Thursday, September 28, 2006

Yo. Whaaahsup New York!

[Full/fair disclosure: the author of this post had (very) limited involvement in the making of the following documentary.]

If you're watching conference this weekend on BYU-TV, you may wish to stick around between sessions on Sunday to watch (what I think is) a clever and fun documentary, Sisterz in Zion. What's the topic, you ask? Especially For Youth. Now who in their right minds, I can hear you ask, would ever think to make a documentary centered around EFY?

Snippet gives the twist:

What happens when New York City meets Provo, Utah? A group of minority Young Women, converts to the church, find out when they travel from New York city to attend Especially for Youth (EFY) in Utah for a week. Filmed by one of their Young Women leaders, this documentary explores how people can come to interact and to love each other across challenging cultural boundaries.

Now, if you don't believe there's a cultural disparity between New York City and Utah ("What bubble?" you ask), we need to talk. I've lived for extended periods of time in Utah, New York, and Los Angeles, so I think I can speak fairly about the subject matter. In fact, one of the Manhattan neighborhoods (Inwood) represented in the film is my old stomping ground. And the girlz in the film and their mannerisms are so familiar, so distinct. More disclosure: New York *is* my favorite place on earth, so anything I have to proffer about this documentary is obviously biased.

But it's where this documentary is willing to go that makes it so worthwhile and interesting. I saw a rough cut a while back, though I understand it's been revised quite a bit since then, and I had a feel for it's potential. The nice thing about this film, it celebrates the differences of culture in a spirited manner. It's a fair and accurate slice of life, and it's probably the best thing I've seen to date on a major issue the Church will continue to face—diversity, as people from all walks of life continue to join the Church.

Tale is told from Emmy award-winning Director and Editor Melissa Puente's POV. Chieko Okazaki gives a nice intro on the website.

Sisterz In Zion will air on BYU-TV, 10/1 @ 12pm, 10/4 @ 9am, with future dates and times TBA. Also note: if you don't have BYU-TV, live video streams are available online.

Update 10/2/06: I really enjoyed it!

posted by Rhapsidiomite @ 5:05 PM
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