based art exhibits at the Detroit-based gallery.
Schenk, who grew up in Michigan and now lives in
Chicago, attributes this career twist to fate.
"My focus was drawn to bathroom graffiti because of
the context in which I discovered it and also because it's
an unusual [topic]," says Schenk, who filmed wall and
stall scribbles in Detroit, Chicago and Ann Arbor.
"I was in my senior year at college and was going
through, like so many other people, questions about
what I was going to do with my life. I went to the bath-
room during an abnormal psych class and found the
stall door and wall covered with writings of anonymous
people apparently thinking the same things I was
thinking."
Schenk read, "I'm a 24-year-old woman, and I don't
really know what I'm doing." She also read, "I'm a 30-
year-old woman who's a. graduate of the university; I
came back here for something, and let me tell you
what I found when I went out into the real world ..."
After wondering a bit about the anonymous
authors, Schenk returned to her own issues. With
some film courses behind her, she decided to take a
job as a movie production assistant and then found
more steady work as an entertainment booking
agent in Seattle.
Noticing her interest in film growing, Schenk
went on to assist with additional independent
movies and commercials and relocated to Chicago
to pursue the same work there.
An assignment in Michigan infused her confi-
dence, awakened her thoughts about bathroom
graffiti and introduced her to the two women who
would hear her film idea and become her partners
in Urban Scrawls: cinematographer Kim C.
Simms and producer Sarah W. Cantu.
Schenk did the research, wrote the script, co-
Filmizzaker Janie
Schenk has made a
documentary about
grizffiti.
bat/ n
produced and co-directed. Even though she
was caught up in her subject, she never felt
Special to the Jewish News
the urge to add her own comments to the
restroom writings she saw. The only time she
amie Schenk majored in English litera-
ever took pen to plaster was in her early col-
ture at the University of Michigan, but
lege years, long before the film idea, when
the writing that has been making the
she praised what she considered insightful
greatest impact on her life lately can be
remarks covering a restaurant stall.
seen on public bathroom walls instead of in books.
"We started working on the film in the
Schenk, 28, a budding filmmaker who has
spring
of 1998," says Schenk, currently a
worked on movies developed by other cinema -
video
engineer
for a Blue Man Group show
devotees, is cutting her own mold with a 30-
at
a
Chicago
theater.
"Financing . came
minute reel that shows and analyzes restroom graf-
from
independent
investors,
the estab-
fiti.
lishments
where
we
filmed,
my
family
which
has
Urban
Scrawls,
The documentary,
and my own pocket. We had a lot of
been screened at the Magic Bag in Ferndale, will be
things given to us.
featured at the CPOP Gallery through Jan. 28. It
"A good portion of time in pre-produc-
will be shown in conjunction with two graffiti-
SUZANNE CHESSLER
U-M grad Jamie Schenk
finds wisdom scrawled
on walls and makes
a film about it.
W
1/12
2001
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