Name: Galen Bernard
College: Whitman College
Major: Politics
Favorite Movie & Documentary: Forrest Gump, Invisible Children
What your video doc is on, why did you choose it?: Incight’s employment program for young adults with disabilities. I think individuals with disabilities are a profoundly neglected group who many people are to some degree uncomfortable interacting with or about, and therefore forget, ignore, or set aside. Growing up as the son of a pediatric physical therapist, I experienced how much people with disabilities have to offer, if given just the same attention and support any person has the right to expect and need. Incight is one program offering that support and working to get others to offer opportunities as well. The two program clients we got to meet are compelling persons to capture on film.
Current Favorite Thing About PDX: Food carts
Guiltiest Pleasure: American Idol
Favorite News Source: CNN.com/msnbc.com/ABCNews.com (so I know what most people are reading)
Favorite Social Changey/Political Buzzword: Apathy
Favorite Quote: Risk more than others think is safe.
Care more than others think is wise.
Dream more than others think is practical.
Expect more than others think is possible.
- Cadet Maxim
Name: rose holdorf
College: Macalester College
Major: Hummanities and Media and Culture Studies with an emphasis in Film Studies and a Minor in Environmental Studies
Favorite Movie & Documentary: Movie: At the moment a Jean-Luc Godard classic, Pierrot Le Fou
Documentary: The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes By Stan Brackhage
What your video doc is on, why did you choose it?: The Growing Gardens Organization. I love gardening, for one, and for another I think it is really interesting how vegetable gardens have increased in the time of the recession. Like Eleanor Roosevelt once did, Michelle Obama has grown her victory garden at the white house and has since inspired nation wide home grown food. Growing Gardens has been around long before the Obama’s moved in, and though Michelle’s national message is welcomed, I think it is important to display the hard work of the green thumbs in Portland who have been interested in providing food alternatives to those in need for a long time.
Current Favorite Thing About PDX: Eastbank Esplanade
Guiltest Pleasure: Goodwill
Favorite News Source: The News Hour with Jim Lehrer
Favorite Social Changey/Political Buzzword: Movement
Favorite Quote: “I
knew that nobody but a luckless man could ever need a doctor
in the face of a cyclone.” Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying
Name: Molly Bennett
College: Colby College
Major: Cultural Anthropology
Favorite Movie & Documentary: Harold and Maude, Jesus Camp
What your video doc is on, why did you choose it?: My video is on Growing Gardens, an organization that helps people plant and maintain vegetable gardens in their schools and neighborhoods. I chose it because I think across the board access to healthy food is essential for a healthier society.
Current Favorite Thing About PDX: Free live music
Guiltest Pleasure: Nude sunbathing
Favorite News Source: NPR, PRI, BBC
Favorite Social Changey/Political Buzzword: Environmental Justice
Favorite Quote: “Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.” -Kurt Vonnegut
Name: Jensen Power
College: St. Olaf College
Major: English, Media Studies, Women’s Studies
Favorite Movie & Documentary: Cool Hand Luke, No Direction Home
What your video doc is on, why did you choose it?: Growing Gardens. I chose it because I am interested in sustainable agriculture and because to topic had an aesthetic appeal to me.
Current Favorite Thing About PDX: There is so much to do! (and all the biking)
Guiltest Pleasure: America’s Next Top Model
Favorite News Source: New York Times.com
Favorite Social Changey/Political Buzzword: Sustainable
A few days ago I finished the film Frost/Nixon, which I had naturally heard about late last year during the Oscar nom media frenzy, but never got around to sitting and watching until now. I loved it – to say the least. It’s great when you watch a film stunningly filmed, well-acted and just generally engaging without using too many of the Hollywood techniques. It was great watching it and thinking about all the things we’ve discussed in class – especially in prep for our video doc. The power of the image and what it can instill within the viewer. One of the characters in Frost/Nixon says, after David Frost nails Nixon in the last and final interview, almost heartbreakingly so:
“You know the first and greatest sin of the deception of television is that it simplifies; it diminishes great, complex ideas, trenches of time; whole careers become reduced to a single snapshot. At first I couldn’t understand why Bob Zelnick was quite as euphoric as he was after the interviews, or why John Birt felt moved to strip naked and rush into the ocean to celebrate. But that was before I really understood the reductive power of the close-up, because David had succeeded on that final day, in getting for a fleeting moment what no investigative journalist, no state prosecutor, no judiciary committee or political enemy had managed to get; Richard Nixon’s face swollen and ravaged by loneliness, self-loathing and defeat. The rest of the project and its failings would not only be forgotten, they would totally cease to exist.”
That image – wow. I like how it shows how the medium goes beyond research, interviews, countless other very serious academic ways of exploring the Watergate scandal – and how a single facial expression can really paint an entire picture. What can we aim, as filmmakers, to capture to stir similar, striking, “reductive” moments to prove our point?
Favorite Movie & Documentary: I have not been watching movies. This is changing.
Current Favorite Thing About PDX: There is morning bike rush hour. Guiltest Pleasure: Snooping in people’s refrigerators and judging their character based on what I find. Favorite News Source: http://www.ips.org/ Favorite Social Changey/Political Buzzword: agency Favorite Quote:
Calvin : You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to
be in the right mood.
Hobbes : What mood is that?
Calvin : Last-minute panic.
Name: Alethea Buchal College: Whitman Major: Undecided Favorite Movie & Documentary: Up Seven What your video doc is on, why did you choose it?: Housing for low-income families – hope to someday help bridge the gap between the rich and poor Current Favorite Thing About PDX: bike-lanes Guiltest Pleasure: milk-shakes (lactose intolerant) Favorite News Source: Al Jazeera Favorite Social Changey/Political Buzzword: freedom Favorite Quote: Love is a choice
Name: Kira Fisher College: Vassar College Major: Political Science Favorite Movie & Documentary: Favorite movie is The Lives of Others and favorite documentary is Grey Gardens What your video doc is on, why did you choose it?: Growing Gardens, a non-profit that supports the installation of farms in low-income families and also has youth grow programs. I chose it because I love urban farming! Current Favorite Thing About PDX: Microbrews Guiltest Pleasure: Beaded grandma sweaters and reality television Favorite News Source: The New Yorker Favorite Social Changey/Political Buzzword: Gentrification Favorite Quote: “If it’s the most beautiful day in the world outside, I’d still stay inside until 2:30 p.m. Because it’s just as nice inside as it is outside. I love outside, but inside is nice. People think I should feel guilty. They say, “You should go out and do this.” I’m like, “No, it’s nice inside. ” -David Chang
Name: Robin Hertz College: Reed College Major: psychology Favorite Movie & Documentary: way too many to choose one favorite What your video doc is on, why did you choose it?: Proud Ground, formerly the Community Land Trust, a non-profit that facilitates low-income families in purchasing their own homes. I chose to work on this project because the social justice issue I feel most passionate about is the enormous gap between the rich and the poor, and the myriad societal mechanisms that maintain and perpetuate the current class structure. Current Favorite Thing About PDX: bike lanes Guiltest Pleasure: peanut butter Favorite News Source: BBC Favorite Social Changey/Political Buzzword: advocate Favorite Quote: “He who would sacrifice liberty for security deserves neither.” -Benjamin Franklin
Our first assignment of the summer was to create an ‘audio postcard’ to a friend or family member about our five days at camp. We all shared eight recorders (and a lot of little sound clips) and created quick two minute tales of our stay in the idyllic woodlands of Oregon. Nothing was spared: the leftover coffee grinds in the sink, the ultra-excellent baked salmon that one night, obscene dinner conversations, and of course- America’s Birthday!
One of the pillars of NWISC programming is the weekly “Wednesday Lunch,” in which fellowees meet with a variety of media/social change figures in the greater Portland area, over lunch (usually donated by restaurants, thus free to students!). Last week we had scrumptious deli sandwiches and talked objectivity and subjectivity with the editor of The Journal of Radical Shimming, while this week we talked with Michael Rohd about our perceptions of the documentary film as a medium, and the role it plays within social change over delicious (and huge!) Laughing Planet burritos.
Michael Rohd first introduced us to his theatre troupe, Sojurn Theatre. Sojurn Theatre takes theatre and performing art to totally new levels – shows aren’t in typical theatres, they’re in warehouses, they’re in condo showrooms. There’s dancing, there’s audience participation in a way Brecht couldn’t even dream of. Best of all, they’re politically, or at least, ideologically charged. Michael did a great job engaging us and remaining extremely bipartisan when speaking of the troupe’s past few shows. One that I loved was the ‘7 Great Loves,” a play created and written after scavenging Portland’s population for their best ‘love’ stories – love for a person, love for a place, love for a religion, love for love – and putting on a pretty avant-garde sounding performance as the final result.
We discussed a lot about the idea of ‘intent’ within our own pieces. How can we persuade? Are some stories just stories about people, or is there always convincing involved? What about marketability to the public? How can we get the message across to the greatest amount of people? As a fellow noted, most theatre shows are often seen by middle/upperclass individuals, and Michael wholeheartedly agreed. But the question is: How do you make it accessible to all? “One step is making it free,” Michael said, noting that many of Sojurn’s productions were free to help work towards this. How about the methods to generally connect with ALL of the greater community, regardless of race and socio-economic class? What I admired was how Sojurn told the stories of ALL different kinds of people – people who were different from one another in every way of the word, but somehow characters in the same play with the same issues. I believe such approaches make the final product more effective. If someone sees one character so accurately depicting themself, then they have to trust the director, and the cast, and the story to realize that the OTHER characters – however different they may be – are also as true. As a result, greater tolerance, and perhaps change, can be born.
We all arrived so fresh faced on Tuesday, June 30th. Immediately after being teased with downtown Portland’s glories (free public transportation in ‘Fareless Square?’!! amazing incredible street carts dishing out all kinds of cuisines everywhere?) we hopped into a van and drove off into the sunset, away from the urban and to the rural and the mountainous. We all had different perceptions of what ‘camp’ was going to be: me, for example, thought it was a summer camp a la Wet Hot American Summer, everyone else thought it was camping, as in, roughing it in tents. What we got? Two luxurious summer cabin homes. The house filled with the fellowees had maybe eight or nine beds in it, wireless internet, and a full stocked kitchen. So much for roughing it.
The first five days of NWISC 2009 consisted of: co-op cooking and cleaning duties, movie-watching, classrooms outside on the grass, in the sun, two hikes (one long, one short), a crazy dog named ZuZu, The Goonies, 4th of July Fireworks, getting dropped off at a luxury hotel and assigned to interview strangers and write profiles, and plenty of get-t0-know-you-games.
In essence? So. much. fun.
A few of the 2009 Fellowees on the porch of our ‘camping’ grounds.
Resting after the first half of our seven mile hike.
