Sunday, October 3, 1999
Dealing With Differences
By LYNELL GEORGE
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Sunday, October 3, 1999
Dealing With Differences
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 year-and-a-half after filmmaker Jennifer Fox entered the lives of
Bill Sims and Karen Wilson and their two daughters--Cicily and
Chaney--she walked away with 1,000 hours of their lives and an ambitious
puzzle to assemble.
The Sims-Wilson family's very act of so thoroughly opening up their lives raised a larger question: What inspires someone to lay their lives bare? To spill all? To grow up, wearier but maybe wiser, in public? And what do we, as a public, gain from it? Beginning last week, viewers were invited to take part in an ongoing dialogue about all matter of relationships--interracial, interdenominational, gay, straight, traditional--on PBS' Web site http://www.pbs.org/weblab/lovestories. Since the 10-hour documentary "An American Love Story" aired Sept. 12-16 on PBS, the "lovestories" Web site has hosted a series of sustained, intimate group dialogues. The hope: to continue and expand discussion about the series and the thornier issues of race, relationships and differences that the series raised. Web Lab, in conjunction with Fox's film company Zohe Film Productions, created this unmoderated, participatory medium to allow people of varying ages, backgrounds and opinions to shape and guide their own discussions. (Web Lab also produced a similar site as a valve during Clinton's impeachment hearings earlier this year.) Those who signed on--about 1,400 people in 23 groups so far--have committed for a three-week period. Participants have chosen among three categories: the Relationship Groups, whose focus is bridging differences within relationships; the TV Series Groups, dedicated to discussion about the series' content; and the 25 and Under Groups, which is open to whim. To participate you must register; to simply view the discussion, click on Dialogue Directory. Among the 300 topics floated: Is prejudice all too human? Have the differences ever been more than you could ultimately handle? Biracial couples in the South: But what about the children? Why are black men most likely to date outside? Breaking out of cliques. White kid with black family. The resulting on-point discussion can be rare in the anonymous and newish world of the Web. But the film, and topics that bloom from it, provoked a free flow of ideas, advice and self-searching. "Not having the site moderated does a couple of things: It gives people more sense of freedom as well as more responsibility," says Marc Weiss, executive producer of the Love Stories site and Web Lab--a New York-based nonprofit specializing in public-interest/participatory uses for the Web. "We wanted to create a site where people could probe each other in a way that they didn't have to feel that their head is bitten off." Weiss hopes the Web site (up through October), with its room for enrichment and dissension, will give the series the longevity it deserves. "That's the wonderful thing about the Web. These folks can keep coming at their own leisure for as long as they have anything to say. It has become a nice parallel to 'An American Love Story' in that all the intricacies and complexities of one's life become cumulatively a snapshot of love and marriage in an age where everything is possible."
Copyright
1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved
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