Interactive Media – New Tools – March Labs

There are a couple of opportunities in England this month for some hands-on experimentation and learning with new tools for interactive and ‘”connected” documentary. Following the i_Docs Symposium here in Bristol there will be two parallel day-long workshops on Saturday 24th with industry professionals from 3WDOC and HonkyLab. “The workshops will explore each company’s cutting-edge authoring [...]

Girl Walk // All Day

On tour in the US and on the bill at the upcoming SXSW Film Festival, Girl Walk//All Day is a feature length music video which has evolved from an initial idea in Autumn 2010 through a Kickstarter campaign a year ago to its current release through a crowd-sourced distribution structure. As producer Jacob Krupnik explains on [...]

i-Docs 2012

Tickets are now available for i-Docs 2012. Following 2011′s successful inaugural event i-Docs 2012 has been expanded to two full days and will take place here at Bristol’s Watershed Media Centre on March 22nd and 23rd. Convened by Judith Aston and Sandra Gaudenzi on behalf of the Digital Cultures Research Centre (the home of my research), the symposium brings together producers, [...]

Bear 71

Just launched at Sundance, Bear 71 is a brilliant interactive documentary created by Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison with the NFB Digital Studio. It’s a haunting story told from the point-of-view of a female grizzly bear – Bear 71 – about humans and animals in the Banff National Park, and how animals are being devastated [...]

An Interview with Jigar Mehta

“For the first time in history, citizens are recording an actual revolution in real time. Throughout the 18 days of the 2011 uprising—in the year since—and now—Egyptians are filming pivotal events on their cell phones, taking pictures, texting, tweeting and facebooking their extraordinary bid for freedom. Now, “18 Days in Egypt”, the collaborative documentary project, aims [...]

99% (The Occupy Wall Street Film)

There are now 75 filmmakers involved in the US 99% (The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film). According to the Kickstarter fundraising site, ”It started with a few filmmakers in NY, but within a couple weeks people were joining in Denver, Portland, LA, Boston, Seattle, Philly, DC, Kansas City, Miami, Pittsburgh, Austin, Dallas, Rhode Island, Nashville, Chicago, [...]

The Lives They Loved

The Lives they Loved is a moving project from the New York Times. Readers have posted a photo and commentary about someone close who has died this year. The simple statements and photos combined are very powerful.

Participatory Culture : Public Education

Elizabeth Losh represents “Team Critical Theory” and Henry Jenkins “Team Cultural Studies” in this great discussion that gets to grips with how and whether US public education can take advantage of participatory culture. Part of October’s awesome sounding Mobility Shifts Future of Learning Summit at the New School, NYC.    

Cowbird

“Cowbird is a simple tool for telling stories, and a public library of human experience.” Jonathan Harris’ latest project, just released, Cowbird is a gorgeous new platform for individual and collaborative storytelling. As Harris describes it on his site, “Cowbird is a small community of storytellers, interested in telling deeper, longer-lasting, more nourishing stories than you’re [...]

Four categories of collaborative documentary

I’ve just been in Barcelona, at the ECREA (European Communication Research & Education Association) Digital Culture Workshop which looked at innovative practices and critical theories.  It was a terrific gathering – small enough to get to know people, focussed enough to be productive – a great mix of conviviality and critical dialogue. (Thanks to the [...]