This assignment asks you to analyze a feature film (Love & Basketball) about adolescence by applying concepts, dynamics, processes, and issues – For example: topics pertaining to adolescents’ family, peers and friendships, romantic relationships, sexual identity, the role of smartphones and social media in adolescents’ everyday lives, school as a context for development, work and career aspirations and possibilities, problems such as drug abuse or mental illness, or challenges such as unplanned early pregnancy (among other concerns). You may also draw on topics such as the teenage brain, risk-taking and adolescent cognition and on pubertal timing.
Your task is to identify concepts, ideas, and insights and to apply them to the central character(s) and experiences depicted in the film. Your paper is NOT meant to be an exhaustive survey of all of the concepts depicted; rather, your task is to select 6 concepts, processes and/or dynamics and explore them in depth by focusing in on specific instances in the film. Use the specific examples from the film to explain how the experiences depicted are consistent or inconsistent with the research presented in our readings.
Provide an introductory paragraph that BRIEFLY summarizes the arc of the film (4-5 sentences max), and then tell readers of your paper why it’s a particularly useful film for addressing specific dynamics, processes, and challenges that adolescents face. Make sure to identify the 6 concepts or processes that you’ll be focusing on for your paper.
Your paper must be thoughtfully developed. Focus your analysis on one or two central characters. Also, be sure to refer to the characters by name (not by the name of the actor playing the role). If you aren’t sure of the characters’ names, you can find them on imdb.com (Internet Movie Database), or by rolling the film credits at the end of the film.
Remember, you’re not being asked to review the film or write up your reactions to the film. Your task is to examine how the film illuminates and helps us to understand the various phenomena that we are studying.