CT Project for the Constitution Comes to Westport

What if we could spark community dialogue in a way that helped us understand each other? Would we become more of a community?

Could today's polarized political dialogue be fixed by re-awakening the Constitutional principal of "compromise" when resolving disagreement?

How can we educate Americans about how deeply the United States Constitution still intersects with our everyday lives?

These questions inspired Todd Brewster, an award-winning journalist and Constitutional scholar, and Harold Schramm, Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law at West Connecticut State University, to found "The Connecticut Project for the Constitution." The mission of the CPC is to use the U.S. Constitution as a platform to engage the public in dialogue on major issues confronting the 21st century. Films created by three Connecticut high schools examining Constitutional issues in their towns — with the help of the CPC — will be shown as part of the Westport Youth Film Festival on Friday.

"The questions central to the Constitution are not 'right' versus 'wrong,' but rather one essential right versus another essential right," Brewster said. "This tension was purposely built in to our country's founding documents, which is why 'compromise' is essential to our success as a nation."

Recognizing that a good way to begin would be to engage our children, the CPC has created The Video Documentary Initiative. This project is a partnership with three Connecticut high schools and Global Village Media, a media company which uses film to explore and educate students about the democratic process. GVM was founded by award-winning filmmakers Catherine Tatge and Dominique Lasseur.

Students in civics and journalism classes were asked to identify Constitutional issues which they are passionate about in their communities, and then create short documentary films examining these issues from all sides. "The point is not to convince the audience that any one point of view is correct," explains Dr. Schramm. "Instead, we insist that these films examine both, or all, sides of the issue in as non-partisan, unbiased a way as possible."

The students - from Housatonic Valley Regional High School (Falls Village), Norwalk High School, and Ridgefield High School - have worked throughout the year under the guidance of faculty, filmmakers and visiting professionals to create the films.

These films will be shown at two community events: May 14 at Housatonic Valley Regional High Schoolin Falls Village and May 20 at The Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield. The events, entitled "The Constitution in our Midst," invite the public to an evening of film viewing and discussion. 

In addition, all three high schools have been invited to show their films at The Westport Youth Film Festival as part of a special evening about democracy on Friday.  The Westport Youth Film Festival is the sole high school film festival in the U.S. that is not affiliated with a school. It is a youth-run program of the Westport Arts Center.  Started in 2004, it is run by students for students. In 2009, WYFF received 300 entries from 31 states and seven countries. The event will be at 7 p.m. at Westport Town Hall.