Among other things, Lexi Leban and Lidia Szajko's grueling documentary Girl Trouble—chronicling the plight of girls in San Francisco's juvenile justice system—does an excellent job of illustrating the tremendous importance of children having positive role models. In the past decade, the overall youth crime rate declined in San Francisco, but the number of girls in the juvenile justice system more than doubled (girls now represent 28% of all juvenile arrests in the U.S.). Following three angry, wary young girls—Shangra, Stephanie, and Sheila—over a four-year period, Girl Trouble interweaves excellent verité footage with in-depth interviews of the girls (along with case workers, lawyers, and youth advocates), examining their difficult personal journeys within the context of a flawed justice system, while also detailing the help they receive at the Center for Young Women's Development, a peer-run group for girls who have been locked up or live on the street. The latter is run by 22-year-old Lateefah Simon, whose ability to channel her own tough childhood into an energetic program that provides a constructive environment for girls has earned her a MacArthur fellowship grant. Despite the film's clear-eyed view of the overwhelming odds facing young girls living on the street, the four-year timeframe—covering the adolescent years—provides ample opportunity to watch each girl grow from being cocky but bewildered into varying degrees of self-empowerment. Shangra, arrested for drug possession at the age of 16, is later released to a residential drug treatment program that provides the structure she needs to graduate from high school. Stephanie, 16, the victim of an abusive alcoholic father, eventually rejects an equally abusive boyfriend to become a single mother working on her college degree. And after drugs and violence have nearly ruined her life, Sheila, 17, moves from being suicidal to achieving the willpower to both survive and succeed. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (A. Cantú)
Girl Trouble
(2004) 74 min. DVD or VHS: $99: public libraries & high schools; $275: colleges & universities. New Day Films. PPR. Closed captioned. ISBN: 1-57448166-5 (dvd). Volume 22, Issue 3
Girl Trouble
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