For my documentary, I chose to focus on my twin brother and my relationship, how it has changed since moving away to two separate colleges, and thereby effected the mental health and our relationship with our younger sister. Being a twin and an older sister is a huge part of who I am and shaping my current identity and location. Since moving to college, this information is unknown to those around me unless I tell them, and this is a common experience among many siblings who move away from their family for college. Additionally, while many people think about the emotions of the child moving away and their parents, they fail to acknowledge the struggles of the younger siblings left at home and the changes that take place once family members move away. Telling my sisters untold story allows younger siblings around the world to feel seen and have their emotions valued and understood.
Similar to my 60 second documentary, I one way I chose to show this shift is through our back-to-school photos over the years. Every year, my mom would take a first and last day of school picture of me and my siblings, once all three of us and now just my sister. I felt that this was a powerful representation of the familial shift as the pictures have been taken in the same place for the past 12 years that we have lived in our current house, with the only difference being the siblings in them.
Another form of media I included in my documentary was firsthand reflections from my siblings about their experiences with our sibling shift. Although the documentary is based upon my narration of the story, I felt including their voice and perspective makes the documentary feel more personal and connect to a larger audience.
I also chose to include both images and home videos from my childhood. I felt that including some videos of my brother and I when we were younger shows more of our deep connection and allows audiences to further visualize the life we lived together before going our separate ways in college. This is also another way to further humanize my documentary and allow it to connect to more people as home videos are something that a lot of siblings can look back on to relive memories, no matter the age gap. Including these different versions of media showcasing the different sides of our sibling dynamic, my goal was that this story could relate to siblings, of any age gap, dealing with the emotions of one of them moving away.
Leave a Reply