Documentary Treatment

Treatment

This was done bye Zak and Danny.

Main characters / interviewees

Skye (They/Them) - transgender/non-binary/Agender 19 years old came out at 14 “The curriculum surrounding sex education did not provide me, or other LGBT folk, with any knowledge or resources. This resulted in me identifying (unhappily) as male for THREE YEARS after i discovered transgender people.” This excellently kicks off the discussion that sex-ed is failing to represent an audience that may need it desperately, often negatively affecting mental health and supporting the agenda of ignorant schoolyard bullies.  Contrast with Molly

Elisha (19) - Questioning

Molly (13) - secondary school cishet student (daughter of Debbie and Darrell) This interview backs up the points made by Skye but from a different perspective, giving a different view on the topic but maintaining that this is a real and very serious subject.

Debbie (49) Darrell (49) - Parent of 4 We also meet Molly’s parents, Debbie and Darrell who tell us whether they would feel confident and comfortable answering their daughter’s questions about sex, sexuality and gender or whether they think it’s very much an educator’s job. Chloe -- Asexual 19 years old

Stuart Jeffery - Green Party Rep

Hilary Cooke - MGSD Centre Rep following Medway Gender and Sexual Diversity Centre sex-educators into schools to see where effective and honest information is available for young people.

Anjali - Indian student studying in Rochester (Danny and Jack’s flatmate)

Holly - bi 18 year old

QUOTES (ONLY):

Libby (They/Them) --- transgender/non-binary 14 years old

Locations

London

Miadstone tv studios

University for the creative arts

Brighton secondary school

Brighton highstreets

Farnborough

Aldershot

Whether using a presenter / reporter

We are not using a presenter but we are having a voice over narrator to help the narrative of the documentary move forward smoothly. We are having a mix of voice over between interviewees also to introduce the documentary and finish it but most importantly take you through the story being shown. We are not having a interviewer because we thought it might be a bit distracting for the documentary. There will also be voiceover for a part where we will talk for people who didn't want to be filmed or known on camera.

Transmission time / channel / platform

Past watershed somewhere between 8 - 10 pm due to the topic of sex being the underlying subject that is unsuitable to be shown to an audience of under 18 as laws and regulations set by Ofcom.

We will be airing this program on BBC three which is now an online platform.

Target audience

As we are airing this on BBC three we want to meet their target audience which are:

Gender - (mainly) Male

Age - 40 - 45 year olds

Social grade - ABC1

Top regions - west country ( yorkshire, east anglia)   

Have an interest in finance, science, music and entertainment.

Hobbies - photography and being online

Personality - knowledgeable, funny, analytical, self-conscious, disorganised, stubborn.   

Politics - left

Monthly spare -  £125

Online for 26 - 30 hours online p/w

Watches tv for 21 -25 hours watching tv p/w

‘The Birds, the Bees and the Rainbows’ is part of a series of short documentaries looking at ‘Teen Spirit’, commissioned for BBC Three’s online channel. The show is a detailed examination of the representation of gender and sexual identity within modern sex-ed. Modern schools aren’t teaching what they legally should, minimising LGBTQ+ representation to give heteronormative lessons that can have a damaging affect on many young queer people. With a specific focus on the demographic of young, LGBTQ+ people, ‘Birds, Bees & Rainbows’ combines interviews with a variety of people from all backgrounds and beliefs to reflect BBC Three’s usual 16-34 demographic.

Interviews are being conducted with individuals of varying ages, sexualities, genders, backgrounds and beliefs in order to give an unbiased view, get a fuller understanding of our topic and most importantly show that this isn’t an isolated experience.
But as a group we are also targeting teens between 13 - 17 year olds and parents with teens in secondary school as we are looking at the effectiveness of sex education in schools and whether they do or should incorporate different sexualities and gender. We are also targeting all genders and sexualities and though who do not yet know as an attempt to educate and hopefully help people.
This will be a stand alone film but it will have the potential to carry on to be a series if need be.  

The documentary will focus heavily on interviews which can become a little boring and disengaging for viewers. To combat this in an effective and informative way, we’re heading to Brighton to visit a school that is highly reputable for its approach to sex education. Their own sex ed guidelines build on the government curriculum, adding in multiple own guidelines such as: “personal responsibility in all forms of behaviour, including respect and consideration for others regardless of gender, race, religion, disability and sexual orientation;  Opportunities to understand and accept difference and diversity.”

Documentary Reefernce Nicola Quote

“They actually covered this in school, although we still had conversations at home regarding sexuality and gender diversity. I think we just talked about gender roles as perceived by society, heterosexuality and homosexuality and gender fluidity and whether people are born that way or decide for themselves at puberty (or maybe before). How people who are not heterosexual are often treated by society etc. How men and women should be treated as equals. Not to be homophobic. Pink toys and Blue toys and how ridiculous that is. They all played with dolls and a kiddie kitchen, by choice. The glass ceiling for women and how it is slowly changing. Prominent women in politics, science and business etc."

Documentary Green Party

Green party

The green party is with the LGBT community but recently they have slowed down work in the area.

here is there home page for eh LGBT community.

Welcome to the LGBTIQA+ website of the Green Party of England & Wales. Our mission is to advance the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer, and Asexual people. Discrimination remains in many areas of life such as housing, education, employment and health and LGBTIQA+ Greens campaign against this. 

We aim to increase awareness and understanding of LGBTIQA+ issues within the Green Party and progressive movements and in society as a whole. We also aim to increase awareness and understanding of Green and progressive values among LGBTIQA+ people.

Link here: https://lgbtiqa.greenparty.org.uk/

Documentary Questions

Questions

This is the questions list that zak put together for are interviewees.

Introduce self – Name, Age etc

So you’ve had sex ed classes at school. What sort of topics were covered?

What was the LGBTQ+ discussion like? How did it compare to discussions of straight relationships?

Do you think LGBTQ+ issues should be discussed in schools?

How often are you made aware of LGBTQ+ issues and current affairs at school?

How is sexuality viewed by peers at yours school?

Where would you go if you had questions about LGBTQ+ issues? Would you feel comfortable talking to your parents?

Closing Statement

Parents:

Introduce self – Name, Age etc

What were attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people like whilst you were at school?

Do you think they’re more accepted now?

What was your sex ed classes like? Were LGBTQ+ issues discussed?

Did you know many LGBT+ people growing up?

How do you feel about LGBTQ+ issues being taught about during sex ed? Is it okay to teach primary schools about LGBTQ+ issues?

Would you feel able to answer questions about sexuality and gender from your children?

Do you think better education could lead to more acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community?

LGBT+ as a trend and fashion statement?

Closing statement

LGBTQ+

What was your sex ed like? Were LGBTQ+ relationships discussed?

How did this affect your own opinions and perceptions of LGBTQ+ people?

So how did you educate yourself and come to realise that you’re _____?

How was your coming out received at school by your peers and teachers?

Was your school understanding in your coming out

Documentary Reference Chloe

"Something which has always eluded me is what is the point of sex education? Literally, what is the point? In year 6, we had “sex education”, it wasn’t really. It didn’t mention sex, nor relationships. It was more puberty education, but all I remember is being told we need to wash our hair more as we hit puberty. Thanks. We were told that if we had any questions we had to write them on a piece of paper and put them in a box on the front desk. I understand it’s embarrassing to ask some questions, but the point is- it shouldn’t be. I shouldn’t be made to feel that asking questions about sex is so shameful I can only ask them anonymously. Sex education in high school, was again not sex or relationship education. Instead it was biology: we labelled diagrams. Thanks, now I know where ovaries are. In PSE/PSHE we had one lesson about contraception (this lesson also included drugs, it was kind of Two Awkward Subjects In One). The only thing I remember is a video of a couple going into a shed to have sex. The teacher mentioned ‘Dutch Double’, which is, I think, where you use condoms and the pill. Everything I know about sex, I know through TV/media, friends, and Google. Quickly: I understand British people to be awkward about sex. Someone suggested to me the other day that this is because we don’t dance, if you look at Latin American dance it suggests they have a much healthier relationship with their bodies. Having said that, I am more awkward talking about sex than most. I wonder (and I have to say wonder, because I am not yet sure how to label myself) if this is because I am uncomfortable with the term “heterosexual”. I have considered asexuality, and bisexuality, but I’m not quite certain and that’s okay. The embarrassing thing is, I didn’t even know what asexuality was until a few years ago. Becoming more and more common is transgender/non-binary gender, which I didn’t know anything about until my Dad came out as transgender two years ago. My Dad has grown up and lived not knowing what was wrong with him/her. This is not how people should be made to feel. Equally, one of my best friends now identifies as gay, but, as is quite common, he went straight-bi-straight-gay-bi before finally realising he is gay. As I am a drama student, I met very early on lots of gay people, and it was a fairly normal part of my teenage life. A friend of mine is a devout Christian and until she went to university hadn’t really met someone who publicly identifies as homosexual. She messaged me saying “gay people are so much fun!” a few weeks into university (we shall ignore the blatant, but accidental, homophobic pre-justice there!). She also said she was never against homosexuality, she just doesn’t encourage it. That, in itself, shows just how lacking LGBTQ+ sex/relationship education is. I once asked in a school council meeting if we could improve sex education, and I was told it was up to the government. Bullshit is it. It’s up to individual schools to stop wasting our time in RE/PSE classes reading the same Eurocentric, heteronormative, misogynist crap we’re taught and teach us something useful! Teach us about safe sex, teach us how a relationship works, tell us what oral sex is, tell us that women should be comfortable to get pleasure from sex because they are not flesh-lights, tell us what sex toys are, tell us that masturbation is not shameful, then tell us how babies are made."

Documentary Contact List

Contact List

This list was created bye Victoria showing who we used and who dropped out on us.

Green-stayed
Red-dropped


People:

Elisha(19, Aldershot) Pansexual

Elisha (Elie) is a long time friend of mine from school who came out during school to us all.

Debbie(49, London) Mother

Crews family

Darrell(49, London) Father

Crews family

Molly(13, London)  secondary school cishet student

Crews family

Tommy(16, London) Bisexual College student

Crews family

Holly(18, London) Bisexual

Tommy's friend

Jenny(London)

Holly's mum

Chloe(19, London) Asexual

I came into contact with Chloe through a mutual friend unfortunately due to scheduling issues we weren't able to film her.

Skye Transgender/non-binary/Agender 19 years old came out at 14

Skye is an old friend from my secondary school who came out as trans  in around year 9 and now identify as non-binary. Due to their working schedule we were not able to film Skye.

Jo(Mother of secondary children)

Jo is a friend of my family with three children in school 2 of which in secondary school, unfortunately due to her living so far away it wasn't practical for us to travel over there.

Zoe(Secondary school teacher)

Zoe is an old teacher of mine and a family friend, she did not want to be filmed and we were not able to get a quote from her.

Libby(14, East Sussex)Trans

After I contacted a trans support group on Facebook their lead admin put me in touch with Libby and Mao. As Libby is 14 and not yet out to their family we decided it be best to not use them on camera

Mao(Normandy)Trans

Mao got in contact with me after I reached out to the trans support group, unfortunately after we found found out Mao was from France we simply weren't able to go over to get footage instead we gathered a quote.

David(Bristol)Gay

David is someone who knows my family, unfortunately because he is deaf we didn't leave enough time to get things such a interpreters so that we could communicate with David easily.

Beth(Farnham)Bi

Beth was someone I found through UCA Farnham, timings meant we weren't able to got back to the Farnham area to film with her.

Olivia(Michigan)Pan

I found Olivia through a Bisexual and Pansexual support group as she is in Michigan we weren't able to film with her but we did receive a quote.

Documentary Genders

There are different genders

There are multiple different sorts of genders that some people know of and some that people have no idea about.

 Link to site:http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2013/01/a-comprehensive-list-of-lgbtq-term-definitions/#sthash.XUJZcreG.dpbs

This link shows a list of mutple genders explained form the community of the LGBT.

Documentary Version two

Script Version two

This script was made bye zak

PIX	SYNC/COMM	Time
Opening shots of education - EG: Students in classrooms, hands raising, sex ed classes	Comm: Sex Education. Two words sure to inspire nervous whispers and awkward giggles in classrooms all across Britain. However, if you’re one of many young, bisexual students then this class may only be giving you half of what you need.
Zak walks onto screen Mix with actuality	Sync: I’m Zak Wilkins, a genderfluid, pansexual filmmaker. I came out as bisexual when I was 14 and then bouncing between identities for six years after as I struggled to find a label I felt appropriately described me.
Zak sat on bench	Sync: I’d been aware I wasn’t straight for years and hoped sex ed might help clear up some of my confusion. Instead, I was taught about heterosexual sex, heterosexual relationships and heterosexual health risks. With no mention of sexuality or gender identity I used the internet to educate myself - leading to years of self loathing and confusion.
	Sync: It wasn’t until I was 20 that I truly felt comfortable with and confident in my identity but I’d always hoped that my school could have given me the information I needed to make this realisation sooner.
Actuality - Full Family Molly Debbie and Darrell	Comm:  I wanted to see if sex education had gotten any better in the 8 years since I struggled through it so went to meet Molly, a thirteen year old student who’s just had her sex ed classes and her parents, Debbie and Darrell to get their opinions on what their daughter should be taught.	2 mins
Interview in vision - Presenter Molly	Sync Zak - So you recently had sex ed, what sort of topics did you cover?
	Sync Molly - We were taught about straight relationships, pregnancy and stis. We didn’t talk about lgbt people at all.
	Sync Zak - Do you think you should be taught about lgbt relationships?
	Sync Molly - I think learning about lgbt relationships would be useful because then lgbt people in the class wouldn’t feel so isolated.
Actuality - Debbie & Darrell	Sync Zak - How do you feel about your kids being taught about lgbt issues?
Interview in vision - Debbie & Darrell	Sync Debbie - I don’t see why not. When I was younger we knew nothing about gay people. I didn’t know anybody that was gay until a family member came out. Maybe not when they’re young but as they get older it’s an issue they should become aware of. Sync Darrell - I don’t think it should be taught until then in years 10 or 11, when it’s relevant to learn about sexuality. If we teach secondary school kids. I definitely don’t think primary school kids should be learning about sexuality. At primary school, all they should need to know is about puberty.
	Sync Zak - Would you feel confident answering questions about sexuality if your children came to you instead then? Sync Debbie - I’m more than happy to talk about sexuality with our kids. Sync Darrell - We’ve always taught our kids to be honest. Sync Debbie - Like when Tommy came out ...
Actuality of Tommy	Sync Tommy - Introduces self
Interview in vision - Tommy	Sync Tommy - I came out to my friends at school first. My parents came after that ...
	Sync Tommy - My sex ed had some coverage of lgbt relationships but it was very basic. I had a close friend come out and after that a lot of us started thinking about sexuality and realising we might not be straight. A lot of my information about straight	5 mins
Screen grab from national curriculum page	Comm: The current sex education curriculum states “It doesn’t promote … any particular sexual orientation.”
Zak	Sync: Although schools are supposed not to promote any specific sexuality, a large majority of schools still appear to be teaching with a heteronormative bias.
CU	Sync: For young people questioning their own sexuality, this erasure can only serve to maximise their confusion.	5mins 30
On screen text reads: "It's basically as if trans people don't exist within the concept of sex, nor LGBT people at all.	Comm: "It's basically as if trans people don't exist within the concept of sex, nor LGBT people at all.
The only couples that we talk about are cis straight ones. (Cisgender = Somebody that identifies with the gender they were assigned at birth)	Comm:The only couples that we talk about are cis straight ones.
Sitting there as kid who's questioning and being shown "this is what's normal" is crushing because it feels like there's no space for you in the world.	Comm:Sitting there as kid who's questioning and being shown "this is what's normal" is crushing because it feels like there's no space for you in the world.	6 mins
Sequence: Zak meeting with Hilary Cooke.	Zak Comm:I went to meet with Hilary Cooke from MGSDC, the Medway Gender and Sexual Diversity Centre.
Sequence: Interview set-up, Zak and Hilary talking.	Zak Comm: MGSDC go into schools delivering LGBTQ+ edcuation sessions. I wanted to find out the importance of their work.
INTERVIEW WITH HILARY COOKE	INTERVIEW WITH HILARY COOKE
INTERCUT WITH ACTUALITY OF THEM TEACHING IN SCHOOLS
INTERVIEWS WITH STUDENTS	INTERVIEWS WITH STUDENTS	9 mins
Zak sat on bench	Ultimately, the careless teaching of sex-ed is having a serious impact on not only LGBTQ+ people but heterosexual and cisgender people, being taught narrow heteronormative viewpoints.
Zak stands, walking towards the camera	However, the government has recently pushed forward the agreement to update the current British sex-ed curriculum.
Screen grab from new curriculum plans	However, it still lacks a clear approach to queer issues and could just as easily repeat it’s precessor’s mistakes. With hopes, it is a sign of good things to come for LGBTQ+ students and boring sex ed classes everywhere.
CREDITS		10 mins