Digital Storytelling in and with Communities of Color

For this assignment you are to browse the Internet (feel free to use many of the suggested sites like CurrentTV, radio stories, media that matters film festival, and other sites linked on this blog in previous weeks... just scroll down!), and look for stories (and/or photos, creative work) that resonant with themes from this class (read: stories and representations of race, gender, class, technology, countering of stereotypes, marginalized / oppressed peoples, and other key categories and concepts discussed in class and course readings).

To recap a bit, this term we've discussed how the telling of stories in communities build identities, construct meaning, and makes connections amongst communities and the world. Use this assignment to investigate these modes and dimensions of digital media & storytelling, analyze the role of digitized media as a method of individual healing, and examine media as tools for community organizing and development. Use this assignment to explore, examine, and reflect on the gendered, racialized, and classed dimensions of digital media and storytelling.

For this assignment browse news sites, creative online spaces, community websites, online media festivals, and any web-based sites, spaces and places are using digital media and storytelling to:

- preserve memory with/in communities of color
- write histories of communities of color
- learn about people and communities of color
- entertain within communities of color or about communities of color
- organize communities of color
- community healing with/in and beyond communities of color

Write a short 150 - 300 word reflective analysis of a particular story or a site that centers digital media, storytelling that happens in or with communities of color.

Make sure to LINK us to your source and embed an image (if it's a visual piece of media like photographs, essays, or video).

Posted by Rae at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are FREE CAMERA RENTALS for UMN students:

For CLA Students:
Loaner EQ from CLA OIT
- digital video cameras
- microphones & audio mixers
- location lighting kits
Make online reservations!

For ANY U STUDENT:
EQ from Wilson Library
Available by reservation only!

EQ Available for 3 Day Loan:
- MiniDV Sony DCR-HC32
- Portable Hard Drives (3)

EQ Available for 1 Week Loan:
- 80GB Firewire/USB2

Plus, Wilson SMART Learning Commons Hardware List (in library use, I think)
32 Productivity Pcs with CD burners
2 Productivity iMacs with CD burners
1 Multimedia PC with Epson Scanner and DVD/CD burner
1 Multimedia Mac with Epson Scanner and DVD/CD burner
2 Digital Camcorders
3 External Hard drives
1 Flash Memory Card reader
1 Black and White / Color Printer

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A short narrative using all still photos (documentation of filmmaker's everyday life):

For AÑO UÑA, Jonás Cuarón began taking photographs throughout one year, spontaneous images of people in their everyday lives, with neither posing nor staging. Jonás knew while taking the photographs that he would use them to make a film, but there was no plot because the recorded events followed the characters, themes and stories of the year.

At the end of the year, Jonás and Eireann Harper completed an installation in which they mounted the thousands of photographic images in one room, ordered in scenes composed of shots. Consistencies began to emerge. Two people in particular reoccurred, Jonás’ girlfriend, Eireann, and his brother Diego. They became the narrative’s protagonists

There is a UK competition inspiring others to make similarly stylized shorts: http://www.anounacompetition.co.uk/

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[this is a narrative, NOT doc piece, but shows you other forms of all stills]

Between You and Me - dir. by Patryk Rebisz
Award-winning short film shot with still camera. Over 2000 photographs were stitched together to form movement.

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[from CURRENT TV

I always felt uneasy with the idea of guided tour of a slum as part of a tourist itinerary of Rio de Janeiro - is it just shameless voyeurism or a way to experience the favela, where many argue lies the cultural heart of the city? For this film, I embark on a rather unusual journey to experience first-hand this new industry of favela tourism - from cruising through Rochina in the back of a jeep with a bunch of scared tourists to staying in a Favela Hotel wondering if the gunshots will keep me up at night. Along the way I speak to tourists, residents and guides to find out whether favela tourism helps the community or exploits - bindumathur, filmmaker

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[also about Brazilian favelas (projects)]

trailer for "Favela Rising" (we will watch clips from the DVD in class]

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[stuff I linked Amanda to for her piece about feminism & music, but i thought you might enjoy also!]

trailer for "don't need you"

girls rock! the movie

Posted by Rae at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I apologize for all my events posts being so political, but this may be interesting to all of us, as the economic crisis i affecting all of our lives. It also may be helpful in helping us write our stories for the final project.

Tuesday November 18, 2008, 6:00-8:00 pm

3M Auditorium (Room 1-115), Carlson School of Management

The current financial crisis impacts not only Wall Street and the United Stated financial markets, but also the global economy and people in other parts of the world. Join us to learn more about the impact of the financial crisis in the Global South and on U.S. communities of color and immigrant communities.**

A panel of distinguished scholars will offer insights into these dimensions of the current economic situation and answer your questions. Among the speakers are:

Professor Nasrin Jewell, Department of Economics, College of St. Catherine

Professor August Nimtz, Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota

Professor Peter Rachleff, Department of History, Macalester College

Professor Joe Soss, Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota

Moderated by Regents Professor ERIC SHEPPARD, Department of Geography and Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change, University of Minnesota

Event cosponsored by Institute for Advanced Study and Institute for Global Studies

Further information can be found at ICGC website at http://icgc.umn.edu/

Posted by Jen Smith at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

Posted by Rae at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

“The American Renaissance� – community discussion
7:30, November 5, 2008, Tom Gupta’s Drug Store, 3400 University Ave. Mpls.

The November 5th Coalition is an all-partisan alliance committed to civic partnerships that address our biggest challenges. The Coalition is named for the day after the election in 2008 when a new chapter of America’s civic history begins. Wherever the people gather they should be able to ask candidates “November 5th questions� about how they plan to tap the talents of the whole society, instead of posing as superheroes who will solve our problems for us. We will also develop leadership networks and civic policies that can serve as resources for a new administration. We encourage our fellow citizens to join with us in calling on candidates to rise above excessively divisive partisanship and to promote the common good.

“The American Renaissance� – community discussion
7:30, November 5, 2008, Tom Gupta’s Drug Store, 3400 University Ave. Mpls.

Every month (more or less) there is a community discussion on a hot topic at “Tom’s Drug Store,� the Schneider’s Drug Store on 3400 University Ave, Minneapolis, just across from KSTP, owned by Tom Gupta. This is a great Twin Cities tradition, continuing the Humphrey Drug Store tradition of lively civic and political dialogue and debate.

On November 5th the discussion topic will be “The American Renaissance: Bringing Organizing to a New Scale.� It will be from 7:30 to 9. A group of faculty and staff (and perhaps a few students) from 16 colleges and universities of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities will participate. They are in town for the launching of the “Civic Agency Initiative� – a partnership between the State Colleges and Universities of America and the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Humphrey Institute, aimed at bringing organizing and civic agency approaches into the heart of higher education. They also want to learn from the example of Tom Gupta as a “citizen professional� who has carried on the organizing and community tradition for decades.

Background on “The American Renaissance� discussion

The election, especially the Obama Campaign, has had a message of agency (“yes we can,� “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for�). This campaign has been embodied most dramatically in the field operation of the Obama Campaign. The campaign has trained 23,000 people in at least one day of an “organizing� approach, sharply different than the “mobilizing� approaches that have dominated in both political campaigns and most citizen action.

“Mobilizing� rallies the troops for predetermined ends with a tight script, often targeting an enemy and using good versus evil language, with a displacement of agency on others (the “savior�).

“Organizing� is about preparing people to act independently, to “be the change we want to see,� to make relationships across differences, to understand local communities, and to act strategically and effectively.

If Obama wins, given the huge success of the field operation, there will be unprecedented opportunities to take organizing to an entirely different scale.

Posted by Jen Smith at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)