Educational Media Reviews Online

Brilliantly conceived and executed, this film portrays a teen role-modeling multiple characters. One is professional, perhaps a teacher or counselor role, one is a hostile and aggressive student, another is a passive, withdrawn student. Within flawless editing, each of these characters is portrayed in a realistic fashion, complete with the use of profanity by the aggressive student. The characters argue with one another about the teen’s problems, and none of them hear the statement “He needs help. He’s depressed.”

The film opens with a blurry screen, moving into Focus, thus emphasizing the title. It ends in the same fashion. Following the role-playing, we see the student in an actual classroom setting (in color). Ironically, the class is psychology and the teacher is explaining learned behavior. The student that we met earlier is not paying attention and therefore is sent to the office. He packs his things in an increasingly noisy fashion as the teacher explains conditioning where there is no place for the subject to get away from the negative reinforcement, causing a complete extinguishing of motivation. The student leaves the room and the teacher slams the door after him. It ends using the same technique of out of focus video. Every aspect of this video is on target to making the director’s point. However, I don’t think students, who are listed as the target audience, especially those experiencing difficulties in school, will understand the nuances. Therefore, I would reserve this video for teachers and other adults.