This weekend has been a long time coming for me. I’ve had so many thoughts all summer about what we could do, what we should do, what our story will be, who to talk to  etc. Actually forming a group, talking and creating somewhat of a story was immensely rewarding and has provided me with a mixed sense of relief and untamed excitement. Our group has some enormous goals for the year, like connecting with trans celebrities such as Jazz Jennings and Laverne Cox. We have a huge scope of what we want to do but we’ve started to narrow it down a bit. We really want to find local stories of gender queer students to create an understanding of the experience of genderqueer students in Vermont schools. Then, we hope to speak with teachers and administrators on what they believe is the experience of genderqueer students and the general climate around gender non conforming behaviors in schools. There will probably be a gap between the two views and that will move us to the final section about what we can do to bridge the gap.  Bridging the gap will consist of leading workshops and dialogues with teachers and possibly students to help create a better understanding of the issues which present themselves at each of the individual school communities.  In addition to workshops, we are going to manicure our website and possibly create small vocal handbooks for schools to have.

Over the next month, we’re going to start crafting our narrative arc, and looking at specifying our cast of characters. We want to start interviewing by the week before December 3rd, since we have the physical resources to do so and we’ll have a general storyline by then.

I’m really excited about looking at more individual stories this year and possibly following someone’s story from a film standpoint. I think we have the potential to create a really moving, informative and aesthetically pleasing film this year. We’re going to have to work extra hard to be really communicative and in tune with each other as a group to accomplish these big goals. We plan on talking regularly in our group chat, as well as uploading weekly group goals and individual goals on how to accomplish our big goals. We will also be doing weekly blog reflections on our accomplishments (or lack thereof) of the week. I think this will really help us know where everyone is in the group and create an impactful end product.