July 17–24, 1997

critical mass|television

Home Girls

By Jenn Carbin

Anna in Girls Like Us.

Tina DiFeliciantonio grew up in South Philly: red pie, double dutch, row homes in the short distance. In 1991, when she and partner Jane C. Wagner decided to make a film about teenage girls and their concerns — in particular to discover how they absorb feminism — they knew that it had to focus on working-class city girls: seldom seen, but more significantly, seldom heard in the media.

Wagner, interviewed recently from New York with her partner, said, "We wanted to focus on working-class girls, and to have a diversity. South Philly fit the bill... and Tina being from there, we were very comfortable, accepted as one of them. We were staying with Tina's parents, using their car..." They used DiFeliciantonio's mother's basement as their production office.

Girls Like Us took six years from idea stage through completion and is the result of filming an ethnic cross-section of four girls ages 14 through 18: what they dream about, how they see themselves, how they handle their sexuality. The winner of the 1997 Sundance Grand Jury Prize and a highlight of the 1997 Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, the film will be presented as part of the PBS summertime series P.O.V.

The documentary is nonjudgmental, keenly observed, warm. DiFeliciantonio and her camera become any girl's dream: an older sister who wants to listen, but won't rat you out. That was the intention.

"We wanted to establish a greater dialogue among girls and between adults and teenagers. A lot of girls don't have their struggles validated. The problem is... 'I have questions, who can I go to for information?' On issues of sexuality and birth control, there are these contradictory mixed messages, without the establishment of any real dialogue. This just creates more inner conflict. What [young girls] need is healthy self-esteem and the ability to make informed decisions," said DiFeliciantonio, who feels that teenagers often don't get the message that there are many messages out there.

Anna, De'Yona, Lisa and Raelene make some disturbing choices, but they are survivors — spirited and strong.

The girls have different ethnic backgrounds and family configurations. Two of the four — Raelene and Anna — are from two-parent families, although in Raelene's case, there is little "parenting" going on — except by her. As filming begins, she — at age 14 — is already a mother, to a baby girl. Anna is the daughter of strict Vietnamese immigrants, who put the emphasis on education; Italian-American Lisa lives with her much-divorced mother; De'Yona lives with a grandmother who picked up the pieces after De'Yona's mother succumbed to drug addiction. Lisa and De'Yona, the girls from single-parent families, share the warmest and closest relationships with their parent figures.

DiFeliciantonio and Wagner found the girls "a variety of ways," said Wagner. "We found Lisa by hanging around the school with a camera and seeing who interacted with us. De'Yona we met through a creative arts center, Anna from a martial arts school. Raelene was Tina's sister's babysitter's sister."

"We initially were going to follow them for a year, and then found that wasn't enough. We needed the time to develop richer material — for parallels and juxtaposition."

The women developed close relationships with their subjects, with minimal parental involvement. Although Wagner says they "needed the parents to approve and sign off on the releases," they scheduled the filming "through the girls."

The filmmakers set out to find out how feminism filtered down to working-class girls of this generation. They found a mixed bag. According to Wagner, "certainly in terms of empowerment there have been strides, in self-confidence and self-perception." DiFelciantonio is cautious. "I found it encouraging and disappointing. One thing impacting the girls is the diatribe coming from the religious right. They're not hearing meaningful information consistently from other sources. There is a need to reach out to working-class girls to show them that there are other things to gain access to."

Most of the girls reveal a reluctance — and failure — to practice safe sex.

DiFelciantonio said, "Discussing birth control and safe sex calls into question the specifics of the act, and they're not ready to discuss that... of course, if you're not ready to discuss it, you're probably not ready to do it."

The filmmaker admits that though they kept a strict policy of not intervening, "We would encourage them to practice safe sex, in a positive way," being careful not to sound judgmental or condescending.

Both DiFelciantonio and Wagner talk affectionately, protectively, of the girls, and credit "mutual respect" with the obvious trust the girls had in the filmmakers.

Girls Like Us was shipped straight from the lab to Sundance, where it received the Grand Jury Prize, and according to DiFeliciantonio, "really good buzz. Sundance was really great because we had just finished the film and the screenings were pretty much sold out. What was powerful was the immediacy of the reaction... and the one-on-one feedback."

Girls Like Us will air on Tuesday, July 22 at 10 p.m. on WHYY TV-12. There will be a community outreach meeting for young girls at the WHYY studios Monday, July 21 at 6 p.m.