For my documentary, I would like to explore the “culture” of smoking, and on-campus groups that are trying to ban it. As a non-smoker, I tend to be on the latter’s side, but this will give me an opportunity to see the positions of people on both sides of the issue. I thought this would be a particularly relevant topic to document since it was just announced that Buffalo State was taking steps towards eventually banning smoking on campus.
I think a majority of my documentary would focus on the University at Buffalo (which I attended for four years), for they have had a smoking ban for several years now. By focusing on them, I can investigate if the ban seems to be effective, what motivates the people who enforce it, and what student opinion of the ban is. I would interview the UBreathe Free organization, investigate what exactly they do, and what options they give smokers who are either trying to quit, or refusing to quit. I would also interview people who are against the ban. I would try to get in contact with a fellow art student I knew who created artwork protesting the ban, claiming that the ban was anything but “free.”
I would ask UBreathe what they think about people who think the ban is going against their rights, and ask smokers (or those sympathetic to their plight) if they believe smoking is infringing on other people’s rights to breathe clean air and have a cigarette butt-free campus. I would then turn to Buffalo state faculty and students, and see what they feel about the impending loss of smoking culture on campus. Possibly, at the end, I will compare these on-campus bans to national and worldwide trends of eliminating smoking in public places, and what this means for the smoker who is finding fewer and fewer places to light up.
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