University Course Offerings in the Field of Participant Produced Documentary Work

Universities across the country are now offering courses in the field of participant produced documentary work. Classes in this area will appeal to students with a desire to be active participants in their courses and who are interested in innovative approaches to learning. Given its community-based/real-world component, these courses would interest students wishing to have a more intimate understanding of those people and issues that are so often the subjects of academic research. Disciplined and open-minded students who are willing to explore creative approaches to fulfilling course requirements will find these curricula challenging yet satisfying.

At the University of Southern California, a course of this nature is providing students with this kind of interdisciplinary learning experience.  Writing in the Community places writing in a real-world context by partnering USC students with community groups to identify local problems and to use rhetorical tools for addressing these problems. Our class is premised on the model of writing with the community, which engages community members as partners rather than subjects or clients, each partner bringing something to learn and something to teach. By recognizing the value of different kinds of knowledge, this class asks all its participants to engage with perspectives outside their realm of experience.

This is an alternatively structured course in terms of contexts of learning and design of assignments. Although the tenets of good writing remain the central focus of the course, the semester will culminate in a media-driven, documentary-style final project, which will use writing, research, and personal experience to communicate these issues in a way meaningful to a broader public audience.

For more information, contact sbower@usc.edu

For Youth Living in Palestine, Photography Offers Solace From the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Contrast Project works with Palestinian youth in using digital photography and video as tools for expression and advocacy. The project started in the summer of 2006 with photography trainings with two youth groups in the Bethlehem area of the Palestinian Territories. In the summer of 2007, the Contrast Project partnered with Voices Beyond Walls (VBW) to coordinate video and photography workshops with youth from five refugee camps throughout the West Bank. In 2008, the Contrast Project and VBW are partnering with the Intel Computer Clubhouse in Ramallah to offer a spring Training of Trainers (TOT) to develop youth media experts to lead this summer’s workshops. The project is also expanding its activities to public schools in the Washington, DC area.

Courtesy of Contrast Project: Human Rights Advocacy Through Youth Documentary Photography

Flip Video Spotlight: Share the Story. Change the World.

At the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting today, Pure Digital Technologies announced a donor-matching program designed to put the power of video to work for nonprofit organizations worldwide. The company’s commitment is to distribute up to one million Flip Video Camcorders to these organizations over the next five years. Announced as the Flip Video Spotlight program, non-profit organizations and other qualified non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can now affordably use video as a tool to highlight the need for their services, better communicate with their donors, and broadcast their accomplishments to the world.

Courtesy of: Pure Digital Technologies Press Release, September 26, 2007

Read More

Visit Flip Video Spotlight

Aphasia Talks: Photography as a Means of Communication, Self-Expression, and Empowerment in Persons with Aphasia

Through collaboration between Archeworks, Inc., an alternative design program, and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, items and services designed to improve the lives of persons with stroke were developed. Method: After examining the issues related to stroke from a design perspective, a photography class called Aphasia Talks was developed to facilitate self-expression in persons with aphasia with the goals of reintegration, socialization, recreation, education, and strengthening. A model based on design with, rather than for, persons with stroke was employed to develop the class and a corresponding website (AphasiaTalks.org), which includes photographs and audio relating to the photographs. In addition, the redesign of a digital camera that could be used by persons with limited hand mobility as a communication and recreation tool was begun. Results: By encouraging self-expression and empowering class participants, the class was refined to be used for research purposes to gain further insight into the problems faced by persons living with stroke.

View this article

Santa Fe Digital Darkroom Photo Workshops: Uganda

“Assignment: Uganda” was a documentary photography workshop that taught photographers about working with non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). I was to spend ten days in Uganda- and I stayed for over two months-documenting life in association with relief projects in rural villages within the region. The experiences will forever change my life and the way I see the world.

As I prepared to leave for Uganda, my friends and family expressed their concerns; “be careful,” “I’ll be worrying about you.” They offered safety and security tips on hiding my money and how to fake out thieves. As I left my home, I feared what I was getting into: famine, disease, poverty, war, political unrest, orphans with bloated bellies, fly covered children. Does any good news ever come out of Africa?

Click here for full post.

Courtesy of Santa Fe Digital Darkroom Photo Workshops

Aspen Institute’s Cultural Diplomacy Forum Featuring Founding Directors of IPE

Dr. Neal Baer and Lynn Warshafsky, from Venice Arts and founding directors of IPE, are presenting on participant-produced work at the Aspen Institute’s Cultural Diplomacy Forum in Paris, November 13-15th. The theme of the forum is “Culture in Conflict/Culture on the Move”. Neal will be presenting on how television and film can contribute positively to the cultural landscape, while Lynn will be presenting on Venice Arts’ work in using documentary photography, locally and internationally, to communicate across communities and cultures.

Read More

The Dhaka Project: Photography Workshop

Samar Jodha, a photographer working in between South Asia and the Middle East on various Social communication Projects. He has been involved with the Dhaka project since 2006 and April 2008 he finished teaching a photography workshop to our 23 children here at the project. The impact of his workshop goes beyond learning photography for most of these underprivileged children. Its not just to get their creativity enhanced but also aspire to be something beyond survival of a very tough everyday struggles.
Samar has been doing these photography workshops for over 13 years in various parts of the developing world in Asia and Africa. His process of the workshop is not about selecting the most creative or outstanding children out of hundreds but to look for the most deprived and underprivileged children. He works with them through doing writing workshops and makes them open up their lives to him through dramas & narrations. Once he screens out the right mix of children, then he provides each child with his/her own camera and works with them individually.

This is followed by the next stage where they work with him on a laptop and color printers in making their first ever photographs. He donates the printer/inks/camera/etc to the school after the workshop for the process to continue. The students get awarded a certificate and he gives out prizes to each participant .The workshop follows with an exhibition for selling their prints and raising money for rest of the school. Last one he did was in Moshi-Tanzania, which generated enough funds to buy stationery and supplies for the entire school. He gives his time & resources for these workshops and it’s totally self-funded.

Click here to view video

Premiere for Beyondmedia & Broadway Youth Center’s “HIV: Hey, It’s Viral!” Video

HIV: Hey, It’s Viral! is a 20-minute educational video geared toward informing young audiences about what HIV/AIDS is, examining how HIV is transmitted and prevented, risk reduction, safer sex practices, the importance of testing, and stressing the idea that anyone can get HIV. It’s spun with a quirky fun soundtrack and animation to illustrate the science of HIV/AIDS to young viewers.

Beyondmedia Education’s mission is to collaborate with under-served and under-represented women, youth and communities to tell their stories, connect their stories to the world around us, and organize for social justice through the creation and distribution of media arts.

Visit Beyondmedia for more information.

Premiers September 10, 2008

Center on Halsted

3656 N. Halsted Chicago, IL

Reel Youth

Nearly half of the world’s population is under 25 years old, yet their voices and opinions have little representation internationally.

Reel Youth is working to change that.

In October of 2008, Reel Youth is visiting Nepal to make a film with children of incarcerated parents, in partnership with The Kamala Foundation, Prisoners Assistance Nepal, Global BC, and NFB’s Citizenshift.

Family Stones, will be produced with the support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).Canada

Click here for full story.

Courtesy of Reel Youth

Portraits of Pain and Promise: A Photographic Study of Bosnian Youth

In the early 1990s, war erupted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, forcing large numbers of people to flee their homes and country, abandoning their culture and all that was familiar to them. For the children, often described as war’s “innocent victims,” the conflict and subsequent uprooting represented a dramatic end to their peaceful lives. Although many were fortunate enough to escape with their families and resettle amid more peaceful circumstances, there is considerable evidence that refugee youth are forever changed by their exposure to war and that the pain of war does not end when the fighting is over. This paper presents the results of a study with 7 Bosnian children, aged 11-14, who came to Canada as refugees during the 1990s. The everyday challenges and struggles faced by this group were explored using an innovative research method called photo novella. A secondary purpose of the research was to evaluate the merits and limitations of photo novella as a method for capturing children’s perspectives and feelings. Participants were given disposable cameras and asked to take pictures of important people, places, and events. The meaning of the photographs was then explored through a dialogic process the researchers call phototalk. The findings revealed that while these children had many strengths, they continued to struggle to understand the events that so profoundly changed their lives. The results and the implications for nurses are discussed.

View full article

Courtesy of:
Berman H, Ford-Gilboe M, Moutrey B, Cekic S.

School of Nursing, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

Next Page »