philadelphian student from a Cambodian background advocating education equality.
Though they lead separate lives, the two then-high school seniors were brought together through Al Jazeera America’s documentary television series, Edge of Eighteen, which focuses on 15 diverse students throughout the country in their last semester of high school.
Both Urtarte and Sann, along with the show’s executive producer, Amy Kohn, attended a screening of an episode in Knight Hall on Wednesday and fielded questions from about 20 students.
“A lot of it was surprising to me,” Sann said. “I did not think I was going to share so much, but this is my story, and I want it to be as real as possible.”
The teens were brought together at a four-day conference in New York for a crash course on documentary filmmaking and went home with a camera in their hand, as well as support from a field producer to fully capture their lives.
All of the teens created video diaries that were a chance for them to talk one-on-one with the camera — something that Urtarte said he found to be a healthy experience. He even named his camera and tripod Britney Spears.
“She was my best friend; I can vent to her and I’m not going to be judged,” he said. “It’s easier to share.”
The teens tackled relevant and controversial issues like teen pregnancy, illegal immigration, LGBTQ identities, bullying, religious freedom, violence and education.
Sann’s story focused on her activism for education inequalities and the budget cuts that were facing her hometown but ended up also looking at her conservative Cambodian family and how they influenced her decisions. Urtarte’s story was about coming out as gay in a religious Dominican family as well as his options for paying for college.
“I did this documentary to bring [my dad and I] closer, so he can understand where I’m coming from, why I’m so frustrated,” Urtarte said. “And I want to understand him as well, and it did a lot, but to this day we still have this rocky relationship. … I wanted my family to know who Hanoy is.”
Both Sann and Urtarte said they had challenges getting their family on camera, but constantly carrying around their cameras and being relentless helped them capture their stories.
“At first I thought it was going to be my activism and my education, but it ended up relating back to my family and my relationship with mom and how our culture and who we are blends [and] affects my life and being a teenager in America,” Sann said.
Senior Eric Tin came to the event because he said he is interested in documentary filmmaking.
“I think they did a good job picking characters,” the psychology major said.
Though the project wasn’t always easy, both teens said they learned a lot. Sann is now studying journalism at Temple University, and Urtarte is at a community college studying psychology with hopes to break into the entertainment business.
“I think what’s really cool about this documentary is we were sort of the selfie generation,” Sann said. “So a lot of the stuff was filmed as a selfie, so a lot of it was personal as you watched it, and you feel like you’re in our shoes going through the same thing.”
