A group of 12-year-old boys kept interrupting Jeni Bonjean and Nicole Rittenmeyer when they were shooting a documentary about the problems of adolescent girls. They wanted to know why the pair were concerned with girls and not with them. So the two cut a deal with the boys: Answer one question and you can be in the video. The boys agreed. “If you woke up tomorrow and found out you were a girl, what would you do?” The boys’ replies ranged from “I’d kill myself” to “I’d shave my legs and redecorate my room” to “I wouldn’t get raped.” Bonjean says, “If you asked the boys if there were any advantages to being a girl, rarely would they say yes.”
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In their not-yet-titled documentary in progress, Bonjean and Rittenmeyer are focusing on the loss of self-esteem in adolescent girls, which they found can result in eating disorders and other self-destructive behavior. “We have made a conscious choice to focus on white middle- and upper-class girls for no other reason than that we are white middle- and upper-class girls,” says Bonjean. “These are girls that are supposed to grow up and be lawyers because they have so much privilege–not just skin but class privilege. They seem to have everything, but then why do they engage in such destructive behavior at such a young age? And why do they carry it into adulthood?”
Bonjean and Rittenmeyer created Cosmic Egg Films and spent nine months conducting research for their documentary. They began shooting in June. Though their work on the video tends to overlap, Bonjean, who studied opera performance, is producer, and Rittenmeyer, who’s completing her master’s in film and video at Columbia College, is the director. Partner Ken Alpart does the fund-raising.
The art opening and screening will take place Sunday from 2 to 5 PM at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, 325 W. Huron. Admission is free. Call 252-4890.
