Evolution of a Revolution

Julie Akeret, documentary producer

Shana Sureck Photography

BY FAYE S. WOLFE

The making of the School’s documentary short

Inspiring.”

The film brought back so many memories! It made me a little sentimental.”

Very difficult job to cover 100 years of history in a short film. It was well presented and fun.”

That last comment about Clinical Revolution came from Ann Hartman, SSW dean from 1986–94, who appears in the film and may be the only person who doesn’t need to watch it to learn about SSW. “I wrote a history of the School, it’s about this thick,” she said wryly when asked about the film, holding her thumb and fingers an inch apart. For everyone else, this lively, engaging and information packed 20-minute film has more than its share of revelations.

Julie Akeret was its writer and director. With 35 years’ worth of experience creating documentaries on topics ranging from tomboys to arming teachers, she knew that primary sources and period photographs would be key narrative tools. “I spent many hours in Special Collections at the Young Library,” she said, “reading journal articles and letters and looking for photos to help tell the SSW story. Originally I thought the film would focus on the School’s origins.”

Dean Marianne Yoshioka, the film’s production adviser, elaborated on that point. “One of the interesting developments was our growing recognition of the pivotal roles played by two women: Mary Jarrett [SSW’s first director] and Bertha Capen Reynolds [associate director, 1925–1938]. The narrative that we had always heard had centered on President Neilson and Dr. Southard. They undoubtedly were important players in the creation of the School, but the program itself—its structure and premises—came from Jarrett and Reynolds. We began to see this film as a way to acknowledge the contributions of these two forward-thinking women.”

SSW Associate Professor Yoosun Park, with assistance from Amanda Sposato, M.S.W. ’16, researched the School’s history for the film. As she pored over archival materials, she said, “What emerged for me was that the basic storyline is known, but the nuances are quite different.” She felt that the role of Mary Jarrett had been played down and her writings not given their due because of her gender.

It gave me a sense of what’s behind us and made me think about what’s ahead. —FILM ATTENDEE

“You could almost say Jarrett was one of the original ‘nasty women,’ very opinionated, very powerful, very unafraid to say what she thought,” said Park.

The nuances were taken into account, the film’s scope was expanded—and the storyline was extended right up to the present. Several generations and perspectives were given voice through interviews with former Dean Howard Parad; Professor Emerita Joyce Everett; Jean Camille Hall, Ph.D. ’04; Professor Joshua Miller; and alums Alan Siskind, Ph.D. ’72; Wendy Bassett, M.S.W. ’03; Tomás Alvarez, M.S.W. ’06; Frank Bayles, M.S.W. ’14; Zach Wigham, M.S.W. ’16; and Maggie Furey, M.S.W. ’18. The film’s clips of Alvarez, a pioneer of hip-hop therapy, working with “at-promise” kids, as he calls them, show how relevant an SSW education is today.

“Schools are living organisms,” Akeret said. “If they are sensitive and alert, they will grow and change as the world grows and changes.”

“There are two take-home messages from this film for me,” Dean Yoshioka said. “First, that our School has been unique and extraordinary from the beginning. Its block program, for example, allowed for incredible depth in the curriculum, depth that we retain to this day. The second takeaway is that our attention to racial justice was introduced in the School’s early years. It’s constant and evolving, and it hasn’t been easy. But it is a true commitment.” ◆