The Roof is on Fire_Fabiola Ahn

There were three techniques utilized during this project that stood out the most: questioning the stereotype, tackling the source, and arguing against the stereotype to the audience.

The first step was identifying the stereotype, which in this documentary was the negative stereotyping of teens. Many of the traits associated with teens relate to durgs, sex, violence, etc. Of course, in any socio-political statement, the first thing to do would be to identify the issue. However, when taking on the next step of tackling the issue, one must find the source of the problem. In this case, the source of the negative stereotyping against teens was the media. What I think was most effective in this case was identifying where the stereotype came from and using that source as a way of extending the truth. Because the artist and the collaborators knew that people got information about teens from the media, they focused on getting as much media coverage for this project. The third step was arguing against the stereotype to the audience. In many ways, I think this can be the most difficult step. Presenting a topic in a way that will grab an audience’s attention is often difficult to execute and requires multiple attempts. What I found most interesting about this project is its mode of presentation. Instead of giving a speech or writing a column, they directed their attention towards teens specifically, thus leading to the idea of literally listening to a conversation. What made this powerful is the level of intimacy between the teens sharing a conversation about race, gender, politics, economy, and so on. Not only did placing them in a car make the conversation seem real, but the colloquial language and emotion shared between the teens felt more grounded to reality than an average speech (almost as if I were watching a film about teens). What I think makes a political statement fail is usually the lack of intimacy between the speaker and the audience (hence, why we emphasize the importance of ethos in rhetoric), and often achieving it solely through words isn’t enough to establish that. This project, however, notes the importance of intimacy and uses it to create a narrative for each of the teens participating in the event.