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  • 5 weeks ago
Inspired by an unconventional teacher, a group of teenagers in upstate New York in the early 1990s make a student film a | dG1fZEg0UzVsNm1UU3M
Transcript
00:00Good evening, and welcome to Middletown High School.
00:07Tonight we have a visual history of Middletown and some other surprises.
00:11He never felt like a teacher.
00:13People used to call him Hippie Fred.
00:15Other educators would have us believe Fred was a crackpot.
00:21You don't learn by sitting in a classroom and taking notes.
00:25You learn by doing, by getting involved.
00:31Oh, wow.
00:32Wow, it's like going back in time.
00:35Action.
00:38I thought of myself more of a nuisance.
00:40I was an outsider.
00:42Misdirected youth.
00:45I was sort of against the system, but deep down I was cripplingly shy.
00:50In the 90s, you would have called me a poser.
00:52You're a dick, Jeff.
00:53You're a dick, Jeff.
00:55Yeah, Jeff, you're a dick.
00:56Old school teachers thought it was a joke.
01:03Making a movie is not like writing a five-page essay.
01:07Yeah, this is real life.
01:08That's harder.
01:11Middletown was picture perfect, but Fred was teaching us what's underneath the surface.
01:17Toxic waste was illegally dumped for 20 years.
01:23We're on the edge of some kind of pond.
01:25The smell is making me sick, Fred.
01:27We were meddling kids making a documentary.
01:30Like, that felt really powerful.
01:33Cover-ups from the county, state, and federal level.
01:36I'm nervous for that kid.
01:38I know it's in there because I buried lots of it.
01:40I don't think any of us had any sense of the scale of this story.
01:45The biggest garbage company was, in fact, run by organized crime.
01:48We're talking about mafia in our neighborhood.
01:51There was a perception that Fred was leading us into danger.
01:55The guy did threaten me.
01:57I think our phones are tapped.
01:59Mr. B advises that I buy a gun.
02:01You're going to stop videotaping me?
02:02I have nothing to hide.
02:03It's more than just a record of environmental crime.
02:11It's this archetype of young people rising up to the challenge and doing something about it.
02:21The school had had enough.
02:22I remember I asked Fred if we should keep going.
02:25He said, yeah, push harder.
02:27And I was like, fuck.
02:29Yeah!
02:31It was a community.
02:32It's one of the only reasons I came to school.
02:38What if we could get it right?
02:40What if society could turn the world back right side up?
02:45That became one of our mottos.
02:47Civic courage.
02:49It means acting as if you live in a real democracy.
02:53What if you live in a real democracy?
02:54What if you live in a real democracy?
02:55What if you live in a real democracy?
02:56What if you live in a real democracy?
02:57What if you live in a real democracy?
02:58What if you live in a real democracy?
02:59What if you live in a real democracy?
03:00What if you live in a real democracy?
03:01What if you live in a real democracy?
03:02What if you live in a real democracy?
03:03What if you live in a real democracy?
03:04What if you live in a real democracy?
03:05What if you live in a real democracy?
03:06What if you live in a real democracy?
03:07What if you live in a real democracy?
03:08What if you live in a real democracy?
03:09What if you live in a real democracy?
03:10What if you live in a real democracy?
03:11What if you live in a real democracy?
03:12What if you live in a real democracy?
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