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Educating Lubbock
BRAINTRUSTdv interviews Rose Rosenblatt
The Education of Shelby Knox begins with a list of shocking statistics: Lubbock, Texas, has some of the highest teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease rates in the country. Enter Shelby Knox, a high school student who begins to lobby for comprehensive sex education, challenging her parents, her church, and the school board along the way.
Having had its share of acclaim and success on the film festival circuit as well as on PBS, The Education of Shelby Knox continues to thrive, affecting social change as Shelby herself tours with the movie, speaking to various religious and educational groups. |
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Rose Rosenblatt (left) and Marion Lipschutz, directors of The Education of Shelby Knox
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BRAINTRUSTdv: When you set out to make this movie, did you intend for the final product to be primarily educational or primarily dramatic—or did you hope to balance those two elements?
Rose Rosenblatt: From the start our goal was to make a movie that had a dramatic arc and power. The information needed to be subsumed into that arc. We were very aware of this and struggled hard to keep the informational aspect subliminal because we knew that audiences turn off when they smell an educational tone. The stylized opening with the statistics was our solution.
BTdv: Your previous documentary, Live Free Or Die (2000), also dealt with controversial themes, specifically a New Hampshire town's response to a local abortionist. Do you see similarities between the two documentaries, the two towns, and the issues at stake?
RR: There are similarities between the two films because they both have as a backdrop a town paralyzed by controversy. And of course at the center of both films is a school board, impervious to students, caving in and protecting the status quo. And both films center around the culture wars, the great divide that has marked this country since the eighties.
BTdv: You've said that you were interested in the subject of sex education in public schools before you met Shelby Knox and that Shelby "found you" rather than vice versa.
RR: In the case of this film, the issue came before the story. We knew we wanted to alert audiences to the fact that federal money was streaming into communities and being used to teach abstinence until marriage. But how to tell this story when we were coming up blank after months of looking for a community caught in the throes of a fight over what to teach the kids. Finally, we got a bite and it came in the form of a group of kids in Lubbock, Texas organized to change the school districts abstinence-only policy. Shelby was the spokesperson for the group because she was articulate and courageous. She was also interested in being in the film and not shy about that role, and she stayed that way throughout.
BTdv: Articulate and courageous, yes. Her parents say she never had Barbie dolls and was "a very intense child," illustrating that her exceptional intelligence and nonconformity are nothing new. On the other hand she "pleads sexual purity" because she is a "good Southern Baptist girl." Her divided, dialectical character seems to be a source of anxiety as well as strength, and much of the dramatic tension in this movie comes from Shelby's internal conflicts. Did you know how rich a subject Shelby would be when you started shooting?
RR: No, we didn't realize just how compelling a character Shelby would be. As we centered more and more on her and on her family, we became more interested in her personal dynamics and in the relationship between her and her parents. She knew the film was becoming about her, or she suspected it, and at the same time she came to understand what a film is, what it does and how it works. She felt the weight of that responsibility, I think, and began to transform.
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BTdv: Her parents are such compelling characters in their own right. In Shelby's words, her father is a conservative, party-line Republican and her mother is "a very compassionate, wonderful Christian woman." What was her parents' perception of the documentary being made about their daughter?
RR: Shelby's parents were so devoted to their daughter and seemed happy that she was so involved and interested in the filming. They also supported sex ed and were enormously proud of her for taking on the issue. They seemed not to worry too much about their lives being on display, which is curious and perhaps unusual. We never discussed this aspect of the filming. Like Shelby, they wanted to be good subjects and since we encouraged them to be themselves and praised them often for being such good, loving supportive parents, I think they came to trust us early on in the filming. |
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Shelbly Knox and her parents at their home in Lubbock, Texas.
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BTdv: You don't start the movie with trite establishing shots of the Lubbock area—in fact, Lubbock is never really presented in terms of community identity beyond the sex-related statistics at the beginning.
RR: Lubbock didn't strike us as particularly identifiable in that way that towns with distinct character do. At some point, we realized we needed to establish the town but couldn't quite find the right vista, angle or perspective that would stand out and represent the town. It turns out that the few shots we did get resonated so strongly—like the parking lot with the Jesus billboard next to the [adult] video marquee, the many shots of churches, or the drag outside of town where alcohol is sold. These became the representative shots of Lubbock.
BTdv: The movie starts in the parking lot of a Lubbock shopping center which seems to be a mating ground for local teenagers. One young woman says, "We have nothing else to do, so we go out and screw." Some of these kids' faces are digitally altered, which immediately brings home the point that people might object to being portrayed as promiscuous, ignorant delinquents. How were you able to get such honest and intimate images of these kids in their natural habitat, so to speak?
RR: The kids have no place else to hang but in these parking lots. They unwind, they let loose, they rebel and were flattered by the camera. That is, many of them. Some retreated and didn't want to be filmed, but enough were intrigued and had no problem talking about their attitudes about Lubbock. I don't think that they thought for a moment that they were being portrayed as ignorant.
BTdv: Of course, it goes without saying that Shelby herself is quite a performer, never too shy to hide a tear, willing to yell at her mother on camera—though it's clear that this state of affairs didn't predate the context of the documentary production. Did you ever have the impression that Shelby invented an onscreen persona, embellished herself a bit for the camera?
RR: I think every character who's thrust into a main role in a [documentary] invents an onscreen persona. They try very hard to be "good," to give the filmmaker what they think the filmmaker wants. They look for cues that would help them satisfy an abstract notion of an audience. They also realize that they need to be themselves, too, and they struggle against any artifice that they themselves create. Shelby was a performer long before we showed up in Lubbock, and she was very comfortable in that role. Ironically, we demanded of her to forget the camera, though I think she never really was able to.
BTdv: Shelby talks about "fuckfest," a pastime in which Lubbock boys make a list of girls' names with corresponding point ratings for "boobs," "butts," and virginal status. "Guys try to go out with the tens and screw them," Shelby says. During one radio talk show segment a caller says, "Morality has to be taught by the parents." Shelby says parents aren't taking responsibility and therefore it has to be a matter of "education" sanctioned by the school board. Having made this documentary and having heard all sides of the issue, how would you characterize the relationship between sex education and personal morality?
RR: Personal morality is built upon choices made. Choices made are built upon information received. When there is information withheld, as is the case in a town like Lubbock, personal morality is whatever pressure point bubbles to the surface. We talked to a lot of kids and they all seemed to know that there was a problem in Lubbock, but at the same time they had trouble making the connection between the precepts of abstinence and that trouble. The Youth Commission kids, who were actively working on the issues, knew that the abstinence policy was the problem, but so many of the other kids were less fortunate. They were not taught by parents or by their schools and so were left caught in a contradictory logic that ended up compromising their personal morality.
BTdv: A resourceful board member at the city council meeting says, "I pulled other statistics for the South Plains region. We have a higher non-use of seatbelts, higher non-use of car seats, a higher percentage of teen drinking and driving." This makes Lubbock's dilemma so much bigger than a sex education issue—it becomes a cultural issue. In the case of Lubbock, or that region of Texas, do you see a cultural impasse across which certain values simply don't translate? Is the culture impervious to outside influence, to mainstreaming?
RR: I think it is. Many people have asked us after viewing the film whether we had any trouble while filming there, whether we were threatened, harmed in any way, and the truth is we weren't, and I myself was surprised by this. We meddled in the affairs of this town, stirred things up, and there seems to have been no consequences—neither positive, with a change in the policy, nor negative. The status quo hangs on in that place with a fierceness that is astonishing. The town didn't let us penetrate it—we penetrated this girl's life and the life of her family, but not the fabric of the town. So, yes, the culture is impervious to outside influence.
BTdv: Ed Ainsworth, the energetic pastor of Shelby's church, says, "Sex is what two dogs do out on the street corner." He says that by acting like these dogs, "you'll get hurt physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially." He encourages his flock to live a "sexually pure life." Throughout the course of the movie—her high school years—Shelby adheres to the lifestyle choices endorsed by Pastor Ainsworth. Did it ever seem that her broadening intellectual horizons would result in sexual activity, along with a rejection of the values instilled in her by the community?
RR: I think we understood fairly early in the shooting that Shelby was moving toward rejecting the values of her community. As soon as she became empowered, her transformation began. Interestingly, her parents were supportive of her, though certainly not of her liberalization. It surprised me and heartened me that they let the filming continue. They proved remarkable that way.
BTdv: Pastor Ainsworth speaks frankly with Shelby in a private conference and tells her to follow her convictions. "Some people are telling me I'm going to hell," she says, but she believes God wants her to do what she's doing. Pastor Ainsworth is supportive but sharply dissenting. Their competing interpretations of the Christian faith give the movie a layer of higher debate which it might not otherwise have—in these contemplative moments it soars beyond the clutter of local controversy. Was this something you wanted when you set out to make the movie or was it just a byproduct of Shelby's personal development?
RR: When we started filming, all we knew was that we had a group of kids who were advocating for better sex ed in their schools. Shelby emerged as a protagonist because she was so articulate and telegenic, but we didn't know that the film would find its center in a coming-of-age story. The struggle that Shelby encounters with Pastor Ed and with her parents happened like so much magic, fueling a dramatic arc we had not envisioned. In so many ways the film reverberated with the times: the blue state/red state dichotomy, George Bush's Texas, and the peak of the evangelical movement all conspired to give us a film that soared beyond the clutter of local controversy.
BTdv: After a talk radio show, Shelby's mother says she's proud that Shelby is "committed to abstinence and going through True Love Waits at church." The talk show host replies, "Not every kid is raised in the right family, raised in church." How do you see the role of a church-based abstinence program in the sexual development of a child? Is it a complement to state-run programs or is it just counter-productive sentimentality?
RR: I think church-based abstinence programs are religiously based and should not cross over into schools. The Bush Administration spends hundreds of millions of dollars touting the benefits of abstinence. Most abstinence-promoting programs waste the government's money funneling misinformation directly to adolescents and so, yes, I do think they are counter-productive because they don't work.
BTdv: It's touching when Shelby's parents try to talk her out of her activism because it's obviously a source of turmoil for her. Meanwhile they're defending her in the face of the community and attending events with her to show support. She does occasionally seem too big for her britches, especially when she starts talking about the "power" she's been given by the city. In such moments her youth and naivete suddenly shine through. Did you ever give her advice or encourage her? Did you and Marion ever feel like surrogate parents, experiencing the triumphs and setbacks alongside her?
RR: She often asked for advice. We tried to be careful not to usurp her parents' role, but we were pretty straight with her about how we felt. She figures things out pretty quickly and was so motivated to understand the scene around her. She was also rebelling and looked to us for support. Fortunately, we could give it without it becoming a problem with her parents.
BTdv: When Shelby cries from time to time, we see all the angst and confusion of American youth. She hasn't committed to this fight out of certainty but out of uncertainty, and that's what makes her such a sympathetic character. But were you ever wary of showing too much of her vulnerability?
RR: Well, not so much her vulnerability. But she did cry a lot, and we were afraid that that undercut her as a sympathetic character. We weren't sure but it seems not to have done that. She was so palpably transforming, and we were fortunate to ride that wave with her.
BTdv: "No one tells me how to be a good Christian," Shelby barks at a community leader. Again, I can't help but wonder how much she was empowered by the presence of the camera. After all, small-town Southern teenagers are not given to publicly rebuking their elders. Did the camera impersonally capture Shelby's evolution or did the camera and the filmmakers facilitate this evolution? Of course, these are theoretical questions which go back to Jean Rouch, who believed that the camera was capturing a sort of "facilitated reality," something which wouldn't have happened without the camera but which was also honest and valid—quite a paradox. Did you and Marion have any concerns about journalistic ethics?
RR: Often and about this very thing. We understood that we were facilitating her change and wondered to one another what would have been the case if we had not showed up. Would Shelby have gone to Texas Tech, the local college, and crafted so much of her skills as a blossoming Republican? Had she not met and grown close to a group of New York liberal filmmakers, would she have become liberal? We were so aware of this that often we went overboard by including her in our concerns. Interestingly, in her first semester at the University of Texas in Austin, she took a course called Journalistic Ethics and wrote a paper about her experience making the film.
BTdv: What kind of reaction has The Education of Shelby Knox generated among members of the Lubbock community?
RR: The film has been screened in Lubbock, both on TV and in two different [public] screenings, and the reaction was mixed. Shelby was at both screenings and says that many people came up to her and thanked her for her effort and just as many came up to her and told her that she will be going directly to hell.
BTdv: Has the movie made an impact in other small conservative communities?
RR: I hope it has had and continues to have an impact on conservative communities across the country. We are in the midst of an outreach campaign that is bringing the film to religious organizations and stirring dialogue.
BTdv: The outreach campaign demonstrates that there can be life after film festivals and PBS. Shelby has been speaking at screenings of the movie for some time now, plugging sex education reform, and these engagements seem to be going strong. How did these educational screenings come about? Was it something you intended to do from the beginning, or was it something Shelby instigated?
RR: We planned an outreach when we first conceived of the film and were fortunate enough to raise the monies to launch a campaign that is still going strong. Shelby also travels with the film, is invited by many organizations working on women's health and youth activism to come speak and screen. There is a large constituency for this film, so it can have a long life.
BTdv: At one point in the movie Shelby says, "I think I started to see there was a bigger world out there, bigger than Lubbock." Near the end of the movie she adds, "I'm so ready to get out of here." How do things stand today? How does the story end?
RR: Shelby went to UT in Austin, is majoring in public policy and is spending the spring semester in D.C. in an internship program working for Advocates For Youth and lobbying for comprehensive sex ed on the Hill. So she is definitely sharpening her political skills. I think she is becoming more and more herself and she is a wonder to see now as she comes into her own. Marion and I would love to do a sequel and are waiting for the right time to suggest this to her. The story has not ended, and there is so much more to explore with this young woman, so hopefully there will be a follow up in a few years. Who knows—maybe when she runs for office.
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