For those of us who have graduated from university or are still continuing our studies, we probably think we know all about college life. Don’t we? Well, maybe through our own personal encounters, but each individual’s college experience varies through the highs and lows of academia-partying, making friends, attaining independence and searching for self-discovery. Academy Award-winning filmmaker John Zaritsky delves into a trenchant analysis of college life through the eyes of diverse students in his new three-part documentary College Days, College Nights that airs on the Documentary Channel this week.
College Days, College Nights explores the lives of 16 university students at the University of British Columbia, all chosen from different faculties and age groups with a wide spectrum of personalities and interests, who search for knowledge, love, sex and a path to their future within one school year. This documentary, which at first glance seems to offer nothing more than beer-chugging, chain-smoking (and seemingly fearless) characters, actually presents a fascinating study of the transition from teenager to adult as seen through Zaritsky’s lens and the eyes of the students themselves.
“I decided three years ago that I wanted to do a documentary series centered around college life in the new millennium because I felt that the media focused their attention on high schools and the problems of adolescents, while largely ignoring universities and the problems college students face. Personally, I was curious to see what life for a college student was like today compared to my experience at the University of Toronto 40 years ago,” Zaritsky explains.
The diverse characters were given video cameras to record their most personal thoughts, lending a confessional-type quality to the stories. According to Zaritsky, it offered a candour and honesty to the film that might not have been otherwise achieved. Naturally, we as viewers are drawn to Zaritsky’s attempt to define a generation struggling with the cult of competition itself.
“If you’re wondering what the future leaders of our country will be doing in 20 years-what they’re like, what they want, and how they misbehave-don’t miss this film,” says Michael Burns, director of programming for the Documentary Channel. “With 25 cameras shooting over 10 months, this is the most exhaustive study of university life ever attempted in Canada. It’s a spectacular achievement.”
And it is indeed a thorough study of university life, well worth watching. Zaritsky provides an expansive view of college life, and each individual’s personal struggle. The characters become very much part of our world because they are real, and confide their innermost thoughts and feelings to the cameras-and to us.
Tejas, 23, is thousands of miles in opposite directions from either of his divorced parents as he struggles for the first time with the effects of depression. Michelle, 25, has been blind since childhood, and has gone through university with the help of her best friend, her guide dog Libby, but only one of them will make it to graduation. Leila, 18, a freshman nursing student, has moved out of her parents’ home for the first time, and is struggling with the freedom she was so anxious to have. And of course, what is campus life without a character like Lenny, 20, who is a hard-drinking, poker-playing party animal who won’t let academics spoil his college experience.
“I hope viewers will come away from the series with the same respect and admiration I felt for the college students of today. As the French say, plus ça change, rien ne change. That’s about a perfect expression to summarize my experience,” Zaritsky offers.
“After over a year of filming, it became apparent that much had changed, but a lot had not,” he adds. “Students today are involved in a more competitive environment that seems to leave less time for the fun and frivolity that I remember. They are more serious because they have to be. There seems to be fewer spots in everything from academic placements to part-time jobs. They are a product of the times.”
College Days, College Nights makes its world premiere on the Documentary Channel, airing in three parts from March 1-3 at 8 p.m.
