Focusing the Lens on Social Justice Senior Katia Milazzo puts a spotlight on social justice in her documentary about Sion. BY CHLOE BARRETT REPORTER
When senior Katia Milazzo opened her e-mail last summer, she wasn’t expecting an e-mail from Head of School Christina Broderick. A summertime e-mail from school seems nothing but foreboding, but it wasn’t bad news; it was a request for Milazzo to create a documentary for her senior service project, to be shown at the Sion conference in Rio de Janeiro held May 2 through 10. For the conference, each school was asked to present a project about how students do social service. Broderick thought a documentary would be the best project, and knew Milazzo would be perfect for the job. “[I asked Katia] because I know she really likes to make videos and she’s really artistic,” Broderick said. “And I know she was looking for a senior service project.” Milazzo had originally planned to direct the grade school’s musical, but Broderick had other ideas. “I had it thrown to me, and Mrs. Broderick was kind of just like, ‘I trust that you know what you’re doing and I know you’ll do well,’” Milazzo said. “But by her asking me, it showed me that she believes in me and knows that I can make a great documentary about our school.” Without any direction from Broderick, Milazzo began her senior year filming instances where social service manifests itself at Sion. She started with Sock It To Poverty and Food For Thought in the fall, then filmed Tri-M singing at nursing homes and the musical cast’s performance
When interviewing, senior Katia Milazzo first speaks with the subject about the topic, running through the questions before filming so that the subject can prepare. She then recreates a similar process for the camera, making the subject more comfortable and ensuring the best responses. (Photo by Chloe Barrett)
at the grade school. More recently, she has filmed the Giving the Basics drive and the Blood Drive. “I have filmed literally everything during this school year. I have over 20 interviews and probably over four hours of footage. I’m leaving all the editing till the end so I can put it all together at the same time,” Milazzo said. Milazzo works on her documentary daily, filming events that illustrate social justice or interviewing girls at Sion about their what they do to serve and their experiences with that work. She watches videos to see where she can cut them when she puts it all together, or experiements with effects on iMovie to find the best ones to incorporate into her documentary.
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She has the documentary planned out, but she’ll have a lot of work facing her when she edits the video, which she has filmed with the help of Director of Technology Jason Ketter. “I have probably over 100 videos and I need to cut them and fit them into a 15 minute documentary,” Milazzo said. Focusing on social service has been an inspirational experience for Milazzo as she learned what people feel about social service. “It has been so great to film and talk to people that are so passionate about social justice and what they do to be involved in it,” Milazzo said. “It is really amazing to be surrounded by girls that love what they do and take action.”
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