An activist is born: it's church and state against one teenage girl in this documentary about a student who questions the antigay ways of her Texas town.The Education of Shelby Knox * Produced and directed by Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt * P.O.V. on PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, * June 21, 10 P.M. (check local listings) You may not see at first what you have in common with the brash, idealistic Texan teen at the center of the documentary feature The Education of Shelby Knox. You'll change your mind. Set to air on PBS's P.O.V. on June 21, the film traces Shelby's evolution as a nascent activist during her high school years in Lubbock, where "conservative" doesn't begin to describe the brand of fundamentalist Christian hyperdogma on display. Filmmakers Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt introduce Shelby as a typical well-brought-up young lady who's more or less oblivious to the hypocritical mores of her hometown--where abstinence-only sex education Abstinence-only sex education is a form of sex education that emphasizes abstinence from sex to the exclusion of all other types of sexual and reproductive health education, particularly regarding birth control and safe sex. in school and exhortations in church against premarital sex have failed to forestall rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases Sexually transmitted diseases Infections that are acquired and transmitted by sexual contact. Although virtually any infection may be transmitted during intimate contact, the term sexually transmitted disease is restricted to conditions that are largely among the state's highest. Shelby starts questioning the status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. when her civic youth group mounts an unsuccessful campaign to broaden Lubbock's sex education in school. (In that fight her allies include her conservative Republican parents, who deserve props for standing by their opinionated daughter.) The plot thickens when Shelby decides to make common cause with to join with in purposes and aims. - Macaulay. to join or ally one's self with. See also: Cause Common a group of gay students trying to start a gay-straight alliance at Lubbock High. Nobody wants to touch that idea, from friends to classmates to the local youth pastor who warns Shelby that she's starting to sound--horrors--"tolerant." Knox, which was recently judged Best Documentary at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, offers hope to anybody who thinks they don't make "questioning" youth anymore. For gay audiences, though, the film is a chilling window on the demonization de·mon·ize tr.v. de·mon·ized, de·mon·iz·ing, de·mon·iz·es 1. To turn into or as if into a demon. 2. To possess by or as if by a demon. 3. of gays and lesbians that goes on every day in a God-fearing town like Lubbock. |
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