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Synopsis

The documentary “UNCOMMON GROUND,” is a film about the process of discovery and understanding that young people experience as they come of age and embrace the world they live in. Five multiethnic Los Angeles high school seniors travel to South Africa to meet and live with five South African students in a black township. The film focuses on the day-to-day activities of this diverse group of young people, as they share their experiences with family, school, violence, racism, and oppression. The result is a dynamic exploration of the process of cross-cultural exchange and personal identity.

The film begins in Los Angeles, where the filmmaker, an Anglo-American woman, meets the youth at an anti-apartheid rally on Martin Luther King Day, and questions the significance of the South African struggle to young people in America, including herself. Why is such a remote liberation struggle such a highly charged issue in the U.S.? for all races? We meet the students briefly, and learn about their identification with apartheid, and their initial feelings about what they expect to encounter on the trip.

Once in South Africa, the students are introduced to their South African student hosts and their families. Immediately, they are thrust into a whirlwind of activity: visits to black, “colored,” and white schools, community and political groups. Each American student, in collaboration with their South African friends, creates a short, video “diary” on some aspect of their experience there, which are woven into the film. Written journal entries of the students are used as commentary on the events as they happen. For example, one Latino student video profiles a homeless youth shelter. An African American youth videotapes and grapples with the meaning of a Xhosa male circumcision ceremony. The filmmaker, too, undergoes a personal transformation while walking through the white South African part of town, and confronting her own identity.

The film ends in Los Angeles, under the burning backdrop of the 1992 civil unrest. Each student, one year after returning from South Africa reflects on his/her experience and what impact the trip has had on their lives and future goals.

UNCOMMON GROUND is not about overt political expose. It is about youth awareness and concern, tapping into the personal, day-to-day lives of people living under oppressive, yet rapidly shifting conditions. The film carves a clear space for young people, often overlooked in the broader societal debates of multiculturalism and global relations. UNCOMMON GROUND asks one basic question: From Soweto to South Central L.A., what is it that young people are seeing and experiencing, and how can their concerns be addressed in the media and society at large?