PAGE 10 • GO! MAGAZINE
THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2021 • THE BULLETIN
CENTRAL OREGON ARTS SCENE
bendbulletin.com/gosee
Bend High senior makes documentary
about teen life during the pandemic
BY DAVID JASPER • The Bulletin
B
end High School senior Scout Gesuale
isn’t sure what she’ll want to study
next year in college. “I have no idea. I
am interested in a lot of things,” she said. Al-
ready accepted at the University of Oregon,
Gesuale, 18, is waiting to hear from the out-
of-state schools to which she’s applied: the
University of British Columbia and Brown
and Tulane universities.
Film could end up on her shortlist of ma-
jors, but for now, filmmaking is a self-taught
hobby. Over the past five weeks, Gesuale
interviewed classmates, shot footage and
edited it together to create a short documen-
tary about surviving high school during a
pandemic that has altered the usual way of
doing things. Its title: “Alone Together.”
“I thought it’d be interesting to see what
students have to say about their experience
over the last year — how they felt about go-
ing back to school, how they coped with
mental health and just the things that kept
them happy, kept them going and inspired
during this time,” she said.
What she learned in the process of mak-
ing the film is that people’s experiences
and opinions varied. For example, on the
topic of returning to school, some of the 15
students in the film were “over the moon”
about going back to actual classrooms, while
others were terrified about the health risks.
“I was really looking forward to going
back. I have quite a bit of family on the east
coast, and they have been back for a while
and managed to keep everything really safe,”
said Riley Ahmuty, a 16-year-old sopho-
more whom Gesuale interviewed for the
film. “I felt pretty good about that. Once
teachers started getting vaccinated, I defi-
nitely felt sure about it being good to go
back. … For everybody’s mental state, it was
really important to get that in-person con-
nection with teachers and classmates again.”
Gesuale had mixed feelings about going
back herself.
“I was doing fine online, and I’d finally
gotten into this routine, and then they just
More Information
“Alone Together”
• Part one, “Alone Together”
youtu.be/aTiAX567wY0
• Part two, “Online Learning”
youtu.be/ZckQvmbv_A8
• Part three, “Back to School”
youtu.be/Da2k4wJqMPs
• Part four, “Mental Health”
youtu.be/-3M65ymo7BU
Submitted photo
Budding filmmaker Scout Gesuale works on editing “Alone Together,” a short documentary about
local high schoolers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
threw another wrench in the plan,” she said.
“I wasn’t sure what kind of protocols there
were, how safe things would be. It’s different
now — a month ago is when I started this.”
Gesuale said she began conceiving of the
project after completing her college applica-
tions in January.
“I had a lot of free time, and so I was look-
ing for something different to do,” she said.
“I had been feeling really distanced from my
peers, if that makes any sense, just because
it’s hard to keep up with people right now, as
most people know. When I heard we were
going back to school, I thought this could
be a really neat opportunity to get an idea of
what students are actually thinking.”
“Alone Together” follows through on that
premise, from its opening banner: “The fol-
lowing documentary is about students and
for students.”
“When we heard that we were going
back to school, I thought, oh, this could
be a really neat opportunity to get an idea
of what students are actually thinking, be-
cause I feel like it’s kind of been a mixed
narrative,” she said. “There’s been all kinds
of speculation about students’ mental
health and academic performance and how
the pandemic has affected this and that,
but it seems to me that nobody ever asks
the students how they’re feeling or what
would work best for them.”
Ella Peterson, a 17-year-old Bend High
junior that Gesuale interviewed for the film,
agrees that the teen perspective has gotten
short shrift.
“I think it’s really important. For a long
time, especially in the beginning and middle
of the epidemic, it seemed like they were just
focusing on the adult world,” Peterson said.
“But the student perspective is very import-
ant, because it’s a big part of our lives that
we’re missing.”
Gesuale said she conducted at-school and
Zoom interviews with sophomores, juniors
and fellow seniors. Most are Bend High
students, save for one from Summit High
School.
The film has a four-part structure: a con-
text-establishing introduction, followed by a
look at online schooling, the return to school
and, finally, people’s mental states. (Rather
than a continual long-form film, each of its
four sections is a stand-alone video.)
“I think that one is going to be the most
important, I hope. I would say that the peo-
ple that talked to me were incredibly open
and honest, and I really appreciated that,
because that can be a hard thing to do,” she
said. “It was hard for a lot of kids. A lot of
people had at some point or another a re-
ally challenging time regarding their men-
tal health. Maybe their schoolwork as well,
but they were able to find new outlets, like
swimming or running or painting. People
just really looked outside of what they were
doing normally to find something.”
Gesuale has posted the four parts of
“Alone Together,” which has a 30-minute
running time in total, on Youtube.
“I feel like I was able to reach out to
enough people that I think I got a pretty
well-rounded view of what it was like to be a
high-schooler right now,” she said.
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David Jasper: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com