Senior Instructor Media Arts: Documentary Filmmaking, Digital Photography, and Bookart for Photographers

Current Research:
-Film: Rx (2007) collaboration with School of Public Health interviewing patients on health Care in the U.S.

NEWS:
RX is an official selection for the ReelHeART International
Film Festival (RHIFF) in Toronto, June 2008.
RHIFF MAIN PROGRAM B Tickets $8
INNIS THEATER 222
Innis College, University of Toronto
2 Sussex Avenue [1 block south of Bloor Street, on St. George Street]
Toronto, ON M5S 1J5
Advance Sales on line April 21, 2008 at www.reelheart.com

-Film: Promises Made (2005)-documentary of the proposed bridge between Lone Star and Rimini, SC, and recording oral history with town elders.

-Digital and traditional photography used in the creation of artists' books; writing for artists' books;

Artist Statment:
In 2007 after completing my second documentary film with all student crew members (RX, Promises Made), I am more convinced that the only way I want to make films is with students. It is their energy and curiosity that draw me.

I have had the pleasure of collaborating with 25 student filmmakers to date, introducing them to impoverished South Carolina Communities. As one student said, “this town we filmed is only 40 miles from where I grew up and I never knew this kind of poverty existed in my own backyard.” As their executive director, I guide the explorations to those people and places that are often invisible.

We learn together about the communities and the people living there. We work to gain trust, film and organize the material we gather, state the thesis of the film early and drive toward it in every action (or alter our thinking as we learn more than we used to know), edit the story, create special effects, develop a website and create print media where needed, and finally: screen the work and listen to the responses.

Each work is different. Each story requires new story telling techniques, ways of interviewing, nimble minded approaches, staying true to the subject and the story. Often, there is history and historical footage to research to enhance the stories.

These collaborations with students are valuable to us all. Most students choose to complete the projects. Obviously, this work is only of interest to those who are dedicated to the work, willing to complete a story and put the story out for public consumption.

Walker Evans said when he finished photographing rural southern towns, that the pictures had chosen him, not that he had chosen the pictures. For whatever reason that art calls to us, this artistic and teaching work calls to me.