Kendra Brea Cooper
Vancouver's international film festival begins on September 25th 2014, and it comes along with some promising youth stories. Some say the teen years are full of angst like it's a bad thing, but that angst is a powerful force that exists to change ideas, challenge authority, and resist outdated tradition.
Written and directed by Stuart Murdoch (Belle and Sebastian), this film follows a group of kids as they find the world, and find themselves, through the creation of pop music.
Two girls open up to each other when the power goes out. . Sometimes it only takes a few minutes to get to know someone when the distractions are dead. In this case, it's about twelve minutes.
Katy is another film short involving a teen girl, but this time the content is serious as it is based on the true events of a young girl who gets caught in the sex trade. It's the other side of the story, about the hurricane that is the underage sex trade, and the vulnerable youth that get torn in.
Rattlefly is about teen love and all the curiosity and butterflies that follow. Sara is a teen girl who has responsibilities and worries well beyond her years, but opens up when she falls for another young woman.
The Turkish military makes its way into a Kurdish village and demands the surrender of guns that don't actually exist. A loved one of a young girl and her grandmother is taken into custody, and they set out to search for a weapon in order to appease the military so that they return prisoners to the village.
The reviews of this film suggest that it touches on topics of class and racism through the story of a privileged young man searching for something different. He is coming of age during a time when his father's world is crumbling and the elite life may come to an end.
"One day a week, every week for a year" is the compelling opening message on the film's website. The film moves week by week as it touches on youth life along with the struggles of a young girl coming to terms with a parents gender transition.
1987 is a funny look at the feelings of urgency brought on by big dreams after we graduate high school. The film follows a 17 year old boy, Ricardo, as he makes his way through the maze of almost-adult life. The film is the directors' revision of his own late-teen years.
In the four walls of a class room, the dynamics and tightness of a group change with the time spent inside. In this case, a class of teens target their replacement teacher, a man with authoritarian flare, after a classmate commits suicide.
Emo is a subculture and a lifestyle fully attached to a musical genre that is expressive and emotional. One emo young man has his lifestyle challenged by a group of his own peers, but isn't sure he's ready to change.
Pop culture and all that ideology sitting in the blind spot. Also crafts.
