Teens' film project provides a model for all of us

QUAD-CITY TIMES EDITORIAL / November 2001

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are two Bettendorf High School juniors who like to make films. In fact, they’ve made more than a dozen of them, with the help of a large group of friends.

Now they’re wrapping up their latest production, called “Yearbook.” If you’re thinking it’s probably a shadowy video that caters to teens’ superficial or selfish interests, you would be wrong. Very wrong.

“We wanted to make a film with a purpose, and we thought a movie about teen-agers — from teen-agers — would be different,” Woods says.

The movie’s target audience is teens, but adults also would do well to heed its message. “Yearbook” is a 20-minute film that follows the lives of four teen-agers and their experiences with the repercussions of drinking and driving. The catalyst for the project was the death of an 11-year-old East Moline girl in an alcohol-related crash last April.

While the lessons of “Yearbook” are important, the young filmmakers also provide an impressive model for their peers, as well as adults. Beck and Woods financed this project on their own and borrowed lighting equipment from Beck’s grandfather, who has worked in the California film industry. They hope organizations such as Students Against Drunk Driving, or SADD, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, will consider using the film in their campaigns.

So do we.

Largely because of education efforts, the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths declined about 30 percent in the past decade. Yet traffic accidents remain the leading cause of death among people ages 15-24 in all states, and alcohol is involved in about half of the them — whether the driver is a teen or an adult.

That’s not acceptable. We must reduce the fatality rate even faster.

And with the help of talented, dedicated young people such as Bryan Woods, Scott Beck and their friends, we will.