Chain Camera

Chain Camera is a 2001 American documentary film directed by Kirby Dick about the lives of Los Angeles high school students. It premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Chain Camera is made up entirely of footage shot by students at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles. The filmmakers gave Hi-8 video cameras to ten students and asked them to record their lives for one week before passing the cameras on to ten new students. This process continued throughout the school year, and the filmmakers then selected 16 student video diaries for the film. The film's subjects represent diverse... backgrounds in terms of race, religion, socio-economic background, gender, and sexual orientation. Most segments feature scenes of the students interacting with friends and family members as well as personal video diaries in which the subjects analyze their lives. Dick has stated that he didn't censor any of the students' footage except in situations that might violate child pornography laws, such as a scene in which a teenager performs a simulated sex act using a banana. Chain Camera's subjects encounter a variety of different situations and discuss how these have affected their lives.
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