Perspiring Social Change
Posted: July 29th, 2009 | Author: rose | Filed under: Summer 2009 | Tags: meetings, politicorps, sweat | No Comments »
Today’s adventures at the Northwest Institute faced new obstacles on both cognitive and physical levels. We the fellows not only engaged with important political communications figures to Portland and the United States, but did so under the pounding July sunshine. If you did not get the weather update, Portland temperatures exceeded 105 degrees today . . . and I hear it will only be hotter tomorrow.
Besides the sweltering heat, today gave us insight on how our documentaries fit into the world of politics. This is who we met:
Josh Kardon, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden’s Chief of staff. Kardon advised us on grabbing political attention for our documentaries. Among other ideas, he stressed one-on-one interviews with elected officials, multi media strategies (even blogs!), and Authentic framing of our issues to not only gain credibility but to evolve our ideas in the public spectrum. When asked how he keeps his idealism in the gritty world of politics, Kardon responded that there was a point in his career when he did lose his ideals, that in D.C. it is easy to forget why one is liberal or cares at all on certain issues. While George W. Bush was in office, however, he was inspired to strive for idealism once again, and his move back to Portland has relocated those goals with reality, retaining what he says many politician in Washington can easily forget.
Adam Davis, the polling service guru. Sitting in a booth at the nearby coffee shop, I think we all gathered much from Davis’ discussion. he spoke of the significance of qualitative and quantitative data not just in our documentaries’ subjects, but also in our audience. The importance of gathering information on what your audience wants to know or gain from our videos is key to presenting an issue so that the viewer comprehends it.
Brian Young, the head of communications for Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. In our video conference with Young, though at times scattered by a poor internet connection, we discussed multi media techniques. Young displayed how important it is to either build your own network, or to find a larger social network to latch your ideas onto in order to reach a broader audience. Again blogs for instance, are growing in strength as a medium to expose our ideas and push them constantly to inspire social change.
And Pizza with Politicorps! While far too dehydrated to compete in a much anticipated softball game, the two summer programs met this afternoon at the Mississippi Pizza Pub to mingle and broaden our social networks. For me, it was awesome to hear what ambitious young people are up to this summer, learning how Politicorps fellows have been campaigning all summer for social issues, such as marriage equality and healthcare reform. Even if we never get to that softball game, I think we have all met some incredible people and hope to connect with them again soon.
In other news, Josh Kletzkin has been appointed our official video production manager. Recently seen at the Hollywood Theater for the Portland release of the film he worked on, Throw Down Your Heart (A beautifully shot feature documentary on Bela Fleck, his banjo, and the many musics of Africa), Kletzkin not only introduced us to many inspiring documentaries last week, but has taken the reins this week to aid the fellows in any video production mishaps soon before us.