Teen moms film shows in Oregon
By Faith News Note:
The documentary “Teen Moms Have a Future” was created and shown in Milwaukie, Oregon. The film was directed by Courtney Polk, herself a mother at sixteen and now a student at Clackamas Community College, majoring in digital multimedia communications. Polk’s purpose in making the film was to break down stereotypes of teen mothers that are often presented in popular TV shows like “Teen Mom” and “Sixteen and Pregnant.”
Teen Moms Have a Future [5] from Benjamin Meader [6] on Vimeo [7].
“However you feel, what you believe about teen parents going in, this film will change your perception. It is a nice little vignette of one issue that is nicely framed in a positive way,” Zara Logue, the producer of the film, told the Portland Tribune.
The filmmakers received a grant from the Clackamas County Cultural Coalition. They teamed with Milwaukie’s art committee and Madonna’s Center, a nonprofit that supports teen parents in Clackamas County. The film presents teen mothers who are working to achieve personal goals while also attempting to be good mothers.
Each year in the US about 750,000 women aged 15-19 become pregnant. The US teen pregnancy rate is one of the highest in the developed world, more than twice as high as rates in Canada, 15 times as high as rates in Japan.
Although teen mothers are much less likely to complete high school and nearly 80% of unmarried mothers end up on welfare, “Teen Moms with a Future” presents teen mothers who are fighting to beat those odds.
For full story, see here [8]