As with the best arguments, the idea for Lauren Kesler’s essay came from a deeply personal place. An aspiring documentary filmmaker, she began with the simplest of questions: What documentary film needs to be made? Her answer—an autoethnographic film that gives ill children directorial power over their own representations—wonderfully synthesizes the academic and the public, the theoretical and the practical.
Lauren wrote this essay for our WR 150: “Global Documentary” seminar as part of the WR X Genre and Audience Cluster. Students researched documentary films that piqued their interest and then wrote on their topic in three different genres for different audiences: a research proposal, an academic research paper, and a public intellectual essay. Their topics spanned disciplines and the globe, from the decline of Chinese ethnic minorities to the rise of adjuncts in American universities.
There is so much to admire in Lauren’s essay: its extensive research, logical organization, and overall originality. I particularly appreciate the gentle confidence and humor of her voice, even when working with a subject as tragic as this one. It is gratifying to see Lauren honored for her topnotch essay, which lays the groundwork for what will be a revolutionary documentary. I await an invitation to the premiere.
— MARISA MILANESE
WR 150: Global Documentary