This student documentary was made by a member of Cleveland High School’s graduating class of 2015, during and after his senior year. The school has for the past few years offered a multimedia production class, and it was through this that Ben Grayzel acquired the skills and equipment necessary to make the film. The filmmaker aimed to study marijuana smoking culture among Portland teens, and how it has been affected by the drug’s legalization.
First and foremost, I’m interested by the ethical and legal considerations that are required for the production of a project that explicitly shows underaged teens involved in an illegal activity. For the most part, identities are hidden, but not always well. When this documentary was first released I watched it with Dan, Cleveland’s security officer. He appears at 12:01, though he was not aware of being filmed, and would not have consented had he been asked. Dan recognized and named just about every kid who appeared, even with their blurry or cropped faces.
Grayzel originally said that he was making Northwest Trees for a film school application. Last Fall he became enrolled in a college in Canada. But the documentary was uploaded to Youtube just last month. Already it has over 44,000 views. Most of it involves differently angled shots of high schoolers clearing a bong. A few of the subjects admit to cutting class in order to participate. Even more admit to getting high before and/or in between classes. I learned from my talks with Dan that these students are going to be approached by a dean at some point, though he didn’t indicate a specific consequence. I have no doubt that some of the seniors consented to be identified. However, I do doubt that the parents of the underaged students gave consent.
I wonder: is it problematic that some Cleveland teachers chose to participate? I know one teacher who was interviewed asked to be removed from the film because she felt misled about how the project was going to come together.
So take this as another reminder: be clear with your intentions, and err on the safe side when it comes to gaining consent from your subjects.
This is something I could probably stand to be better about. When I initially approached my subject for the winter project, I informed him of my intent. He and I, then, informed the rest of the team that I would be filming them and that the product would be released publicly. Nobody objected, and the majority of them are only included in B-roll footage, but it couldn’t hurt to have them sign a release to cover my butt. I would hate to finish my film, only to have someone ask to be edited out, as the teacher did in your example. Thanks for the reminder.
Interesting! It’s a investigative story. Filmmaker use voiceover and interview the anonymous. The background music is kind of interesting and I feel he puts his agenda inside. I’m curious how he film these weed moments. Does he need to talk with them one by one? Or he may talk with a group of people or an organization? How he access?