Points of View : Young Filmmakers Pair Up With South Africans

Five teen-age filmmakers flew to South Africa on Wednesday to spend a month in a southern township producing a film that will capture their experiences as they, in turn, produce a series of documentaries on youth and apartheid.

Despite its quintessential Hollywood premise--a movie about making movies (Hi-8 format videos, actually)--the documentary about a multiethnic group of young filmmakers has a purpose beyond celluloid immortalizing, said Amie Williams, the second-year graduate student at UCLA’s Film School who conceived the project.

“This documentary attempts to bring young people together to discuss their similarities and differences on an entirely new plane,” said Williams, 28, who is also a research assistant at the UCLA African Studies Center. “It’s a way to show them anyone can pick up a camera and make their views known.”

Williams said each of the youths will be paired with a South African student and stay for four weeks with a family in Grahamstown, at the southern tip of the country, near Port Elizabeth.

The youths will learn about race and respect; politics and peace, the media and its message--all subjects being taught in schools at an earlier age, Williams said. She plans to distribute the film, which is her master’s thesis, through the Los Angeles Unified School District. The project is being funded through grants and donations.

Each student pair will write, direct and shoot their own films about a different facet of society. Some expressed interest in political activism, music, graffiti and hairstyles, Williams said.

The filmmaker chose the participants after attending dozens of meetings of various student activist groups. The students, some of whom are seasoned politicos, were connected through a local youth network that Williams approached about a year ago, when she began the project she refers to as “Nana”--the Zulu word for child and beginnings.

Joanne Martinez, 17, a Latino, raised her $500 personal expense money by canvassing precincts for a state Assembly candidate. She also organized the Chicano League at Fairfax High School, which she attended, as did three other participants.

Martin Deeb, 18, an American Indian who graduated from the High School for the Arts at Cal State L.A., was introduced to Williams at a meeting of the L.A. Student Coalition, a group that for more than 5 years has led demonstrations in front of the South African Consulate. In a 1989 protest, Deeb was one of 33 demonstrators who were arrested, he said.

Other participants are Serena Kim, 17, a Korean-American who was president of Fairfax High’s student government, and Christa Dickey, 18, president of the school’s Black Student Union.

Kamau Ayuubi, 17, an American of African and Japanese descent, said his father--a close friend of the late civil rights activist Malcolm X--died in 1974 as a victim of a political murder. Ayuubi said he and his companions had been schooled on how to approach their hosts in South Africa.

“We are going to learn, not to tell them what’s what,” he said.

Parents who gathered at a video studio in Leimert Park on Wednesday before the group’s departure told of how they were initially apprehensive, but eventually favored sending their children on the trip.

After hearing of the project, Soraya Hwang, mother of Serena Kim, said she worried that her daughter would become embroiled in the country’s political debate. But after Hwang was assured that the trip would be guided by groups with nonpartisan interests, she helped her daughter prepare.

“I think it is a good chance for me to learn about the world and South Africa through Serena,” she said. “I think I am probably more excited than she is.”