MOUTHPIECE OF THE MISUNDERSTOOD

Erahm Christopher is on a mission to make movies that matter. Erahm - pronounced like Aaron with an ‘m’ instead of an ‘n’ - wants to give a voice to the voiceless and help us understand those around us we normally may not. He established the production company Horizon Intertainment with producing partner John C. Pohl in 2000 and set out to create movies that educate, entertain and inspire. One of his more recent projects “Teen Truth,” distributed by Brian Johnson’s B1 Films, does just that. The short documentary has been in the works since the school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. “Teen Truth” takes an unflinching, yet sympathetic look at teenagers, bullying and school violence. After watching the short documentary and reading up a bit on some of Erahm’s other films, I decided to speak with this intriguing director. To show you the relevance and importance of “Teen Truth,” the day I spoke with Erahm was the same day Kimveer Gill mounted a deadly rampage, firing 60 shots at a Montreal college that left himself and an eighteen-year-old girl dead with 19 others injured. In Erahm’s chat with PollyStaffle.com, he shares how the film evolved and what he hopes will come of it. He also discusses some of his other projects, such as the silver Telly Award winning short “Devil’s Rose” and “The Ryan Belflower Story” about the inspiring Clovis, Calif. high school student with autism that went from basketball manager to making a three-point shot as time ran out in a varsity game.

Erahm Christopher, right, on the set of a film.

CCF: I want to get to some of your other projects, but mainly I want to focus on “Teen Truth.” I thought it was great. Where did you come up with the original concept to make that film?

EC: Basically, it came after all these other school shootings became prevalent in the country. I was reading a lot of the articles in Time, Newsweek and a lot of the newspapers that were plastering what’s going on and why it’s happening. What I found is a lot of people didn’t ask teenagers what was going on. They were all expert reports and adult perspectives, but nobody really gave a teen perspective. My producing partner John and I came up with this idea of giving teenagers the chance to really talk about what’s going on. When we first decided to do this, we said to ourselves we weren’t going to actually go through with it unless we knew the kids actually had something to say. So we got a video camera, went out and randomly found teenagers whether it was at the movies or after school and asked a couple of questions to see if they would talk for a few minutes. Some of these sessions turned into an hour or two hours. When we ran out of tape, we decided this is something we should definitely do.

CCF: And that led you to conducting the interviews with, what was it, a hundred some odd students or whatever?

EC: Yeah, basically, the first phase was John and I going out with video cameras and conducting impromptu interviews. I asked my cousin that was in high school to organize a group of teens and like I said we went randomly around. What we found was when I asked my cousin to get five kids, he showed up with about 20 kids. We go to the movie theater and we have two or three kids around us, pretty soon we have ten or fifteen. Then we went through and cut a trailer kind of with everything these kids were talking about to try and raise some funds. Everybody said, “Oh we think it is a fantastic project, but what’s the story?” We said, “Well, the story is going to come out of these teens.” We wanted to follow them for a year, but nobody really wanted to buy into it. So John and I ended up getting some school support. We interview about 150 students from northern and southern California. We ended up selecting five that we thought were diverse socially, economically, geographically, demographically and racially. We didn’t want any teen watching it to say, “This is not me.” So we found these five kids, two were from the L.A. area and three from the northern California area. We bought a couple of video cameras off eBay, initially, and then a couple more were donated by a school that had a video program going on. We supplied the tape and then set up an online presence and basically had these kids start documenting their senior year. It’s really kind of interesting because when we launched this website we had a message board actually created by a teenager and we were trying to build a community that is very similar to what myspace is now. The problem is John and I had full time jobs and we were staying up to two and three o’clock in the morning trying to manage everything, log these tapes and keep this thing going. It never really got to the potential that we wanted it to be. And now I’ve gone to film school and we have kind of established ourselves a little bit more, we are actually able to do what we really wanted to do.

CCF: Right. When exactly did it all start?

EC: The conception was shortly after Columbine I believe in 1999. This has been an ongoing project. It expands over several years. The interviews with the psychologist, the counselors, the teachers, the principals – it was just something we were able to do over time. Whenever we had a few moments, we would go out and shoot. The kids we actually got involved at that stage - some of the bus stuff in the video - I went to my old high school and talked to the superintendent. There was a teenager there named Shane Williamson that was interested in film. He ended up partnering up with us and he set it up with all these students. He then actually shot a lot of the camera work and directed a lot of it too. What we really wanted to do is give these teenagers an opportunity to express themselves, both candidly in these impromptu interviews, but also in the recreation of it too. The main character that ends up in jail is actually my cousin (David Machado), so it was really just collaboration with a number of teenagers.

The DVD artwork for “Teen Truth.”

CCF: That was one of the things I was wondering. I read the film was shot by teenagers, so the reenactments were as well?

EC: We had two cameras there. One of the cameras I was operating part of the time and the other one was operated full time by Shane. Most of the kids were his friends. He did most of the direction and did a lot of the editing as well. Now he is one of our interns.

CCF: When Columbine happened, I think there was a split between people that understood why and those that didn’t. As soon as it happened, I knew where that came from. I myself dealt with various forms of bullying throughout my years in the public school system and I knew that this was an example of somebody that got fed up and finally the rage exploded. It’s a build up with no outlet for these kids. If they are one that is isolated and being picked on there is no where to turn. They’ve got nobody to talk to at school. Their not going to tell their parents. So I think there were those that fully understood where that anger and hate came from, but at the same time you had lots of people and the media well, just all, “Why did they do this?” It was just like, “Oh, these are horrible kids. They’re crazy.” And there was a lot of not really understanding the situation. I think your film was one of the first to me that has presented an understanding of why these things happen.

EC: That’s exactly it. You nailed it right on the head Chad. What’s really interesting and sort of validates everything that we are doing is I’ve followed this Columbine case very closely and actually all the shootings around the United States, from Conyers, Georgia to Springfield, Oregon. And I’ve read and I’ve done research and statistics. It’s really interesting how a lot of these shootings happen at spring time right before the end of school. I don’t find that to be a coincidence. But one thing that really stuck out to me was two months ago the Jefferson County sheriff’s department that handles the Columbine case, released the journals that Eric and Dylan had wrote. I don’t know if you have seen those, but what is so fascinating to me is what they said in there is, “ I’m lonely. I wish I had a girlfriend. I wish people would include me in what’s going on. Why does everybody hate me so much?” That doesn’t sound like a crazy person. That sounds like a lonely teen that is just looking for somebody to accept them, include them and feel like he is like everybody else. That for me was kind of validation saying that is exactly how everybody is feeling. That’s why we wanted to have that diverse group of teenagers to be able to say it doesn’t matter if you’re black, it doesn’t matter if you’re rich, it doesn’t matter if you’re white, it doesn’t matter if you’re Asian. They are all going through the same thing and they need someone to talk to.

CCF: That’s the thing now is the whole separation into cliques and things like that starts in elementary. There were kids picking on each other and things like that, but the breakdown racially and socially with the cool kids and the “This is my group, that’s your group,” kind of stuff, used to not really start until high school. Now that all seems to be starting in like first grade.

EC: The thing that I have found in talking to kids is it is starting younger and younger. I actually talked to a girl today because we are thinking about doing sort of a phase two of this. What is so ironic and this is what this teen said to me today is a lot of adults, like her mom tells her it is just a phase and to get over it. “Deal with it. You can. I did.” But what is so crazy is the same issues these teens are dealing with are the same issues adults are dealing with on another level. Think about adults who are getting boob jobs, lip jobs, whatever the hell. They are worried about their image. Teens are worried about their image. Their bulimic. Their anorexic. Adults are worried about money. Teens are worried about money. Teens worry about what clothes to wear and worry about what car they are driving.. Adults extend their finances so thin to live in the big house, to drive the car that everyone else will think is cool. It just blows my mind that once people reach a certain age as an adult, they don’t see the connection.

CCF: Yeah, exactly. It even goes bigger than that. The whole bullying thing. Think of war and how we as a nation see ourselves as so much better than everyone else and how we look down on other countries because of their beliefs. It’s the same thing. School is just basically a representation of society as a whole. Every single aspect. Like you were saying with the people with plastic surgery and stuff. It really is and goes even bigger than that. It goes internationally even. That’s why I don’t really understand why there is this misunderstanding that this stuff goes on and how much it hurts the people that it is happening to and how angry it makes them. When somebody does something like the two kids at Columbine, they always overlook the fact, these kids were pushed to the point of doing what they did. It doesn’t come out of nowhere. They didn’t just wake up one day and say, “Okay, we are going to go do this.” They were pushed to that point.

EC: Absolutely. You know and you asked me earlier what inspired me to do this. I’ll tell you another reason. In high school I wasn’t a popular kid but I sort of got a long with everybody and was pretty diverse in what I did. I wasn’t bullied physically, but I was short and people made fun of me for that. One night my freshman year, I got a phone call from a guy, who actually had this girlfriend that I used to be friends with. Well, he decided to threaten me and said I was trying to hook up with his girlfriend. He called me up and said, “You better watch your back in school tomorrow. I’m gonna kick your ass.” And he said he was from this posse, whatever the hell it was. His gang. It wasn’t even really a gang, but he told me I had to watch my back. I was so scared that I actually put a gun in my bag. I figured that’s the only way I can deal with it. I have an older brother and he overheard the conversation. He saw what I was doing because we shared a room and he called up a bunch of his buddies. He was a senior at the time. He calls up his friends and is all, “Hey, were going to show up at the school tomorrow to help Erahm and kick these guys asses.” My mom overheard this conversation... (LOL) which my brother had with his buddies on the phone. But she stopped it and called the cops. The cops went over to his house because the gang name that he said, they knew who the hell this guy was and my mom kept us home. You know, I’m not crazy. But at that moment the only thing that would make me feel better is knowing I had some form of protection with me. That’s also what made me realize that Columbine definitely had a lot more going on because they planned this. But where does it start? Where is the start and when do they cross the line?

CCF: That’s the thing. What is the solution to it all. Everyone would like to see the school violence go away, but how do you start at the beginning with the bullying?

EC: This is just my opinion, but if we are going to change anything in society, in America, in the world, it’s got to start with the youth. I think with a lot of adults, they are stuck in their ways. You see it a lot with Republicans and Democrats. Have you ever seen a Republican change sides? (LOL) Or a Democrat change sides? No, not too often. Adults are so set in their ways and so caught up in what is going on in their lives at that moment, that it’s very hard to get to them and to open their eyes and keep their eyes open. Kids are experiencing everything for the first time right now. They need to see that we can make a difference if we all work together. I don’t think they understand that they are having these problems because they are creating them themselves. Does that make sense?

CCF: Yeah.

EC: I don’t think we have ever seen a positive movement. Not a cheesy one, but I’m talking about a raw underground, like, “Hey, you really need to have some compassion, take care of each other.” Kind of thing. You haven’t seen anything like that. We are so divided. We are so divided by what we are wearing, what music we are listening to. At the same time, if you go on myspace and you look at a kid in Germany and a kid in the states and a kid in England. They’re all the same. They’re worried about the same stuff. They’re talking about the same stuff. I think everybody just needs to see that. Maybe that is a bit idealistic, but hell, if you’re not trying to make a difference, then what are you doing?

A scene from “Teen Truth.”

CCF: Right. Now, one of the things I thought while watching it was this is great to show in schools, but part of the audience who really needs to see it are adults. Parents are the ones that really don’t understand. There’s a break down in communication and a lack of both attention and understanding. How do you reach the adults or is your thinking is you can’t really reach them, so look to make change in the youth?

EC: I’m not saying adults are not changeable. I’m not saying that. (LOL) Maybe I was a bit too abrupt with that statement. I think the adults need to see there is a problem. That I think is the biggest challenge right now. Its easy for one adult to tell their kid, you know, “You’ll get over it.” But if the adult sees that every kid is going through this then maybe they will realize there is a bigger problem that they do not see.

CCF: How are you trying to get the word out on this right now?

EC: We’re trying to get this in schools as an education video. This video is accompanied with a curriculum that has been created by psychologist and counselors. We’ve spoken to a lot of people and we’ve been trying to get together a live presentation, like an assembly type presentation at the schools to get a whole audience of 600-1,000 to watch it at the same time. So they can kind of have that realization together. You do it in the classroom and you have 30 students that are forced to sit down and watch it. But if you have 300 students then you can really see the change. What has happened when we asked everyone, “Hey can you help us push this into the school system?” A lot of them were saying, “Well, we don’t really have the resources to have the counselors on staff to be able to do follow-ups to this. Maybe this will be a lot better when we have problems of bullying. There are no real bullying problems right now because school just started.” Well, that’s just precisely the problem. We need to start this now before bullying is the problem. Our message is not just to freak these kids out. It’s more to show how the little things can turn into the bigger problems. When I talked about the parents and the adults not seeing it as a problem, they don’t until something drastic happens. That’s why this is called “Teen Truth” because this is the truth. They are telling the truth. They are speaking their mind. It’s about giving these teens the platform to say, “Hey look this is what we are going through.” All of the other teens kind of say, “Yeah, I agree with you. Let’s get this voice a little bit louder so hopefully other people will pay attention to us.”

(Continued - Click to read Part II)