'Freshman Year' offers peek at nation's teens
Advertiser News Services
LOS ANGELES — They sport pierced tongues and navels. They wear baggy denim pants and sheer tops exposing their undershirts and bras. They come from all corners of the world, and have few problems interacting with people of different backgrounds.
They are members of a freshman class at Chatsworth High School. According to HBO, they represent the changing face and flavor of young America, and they offer a commentary on the nation's present and a peek into its future.
"Freshman Year," filmed at Chatsworth High in California's San Fernando Valley, is a 14-part series premiering Aug. 31 about the experiences of a class of ninth-graders. Directed by Eamon Harrington and John Watkin, who both worked on the HBO Family series "Crashbox," the film was shot during the 1999-2000 school year.
Film crews followed students around the sprawling campus, at sporting events and into their homes.
The half-hour episodes will focus on class elections, a nerdy student who lands the lead role in a school play, a cheerleader's battle with bulimia and a girl with a tough home life who is flunking and leaves for a continuation school.
Students featured include: Jamie and Asad, two students aggressively vying for class president; and Justin, a small freshman who is unable to secure a locker and has to carry his belongings around in a rolling suitcase.
Joe Shumpert, a tailback on the school's football team, said he enjoyed filming the documentary, although at times it was prying.
"Sometimes it was annoying because I was trying to kiss my girl, and there was the camera," the 16-year-old said between summer classes.
"The kids were both excited and apprehensive to do it," Chatsworth Principal Dan Wyatt said of the filming. "There were lots of laughs and also drama."
Shumpert, who will be a junior in the fall, lives in Chatsworth, a tree-lined community of subdivisions, horse ranches and industrial parks at the foot of the Santa Susana Mountains. He said he knows why the series' producers focused on his campus.
"It's the best school togetherwise," he said. "I have white friends, Mexican friends, and I'm black, and we all get along."
The school was chosen by HBO documentary makers who, a few years ago, searched the 49 high schools of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest, for a campus that epitomizes the typical experience of students in an urban school.
Chatsworth High is a 3,276-student campus in the northwest San Fernando Valley that hovers around the state average in student achievement, teacher experience and class size. Once predominantly white, with famous alumni such as Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey and actors Val Kilmer and Mare Winningham, the campus now boasts a multi-ethnic student body that reflects the shifting demographics of Los Angeles, the valley and much of the country.
District figures show that 41 percent of the students are Latino, 31 percent are white and 14 percent are Asian. Blacks account for 10 percent, Filipinos 3 percent and Native Americans 1 percent.
HBO is also set to release "Kindergarten," directed by Emmy-winners Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon ("Chimps: So Like Us"). The 13-episode series follows 23 five- and six-year-olds, and their teacher Jennifer Johnson. Topics tackled in the series include losing teeth, the gingerbread man, Valentine's Day, time out, Martin Luther King's birthday and being shy. The series was shot at the Upper Nyack Elementary School in New York. "Kindergarten" debuts Aug. 26.
In addition, HBO Family is bringing back its kid-produced series "30 by 30: Kid Flicks" with 31 new episodes. The series will feature 90 new short films made by and for kids. It will premiere Aug. 26.
