Ask Me, Don't Tell Me

Ask Me, Don't Tell Me (1961)

** (out of 4)

Educational short documenting the San Francisco "Youth for Service" program, which was meant to show young gang members that there is a better life out there off the streets. There's no question that the program itself was a well-meaning thing but that doesn't translate to an entertaining movie. I was somewhat shocked at how bland and mute this short actually was but I blame a lot of this on director Myers who really doesn't have a good way of telling a story. It should be noted that Myers did some photography work on such titles as WOODSTOCK, JOHNNY CASH IN SAN QUENTIN and THX 1138. That being said, there's really not too much life in this thing and one can't help but be bored throughout the 21-minute running time. There's some nice music on the soundtrack and it was mildly entertaining seeing these real gang members but a better film could have been made.

This short subject concerns itself with a program in San Francisco . It took young men and put them to work on programs to fix up houses, help bedridden patients, and similar tasks. Various people talk in the soundtrack, speaking in terms of the era's progressive movement, emphasizing that money for this program comes from government, private funds, and church funds. It also claims that the program has no political agenda, and then begins to speak of its political agenda.

It's little glitches like that, which people who are not in on the contemporary societal assumptions, can use to locate those assumptions. We can applaud the program, agree with its methods, but recognize that the presentation betrays a particular political philosophy because sixty years later, those are not the standards of our day. It betrays a tunnel vision on the part of the film makers, to assume that their current normative values are the eternally correct ones. It's a fallacy people still are prey to.

In San Francisco, the Youth for Service Program is trying to reform juvenile delinquents. Many are aimlessly dancing, playing music in the streets, and speaking jive. I had hopes that this would actually be a slice of youth culture documentary. It's mostly recreations and fictionalizations. It may be simply the educational industrial complex. Some of the gang patches are interesting. Maybe these are real street kids although I think I recognize one of them. I just hope that they're not amateur actors. There isn't much in terms of real street life. It doesn't make for a good time capsule. Let's hope it did some good back in the day.

This is a public service film about youth gone wild and a program (Youth for Service) to keep these kids busy doing constructive things with their energy. The film is introduced by one of the squarest and least interesting public officials and these "untamed youth" seem amazingly non-threatening. Narration ranged from super-square and robotic white guys to black hipsters--creating a very strange mix indeed! Some of the stuff in the film seems impressive though some seems very naive (such as the program providing no guidance and assuming the teens will figure it out on their own!). Interestingly, when I checked I found that YFS still exists in San Francisco, though what it's currently doing I have no idea.