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DREW BARRYMORE TALKS ABOUT VOTING, POLITICS AND HER DEBUT AS A DOCUMENTARY FILM DIRECTOR
Drew Barrymore with Barnard President Judith Shapiro
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Screening her first documentary film before a Barnard student audience, Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore offered a candid, spirited perspective Sunday night (September 12) on the subject she explores both behind and on camera -voting, politics and why they should matter to young people.
The star of two blockbuster Charlie's Angels movies as well as Riding in Cars with Boys and her latest, 50 First Dates, Barrymore described her own pre-documentary understanding of politics as "uninformed and irresponsible," and said her political awakening came when she realized she didn't know enough about government, politics or voting to understand why her vote even mattered.
Barnard teamed with Self magazine, whose executive editor, Dana Points, is a 1988 graduate of the College, to present Barrymore's 44-minute documentary, The Best Place to Start, which will air on MTV this fall.
President Judith Shapiro opened the program by comparing Barrymore's interest in expanding the number of young people who vote with the College's initiatives to encourage more young women to seek political office. "We definitely have common interests," said Shapiro to applause.
The audience of 200 Barnard students gave Barrymore's film enthusiastic applause and peppered her with questions afterward, about whether she agreed that "paperless" electronic voting was a good idea, whether the Electoral College should be eliminated and whether the two political parties are really any different at all. She handled the questions with confidence and humor, noting, for example, that computerized voting was something of a "risqué subject."
In the audience were dozens of students who are involved in the College Civic Engagement Program, under the guidance of associate director Will Simpkins. The program ties together student community involvement and academic seminars that address the larger question of what it means to be an active, engaged citizen in a democracy.
Barrymore said she decided to make the documentary when, after she was asked to speak at a political rally for young people, she "fell on my face." She said she realized then: "I have to know what I'm talking about or I just can't live with myself."
In making the film, she travelled with journalists on the press bus during last winter's Democratic primary elections in New Hampshire and other states, interviewing the candidates, including Gen. Wesley Clark as well as political leaders including Sen. Hillary Clinton and her own congressman, Rep. Henry Waxman of California, and celebrities like filmmaker Michael Moore, Democratic political strategist James Carville (of "It's the economy, stupid" fame) and political humorist Jon Stewart of The Daily Show. She also interviewed activists for voter registration for young people, such as the Hip Hop Summit, punkvoter.com and First Vote.
The film takes the form of Barrrymore's search on camera for answers: Why do so few young people vote? What difference does it make if they do? How can we break the cycle of apathy that keeps turnout low? She approaches the subject with candor and humor, at one point noting her own student years in high school cutting class as she approaches a group of students doing the same.
She discovers a cycle in which 18-to-24 year olds vote in such low numbers (only 36 percent) that politicians feel they can then ignore issues of concern to them. Then, feeling ignored and misunderstood by politicians, young people are less likely to see the point of voting. "But we do hold all the cards," said Barrymore, who will turn 30 next year. "If we vote, then they [politicians] will have to start speaking meaningfully to young people."
The film culminates with her visit to Selma, Ala., site of one of the bloodiest confrontations during the Civil Rights Movement and credited with the passage of the Voting Rights Act. On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80 in a march for voting rights. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma. Barrymore interviews local residents who participated in the march to underscore why voting matters.
After making the film, Barrymore said her own test of whether a candidate deserved her vote involved "getting to know yourself better," in terms of the priorities that matter most to you. "You have to examine what really matters to you, whether it's the environment or fighting for women's rights, and then decide the candidate that you choose comes close to your views on these issues."
Barnard's Civic Engagement Program involves a range of activities, from voting rights and registration, "alternative" spring break at New York City community service agencies, internships and volunteer work with not-for-profit agencies like Common Ground, which deals with homelessness, to lectures by key activists on community issues. One program, "Causes to Careers," brings students and professionals together to discuss how students can turn their activism and advocacy into professional lives after college. Roseanne Haggerty, president and founder of Common Ground, and Barnard alumna Maria Hinojosa, the CNN and NPR correspondent, are among the professionals who are participating this fall.
These activities take place alongside faculty-led seminars and discussions that ask how and why community involvement and service impacts our society.
The program is a joint venture by Academic Affairs and the Office of Career Development, intended to integrate student community service and internships with seminars, discussions and lectures that address both theoretical and practical aspects of what it means to be an active, engaged citizen. "The goal is to give a reflective component to the many ways that our students are involved in the community and to expand these opportunities," said Simpkins.
For more information, please contact Suzanne Trimel in the Office of Public Affairs, (212) 854-7583, strimel@barnard.edu
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