Jessica Eletto

All of documentaries in class tell a personal story. Each different and special in their own way but still relatable. When asked the day that the project was assigned, “what is your story?” I didn’t know what to say. I have had a great deal of experiences and it was hard to just choose one to create a documentary on. In the end, I landed on my family’s divorce and its impact on me. This is something that quite literally “hits home” and is a big part of my life.

When my parents got divorced thirteen years ago, along with two other aunts and uncles, my life changed. At the time I was too young to understand what was exactly happening but as I grew up I understood that we were not like a “normal” family. My dad remarried a few months after my mom and his divorce went through and I gained a whole new family. The point of the documentary is to show the audience what it’s like to go through a divorce through a child’s perspective and not just from the person who is having the divorce. I wanted to share my personal narrative with the class to show that in the future, when they are thinking of getting married or are married and have children to think about if this is really the best person for you to spend your life with. Once a person has a child with another person, they both have this invisible link to the other forever. If there is any speculation for separation with kids then that is something that needs to be considered. Also just because something needs to be repaired does not mean it needs to be replaced. In my parent’s case, they probably never should have gotten married to begin with and a divorce was actually better for them than staying together.

The documentary, “Generation y: A Broken Generation” starts with me speaking about my childhood and how the divorce affected my life. There are photos that start from my childhood and finish with pictures from current day. Each picture is supposed to help paint a picture of the dynamic of my family before and after the divorce occurred. In the beginning there were a great deal of people together and then the photos change to separate families with smaller gatherings. As the years have gone on more people have joined my family and it has grown but this has only happened in the last two years or so. After my voice over ends my step sister, Stephanie, answers some questions I had for her about the divorce, and divorce in general. The montage of photos keeps playing with the low sound of music playing in the background. I wanted to have narrative from siblings on both sides of the family to get a better picture of how the divorce, and remarriage impacted us.