a f t e r i m a g e 35.6 7 Project c u l t u r e

: a b o v Places Precious Video’s Scribe From e together was the group’s participatory and largely fluidnature university official as a around and under completely operating community, culture. The students allowed me of variety and forums the in part to took eagerly and lives undergraduate glimpse their all-consuming I devised. interview and dialogue situations OSU at women the time, the at it articulate couldn’t they though Even seemed extremely interested to momentarily consider glimpses the longer view ofand of what they why, were striving how, for in their respective fields, aswell as any personalchange or growth they were talk didn’t we though Even environment. university the in experiencing during clear became ofit function itself, and form group the the about was becoming an the Gender Chip Project year together that our first part take to time or interest the had None of part lives. important their in the actual documentary production, but by cohering as a “group,” which had started with curious individuals who then became closer friends, the students engaged personally with each other and in their was to transform that the in a dialogue process other peer groups e s c t i c participatory p r a

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We We started meeting in the fall of Since I in lived California I could only visit 1998, sophomore year. women’s at the start of the young OSU four times each year but within a few meetings we became the form,me, to with agreed who students twelve Project,” Chip “Gender advocacy or learning peer a class, a club, a “cluster”—not temporary a group—that would meet in person regularly to reflect on the process of their studies. While the original impetus that brought us together was the making of a film spanning their collegewhat careers, kept us Once the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, had approved approved had Ohio, Columbus, in Arts the for Center Wexner the Once my proposal to begin a about documentary a group of planned women was I majoring in that me to seven-year the occurred sciences and it (OSU), process University State Ohio at ofclassrooms technology and dorms their in making up show just a than more do to have to going many After graduated. they until a year times a few crew a camera with several meetings individual with freshman students interested with invited I whom I’d Program, Honors University the through connected been left they Before project. film the in part taking consider to women young the of posing each them, with interviews recorded I summer, that school to you brought what childhood, your at back look you “When question, and math?” engineering, technology, in science, interest your a p u b l i c 8 a f t e r i m a g e 35.6 funding applications being prepared and rejected, I learned to open to learned I rejected, and prepared being applications funding untold trial and error,Through a long and of often tedious process of and outintotheworld. completed film the getting towardapproach my change to me forced technology. and science fact This of fields the entering youngwomen years there was little interest a in filmfunding about the completion of four nextover the and attacks catastrophic9/11 the by eclipsed been the2006. newThe hopes century had and dreams for the first class of before months September 11, 2001, and was finally released for distribution three in completed aspirations—was mercantile and utopian early its all Internet—with the of period growth big first the during The myinterject own perspective. not and carefully listen and watch to decided simply I parental, and purposes than anything I had seen before. Rather than play bewildered experiences,and priorities, of set different a with generation” “new a with dealing was I that realized dimly I design, original my into fit to recording was I “material” of kind the control could I wished often I the inquiry and explorationSTEM their own.into the While world of voices to take over the dialogue and discover a protected space to make and repurposed, questioned as the young participants found their own ignored, politely were preconceivedideas My generation. boom baby assumptions I took as fora progressive granted feminist shaped by the to challenge hearing, generational the was with stay I to enough what adventurous but about unsure often and uncomfortable I emerge. was to began stories of set documentaries different completely a longitudinal do, to tend observational, most triumph as of adversity stories exploring and be would I thought had I Although successintheirfields. definitionsof personal technology,engineering, ownmaththeir (i.e.,and and majors) STEM science,in experience college their on perspectives their changed also participation ongoing their Project, Chip Gender the calling were we cluster loose the with staying By project. documentary the of nature ouetr ta bgn n h lt 1990s late the in began that documentary Project Chip Gender ln al fdistribution “long tail” of its to inception creative the partners—from “community-building” and collaborators of with practice the how about thinking my up real placeswhere we live andwork becomesmore urgent thanever. abiding and transformative meaning to thicken public discourse in the have media our make we how of question proliferate,the clips video share and upload to anyone allow that sites networking social where to the Web and fully converging with audio, still images, and text, and migrating is three- film where this world broadband a of In project. phase dimensional every and at creativity applied be changing: to constantly have experimentation also engagement are imaginative audiences and our sustained with a develop we ways The understanding.explored through various levels of knowledge,is experience or revealed;information, be and can story a way the in with play to fun and malleable also is form documentary The ago. time and short a even place virtual no had films environments—bothsuch physical—where in thrive to able are works these now And transformation. social and personal for tool powerful a be can people touches that dialogue documentary completed A connections. unexpected and up opens and curiosity stimulates It process. mysterious and unpredictable an being of promise a holds always it isbecause it Perhaps filmmaking. nonfiction created and conceived huge impact), I often wonder why I continue to return to independently a make to funders the by and world the in change make somehow to filmmaker the by personally (both expectations daunting these Given people who have nonarrative presence inmediaotherwise. about and from stories reveal also but agendas, policy serve to have interest. Itmay communities of and beable to beusedbya variety of It must appeal to the funders, who need to justify costs to their boards, devices. mobile and drives hard to disks fromscreens, theatrical large must be able to live in and around venues,a variety fromof the Web to moving film launching organization.and startup parts a like it The of variety a with system or structure three-dimensional a building and designing, conceiving, like is times these in matter) that for film any (or documentary independent an making that me struck It users. new the production and distribution pipeline and then connect the work to ways to collaborate and move independent projects more easily through find to funders and broadcasters, public filmmakers, nonfiction Area Bayother with haveyearsgatherings I few in last Overpart the taken and offered onceitwascompleted. framed be how it would and film edited the constructed howI inform open of kind this dialogue, which was woven into the project from the of beginning, was to spirit The it. in participating by transformed film the andproject, were also fields,their they nature the changed of about inquiry and reflection doing together years three our Through bringing by together started young women Project who would be Chip the subjects for Gender the documentary. the with experience My networked culture. aredefine nonfiction media theof success digitally project of in an era ______1 i o n fthe most important —is ways now to one of a f t e r i m a g e 35.6 9 Project Project p a g e

f a c i n Places Precious Video’s Scribe g From a b o v Places Precious Video’s Scribe From e lenient lenient or useful particularly to be able and to work bring create it and engaged viewers. motivated to Yet, often out of creative, moral, or political want necessity, filmmakers to make certain films where they control the content and the ownership, or perhaps even the distribution and outreach materials. Even if the first goal is to simply makethat film, filmmakers must be ready to assume the entire production risk (time, labor, and money) and hope to slowly find funds and until interested work here there the arrives to completion. As most veteran documentary filmmakers will admit, it is a game not usually won to tangible satisfaction, especially of against measured the attributes when There is success. commercial no financial safety netfor the It creator here. is a huge risk to take on if or theatrical will sell to a broadcast the project that one is expecting distributor to pay back upfront costs and gain a foothold for the next project. Without a stable infrastructure of people and organizations to support, promote, and distribute the work while it is created, the filmmaker is awho hobbyist occasionally manages to complete a film of number commercially any alongside more it other sell to hopes and products. driven The values that motivate this kind of documentary practice intersect rarely with the values of the commercial media marketplace and only in occasional instances coincide. While the gates are more open now in terms of accessible and affordable mediamaking tools, other less visible obstacles emerge to discourage professional entry into the television (public system support official ofThe system rewards. official services and programs, cable channels of variety distributors), a and and fund, festivals documentary prestige like HBO, the Sundance few very allows still entry, gain can who those for benefits having while its makers portals and those through are can and rare who new works a lifetime in independent nonfiction filmmaking. over sustain a career independent traditional of side equation, the other the acknowledge To media funders (foundations, state and federal government grantors,

2 3 ______In the current environment and even more so public in widespread gain the could it future, is, successful—that work culturally be could attention, shape debate, even affect the course of current events— in the emerging … successful similarly, being commercially without one could or develop over environment, niche aggregate audiences wide areas that would cover the costs and itself work the ofever without or funders returnwork makers independent a profit to the known. widely becoming To make matters more exciting to some and panic-inducing to others, others, to panic-inducing some and to exciting more matters make To we are also experiencing a transitional period when is mediamaking becoming, as scenario planning practitioner Lawrence Wilkinson less and in, participate will of many “more that it, activity describes an of a profession open only to the highly trained and well-financed.” Since Since public funding throughout the American arts ecology has been curtailed it in is challenging— the extremely climate, present somewould argue almost impossible—for the individual filmmaker to find grant-like orseveral up take to wants filmmaker the unless project, documentary commissioning capital to initiateyears a of single his or herSince there lifeare so many lookingpeople, amateur andto professional, facing creating who are documentaries repeated with rejection. easily available tools, enoughit or iseven wiseno for longeran independent filmmaker to only pursue the typical system of complete a win rewards: funding, production film, travel the festivals, get a distributor, and leverage the attention into the next project, which one expects will professionally meaningful. beThese traditional models biggerare no longer and more The concept of “mass communications” or reaching a large audience is audience large a reaching or communications” of“mass concept The Our mediamaker. independent the for especially either, useful longer no subject our about passionate as and targeted, small, now are audiences as we are. When media analyst Andrew Blau, in a report written for developing our sees Culture, and Arts Media for Alliance National the global media environment, he notes the decoupling between cultural and economic success that has defined our assumptions about how to judge the contribution a media work can make and the economic it might hold: value The new public digital traditional these and technologies reconfigure to media are contain that structures swiftly forcing the institutional media funders are not yet willing to risk the capital necessary to help creators build the new three-dimensional structures (functionality on platforms, multiple engagement and campaigns, complex distribution arrangements) that are demanded. Digital media now shapes every aspect of end an our than lives, as rather intimately, end well an as to in means spectacle. a Consequently, as space media see to tend funders in itself that can build and strengthen strong localized infrastructures and capture important public memories and histories not controlled concerns. market consumer and commercial by In the historically fragile world of noncommercial or public media, independent where it has always been a struggle to learn the craft and business of filmmaking and get projects completed, distributed, and paid attention to, currents of fear are tightly glimmers of intertwined opportunity. with 10 a f t e r i m a g e 35.6 bring to the surface their deepest aspirations, will once again become again once will aspirations, deepest and their surface the to bring themselves recognize can city or town, neighborhood, a from wherestories,individuals etc.) creatingmedia dialogues, co-authoring landscape. media digital groups,buildingteams,(organizing collaborations Communitymedia the within spaces alternative and public strengthen help and influence can we settings, community localized in developedhave artists media practices to linking or renewing and meaning their rethinking By building. community face-to-face real in rooted already are that practices mediamaking current and past to attention fresh give also butfuture, the toward only not look to us Our new and swiftly evolving social-networking technologies are forcing in communities throughout thecountry. channels access public provide to mandated were systems cable insistently have movementarts media the buildingemerging organizationsand began activism, populist as when1970s, the collaborativecreatesince projects to developed ways well as experimentalism cinematic with involved often filmmakers, Independent importance. profound more and greater a on life”—takes real locally—“in and deeply working now of activity the on-line,communities can form and cluster people like-minded of networks global because Precisely the throughout years thirty independent media world last in local communities and arts organizations. the over refined and developed, pioneered, were practices collaborative of kinds similar many so how social media, participatory understand world,to digital helps and it on-line the transforming and for tools new imaginations our capturing are community-building networking,and and about ideas As creation. the process of participants from the beginning of is reinvigorated when we touch with user- and engage itself documentary the styleof andform thewhere turn,theremighthavenone. beenIn connection and openness for pathways new creating films by the make we through that community build to ways new consider to us force independententrepreneursthesphere.andalsopublicmediaThey in new meaning and economic—give motivation to and the work we demographic, do as artists,Disruptions—technological, advocates, educators, invigorateproducereconsiderculturalwithinandweworktheinfrastructure.the to way a as systems entrenched disassembling of the see I crisisterms,orbleak inToissuesseeingonly thesefrommoveaway support the work the filmmaker has already invested in herself. funding for promotional “outreach” or marketing, but hardly enough to they are interested in contributing financially. This usually means if decide and work finished the see modesttheycan when completed, almost is longer justify risking early entry into a project, but prefer to wait until it communitiesand thatembracetheirwork. Thus, funders mostnowill audiences and the new roles that artists take on in relation to individuals nichechangingrelationshipand the between massevaluate insuccess to howlearningespecially wearounddistribution, are slowlyonly but promises, their to up lived not and short fallen haveprojects many too that say might Some broadcast entity? a the nonprofit organization, or a in all, producer,creation—tothemedia at to comes it when go shouldmoney if invest, to their where certain longer no where are ecology.reconfiguring They media about unsure and risk-averse adventuroussomeinvestors)increasingly andindividualorare donors ______across organizations and get people involved in the collaborate to process ways new inventingproducing.of started to also they tools, access production offered that ‘80s and 1970s the in organizations forming started activists and educators, media artists, idealistic young When differently thanwhat we’ve beentrainedtoexpect from it. perform would media framework, this Workingwithin them. around the world can expand forms people’s and understanding awareness of the where place a experience exchangeand knowledge of mediated creates by visual storytelling It entertainment. passive about only is thatmedia idea held commonly the defies and environment social and cultural larger the in action and dialogue,responses,imaginative stimulates work media of kind help this over and and policy.Over change any to been hadn’t there where dialogue stimulate to plan can project media A issue. political a on take or project artmaking an be to able is together work video A histories. members or interests common around community disparate bring can project film A broadcast andontheInternet. and resist, control, to wish monetize access to historic film, archives, that and distribution outlets, both forces governmental) even (and corporate by threat under always is information and images of flow and powerful a society, been our wherefree the of center atthe keep to dangerous concept always has This self-determination. group and individual for media of tools the use to is then, since unabated developed has and 1970s the in emerge to began whichpractice, this of core the at ideal and principle themselves.” media The “make and tools,to archives,access gain howto people distributionand channels teach to or story recognizable a conceptualize to communities with individuals and groups. The stance is one where the artist collaborates because it is possible producingto work from “inside,” building relationships with continue to enough independent documentaries fortunate over decades have been drawn been to the form have who Many which part. mediaissuch anintegral of commons public the to boost a giving for differentiator powerful a e From the Gender Chip v o b a Project a f t e r i m a g e 35.6 11 Gender Gender Chip Chasing Freedom (2002), and Carlos Sandoval Catherine She favors working with richly textured, 4 The New Americans Farmingville (2004), and Don McBrearty’s focused focused works that offer multiple perspectives and create space for the viewer to discover their own relationship to the Films story. that have been broadcast on public television and cable, which she Allen include and environments, viewing other into put also have team her Blumberg’s Tambini’s (2004). (Active Voice also created our Action Toolkit for the Chip ). Project She wants to place independent documentaries, much which deserve and sophisticated extremely and crafted highly often are more attention than what one broadcast allows, at the center of local and national policy debates. When nonfiction filmsare interestingly attached to mainstream debates and dialogues, they do what they do best: burrow deep into feelings and thoughts through narrative form and perhaps spark new connections among people who do not have a particular issue. in common around much For the fiercely independent filmmaker (probably onebe able who would to finance their own production),Active Voice’s project new pilot would not appeal. But for the rest of us mix who of depend on foundation, a broadcast, and public financing, it may way offer to find a andwork with partnerswe might not have known were allies. Schneider is developing a process where Active Voice brings filmmakers together with specific policymakers, funders, think tanks, and community organizers from the beginning of the project—not after the film has been shot and is inrough-cut form, but ideally just as the project is beginning to be conceptually shaped. By creating a incorporate and to listen filmmakers where environment dialogue safe still employ review panels, and for the filmmaker, if and when she may be may she ifwhen and filmmaker, the for and panels, review else. employ still anything than lottery a winning like more is it chosen, When my producing partners at Group Media and Working I finally received interest and eventually funding from the National Science Foundation for a package of multimedia activities, the Project documentary was only one part of site and a variety ofWeb the toolkits to and related the resources subject, bundle. Besides the we created a public engagement plan to bring the film not only into distribution, but to a wide range of constituent could organizations use that it in a variety of and centers, science programs, after-school organizations, professional settings—from classrooms to libraries, programs. outreach community It was the experience of developing partners and collaborations and designing Voice a complex Active outreach this. plan do that filmmakers led help me to to models pay attention developing to organizations documentarians challenging organizations two are Films Working and to examine traditional (i.e., twentieth-century) notions of cinematic modes alternative with and improving experimenting and are success, of creating and getting the work to audiences. By collaborating with them, they are teaching filmmakers ways to begin thinking about this piece of a film is begun. before even the process Ellen Schneider, founder of Active Voice, a nonprofit organization devoted to using independent documentary successfully in the wider theater of social change storytelling as an unusually movements, powerful force to “put a sees human face on cinematic public nonfiction policy and move discussion away from partisan and conflict- oriented journalism.” Gender Gender ______After After the majority of production shooting was completed for Chip the , Project the to film as my complete strategy soon as I was could to then and trailer a create made I a trailer, write project. grants, next get the funding, to get on a move go distributor, and to festivals, broadcast, a get project in this no interest absolutely was there but grants, wrote endlessly post-9/11 The past. the in with worked had I entities offunding approached the any from foundations way the in especially quickly, changing was world digital ofnew escalation assisting the the development ofofterrorism, independently these threat made the documentary base—all projects. government, audience Bush The distracted a distribution, Internet and technologies and aversion ofrisk funder an atmosphere created others, plus elements, extreme caution when contributing in stakes anything high to having and risk high the as both viewed arts—especially are (which thearts media terms of return on investment). From my experience, private foundations do not care to in invest films (or filmmakers) unless it agencies is a subject theyfunding care public Some program. ofoverall part is their and about Rather Rather than feeling the panic of being caught in a riptide of change, nonfiction filmmakershave more to gain byever working than before more deeply with mobile, of blurring, collaborative proliferation the interactive, within experimenting and participatory models, and untamed and places where media can now seep. Since we honestly to imagine we have predict will what happen can’t with any certainty, new ways of asserting what “public media” means in our privatized ofideals the resurrect to equipped be might it society and how citizen engagement and we community have obligations. And pragmatically, to dance between the issues of proprietary ownership of our creative work and the promises of “open-source mediamaking.” A work indeed. progress, in Documentary filmmakers with an interest in collaborating with subject with collaborating in interest an with filmmakers Documentary participants as equals created hundreds have of ways to bring people of process the ofinto stories ofvisual One the constructing lives. their close- its been always has filmmaking ofindependent practices great the how nonprofessionals teaching and communities local on emphasis up No approaches. visual unusual with experimenting while films make to longer limited to theater and television, they can now be experienced and discussed in a variety of venues where people congregate, and through the Internet groups, can be alerted and invited to screenings in moments. Digital technology untethered the medium, and film now can be installed, repurposed,reinterpreted and becauseconstantly changing and fluidrelationship to both of its physical place and audience participants. Community Community media organizations like AppalshopScribe in Kentucky, Video in Philadelphia, and Community Film ofWorkshop Chicago, and youth media training programs like Educational Video Center and Downtown Center Community in Television Film New In York, the Cities in Minnesota, and Visual Communications in Los Angeles began to be important communication nodes that balanced creative and unusual uses of new technologies, aspirations of mediamakers, and the desires or needs of the communities with which the country access centers also began Public across to train a they working. were generation of citizen producers, activists, novice and new immigrants ofin the techniques media engagement. highly localized 12 a f t e r i m a g e 35.6 and persuasion and to persuasion work with advocacy professionals to figure out ways politics,organizing, world”“real of the into shifts thinking arena, this in motivations, while personal for film the making be may filmmaker the Although users. interested other and supporters among word the screenings to field workground, onthe and publicizing and spreading connecting panels, and screenings hosting DVDs, away giving and “unexpected calls West what allies”—those who can commit to using the film in the field by buying and organizations, advocacy with They now work with filmmakers to build, from conception, relationships building materials that are healthy andnontoxic. continuing to organize consumer groups across the country to demand in had has film the impact the measure can producers the broadcast, its now,Evenafter dioxin.years toxinseveral the to link its PVCand material plastic the about documentary personal Helfand’s (2002), for campaign outreach major a developed they when this realized Helfand, co-founder,Judith other Films’ Working and West and mostimportantly, usedby people. distributed, and completed film the get to links important most the of process,one the become maybeginning but whenthese now thinking engagement and outreach planning are the farthest from a filmmaker’s film’sforthe base the continuingbecome the world.reach into Public can that organizations issue social very the with relationshipsdevelop writing proposals, and trying to get the film completed, it is not easy to matter,subject their in immersed isolation,work and often in funding filmmakers independent Since world?” the help to world the into out get film this can “How advocates, community and and documentarians asks justice efforts, social of work the into woven creatively if a that principle documentary the can have with a significant impact works beyond isolated that film festivals organization nine-year-old a Films,Working of Director Executive and co-founder West,Robert and actiononaparticularissue. vividly,travels broadly, worksand hard catalysta as for understanding project media that a lives design can theatrical filmmaker release),the festivals, broadcast, maybeand even a realworld of fantasia the (after the in usability documentary’s a about on early dialogue a starting in what are perceived as uncertain and risky documentary projects. By security with policymakers and funders usually reluctant to get involved matter subject their considerably, frame they might be lucky enough to create and trust and a bond of complicate may that perspectives Blue Vinyl Blue

rjc, eig cetv ac rm rdcin o rsnain and presentation to the production from undertaking arc creative while a seeing equality project, of stance a community assume and collaborators filmmaker the model, this In professional. media omniscient the attraction, of center the filmmaker the is Nor project. client and/or sponsored a producing about not is which model, this the in not serveleast issue—at an around position another or one to advocatesof there simply not is team, creative or creator, the that producer and the various collaborators. Everyone must be independent the in for thinking agreement in shift a requires practice of type This onward. process the of beginning the from ways, varying in control absolute cede to willing be must filmmaker the time—that same the could have I never mean—at models these exciting.But and extraordinary in ways is imagined, transformative even and influential adistribution at festivals, become and grow to continue and awards) and it(success sales, broadcast deal, confine and it define think I that boundaries the of out jump can work my that idea the because ActiveVoicemodels the to attracted am I Workingand provideFilms open-source teamwork. together inthespiritof sides all bring to protocol a place in putting from come can success prove, organizations these both as but, time, of ahead out play will this how imagine cannot Filmmakers action. inspiredfor stage the set advocacythe networks thatworkthe use can and dialogue up open to partnership strategy, much-needed offer intermediary between the creative filmmaking team and Films Working being the matchmaking relationships,for long term and the service of and Voice Active nonprofit organizations have tocreate their own films. do Nor implementers. and strategists outreach become to have not do audiences, new filmmakers to out film the getting processthe of in Films operates under the principle that, although they are participants to and doable for the engaged and inspired audience members. Working our issue?” and what are the “next actions” to take that are meaningful screenings and on the alwaysInternet, asking, “How can this film help at distribution forresources develop and events,etc.) special libraries, settings (from mobile devices to churches, schools, community centers, produce game plans to use the films in a wide and innovative variety of together,organizations and to organizationsWorking the trains Films institutions, filmmakers, bring to methodology a developed Having and plain oldorganizing. relationships, personal of webs building, community Internet, the of advantage takes that way sophisticated and broad a in work the disseminate to plan outreach developed highly a see they unless project a to contribute not will funders that realizing are people. Filmmakers of kinds all to speaks that film a artifact, cultural great a of issue, and that they can, at the same time, contribute to the completion their to depth emotional give to stories screenworthygreat need they interest. of Organizations and campaigns are realizing, albeit slowly, alliances forgethat to intermediary an as acts typically which Films, Working even or filmmakers the by built not are campaigns These which cantakethree years ormore. environments—all of that the film can be rolled out in non-traditional, yet highly meaningful e From the Gender Chip v o b a Project a f t e r i m a g e 35.6 13 , a video ceremony/performance piece about the about piece ceremony/performance video a , Unhushed come to a shared narrative piece together and produce it themselves. Neighborhood screenings dialogue stimulate among people and open up memories and ideas for among new the work coming participants, and, live they where with relationship ofunderstandingand deeper a to to is it important how of society, nature our of because throw-away the real next the into ofdisappear stories simply capture they before place estate development deal. And they do it with the most ephemeral yet powerful tool for creating a living and breathing record of a moment on a screen. in video, made and shown in time—a story, Places, Precious by produced been have that works forty-two the Among at panel the during example reflective and evocative an showed Massiah New in Camden, project Standing” The “Still conference. NCMR the created Jersey, in of slaves ownership family’s the and town the in estate Family Cooper repeatedly had Society Historical County Camden The 1800s. early the denied that this plantation had slaves, but researchers and artists dug up that the documents proved ofexistence living slaves several in the visualized residents, Camden by created work, video The attic. Cooper a naming for ceremony the and slaves forgotten exhumed a shameful suppressed. be would also wished historians town that secret Philadelphia is a special case in the media fighting now are and advocates stations, access cable had public never ecology of the U.S. It for a citywide wireless network. But it has several university media solid programs, public television, and a local funding that community Massiah, For investment. worthy a as media independent consider will history: with layered tool cultural a also is city his in media independent of early twentieth-century cinema experiments that took place there, of polarized citywide politics, of ofQuaker history, nine generations of African American communities that have ancestral place. In made his vision of the independent media, city it is not defined their by broadcast or the Internet, but by a community group working for ten months on a 10-minute video work that is seen and discussed at and churches. beauty parlors, barbershops, centers, community As a counterweight and response to the increasing ephemerality of digital media culture, where “motion media” lives as an easily gotten record of the moment and simply disappears or is deleted, Scribe’s Precious Places media project is all the more meaningful. It the resists forgetfulness and ahistorical nature of the media stream we are plunged into. The work comes from the not professionals inside—people but who reside in are the place and can reveal and problems, triumphs in its ways outside historians might secrets, never know developed has Scribe of kind project, a As advocacy consider. or about a cultural production model where on involved everyone the creative team is “generating content” from a point of view that only comes home stake place—is is at and there deepsomething—like when your emotional connection to holding up the mirror. investigation This slow creative local, and and democratic methodical, may hold one key to rooting the new digital technologies in a sense stewards ofas historically but continuous values and consumers, ethics that as bind ordinary citizens and together—not communities healthy develop of Coupling cultural media with production the urgency public memory. of and the history storytelling, from people’s the memories, recording cultural avoid to enough supple force, is an unappreciated inside

7 It is more like a 5 Besides training people in film in people training Besides 6 ______When he spoke on our panel, “The Invisible Network,” at the 2007 National Conference on Media Tennessee, Reform Massiah (NCMR) asked, in Memphis, “What begin to define happens themselves creating by media when works that communities reveal the important things that they want the world to know about them?” and video craft, Scribe’s mission is to work with nonprofits, community community nonprofits, with work to is mission Scribe’s craft, video and groups, and grassroots organizers who want to use filmfor social and cultural purposes, and to communicate with their constituencies. By creating collaborative and highly democratic media teaching interested individuals projects, how to create video works themselves, and flourish to practice media democratic for model a pioneered has Scribe century. into the twenty-first In Philadelphia, the Scribe Video Center, through the tireless work of work the tireless through Center, In Philadelphia, the Scribe Video filmmaker/founder Louis Massiah, hasevolved into a necessary and local institution, beloved and one that has been out created singularly ofecologyofmedia local the city. that Yet, media arts and community media organizations are in an increasingly increasingly an in are organizations media community and arts media Yet, noand funds public virtually as find—with they now, place vulnerable community—that philanthropic the from understanding interested little communities the and makers the to relationship their redefine must they they serve and collaborate with, or perish. The scope of those that are culture. local a in rooted and focused is succeeding The ideal of a networked and localized participatory, media culture has been historically movement in the United fundamental States. Its most successful and longstanding to the practitioners independent are deeply media connected in neighborhoods—that work they and call In home. the best to work to the places—cities, towns, come out of communities, the particular magic of their place infuses made there. are the documentaries that game or network ofgame or network and less like a completed object. relationships, Perhaps Perhaps control is no longer what the process independent is about, mediamaking but rather constantly reworking the enterprise the between relationship dynamic the change and in come inputs new as self-identifiedfilmmaker and those whomjournalist Jay andprofessor Rosen calls, “people formerly known as audiences.” distribution distribution to ways that “users” can shape it into their worlds. It is an assumption that while the director is the storyteller in the grander scheme, other equally important participants are helping to ensure that ways and places in work to designed be can documentary the that or imagined. considered even have never may the filmmaker Scribe’s Scribe’s most recent community media project, its Precious Places Community History Project, explores that question in ways that are out created yet ofdeliberate and highly innovative, the unique media ecology of Philadelphia. Brought together by Scribe and its network teens of (from people ages all churches, of and organizations nonprofit to grandmothers) in city neighborhoods come together to work with locally based filmmakers toresearch, film, and edit short video works that define their communities—placeswhere people research have archival and history oral for in lived people train Scholars generations. ofindividuals groups where processes facilitate Filmmakers techniques. 14 a f t e r i m a g e 35.6 several of the young women involved in the in involved women young the of several 2006, in Arts the for WexnerCenter the at screening premiere its At maintaining ahealthy democracy, both political andcultural. community andessential are artsmediadoing fields mediaare thefor Yet, media the programs kinds of and projects that people who work in receive any kinddecent of monetary return or creators”on “content professionaltheir creative as living investment. a earn to enough valued financiallybe not maywork theirwhen era psychologically anand in economically,spiritually, themselves sustain to clusters fluid form and publicmediaspheremakers comecantogether where communities of a for struggle to how is relevant is of What practice. reinvention cinema American the for principle organizing an as relevant longer no is It product. Hollywood industrial stultifying to reactinggeneration risk- individual, the American the baby boom conception of takingfilmmakerindiea was of myth The complexities. evolving rapidly its in landscape technological emerging the for match no is independentfilmmaker) (or creator/team individual the that experience, own my from suspect, reinvented. I and received, made, be will work the how changing constantly are that networks, teams and clusters, of communities, out built is that work of versions multiple encourage) suggestI that the artist will bevalued more for anability tocreate (and the public mediasphere, andthemediaactivistworld? community,arts media the in historically evolvedhave that practices organizing) and education, extension,by (and production the-ground on- with tools Internet of plethora the synthesizing by meaningfully of era emerging an “user-generated in content”? How can collaborators work together more artist/author the of role the and networks participatory reconsider to ways us allow interfaces and tools new the record, process, and delete the flow life? Or—shifting of approach—do anyoneto everywhererepeatedlylittle followsus to means except and signature twenty-first-centuryof digital media—a pixelated surfaceemerging that the this is erased: easily consumed, easily captured, Easily poverty, andsocialisolation from the mainstream. obliteration,especially communitiesforour thatriskareforatviolence, no huge “drama” or stimulating confrontations that can easily vivify easily can that confrontations stimulating or “drama” huge no was there that fact the about worried often I film the making While an artseducator withayoung andismarried child. areSTEM PhDs, one is a practicing civil engineer, two and one left engineering to be MD, an is profiled students the of one graduation, their self-confidence the most. 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