From “South Boston: Neighborhood, Identity, and Change” by Certificate in Documentary Arts student Indaia Whitcombe
Throughout the year, the Center for Documentary Studies offers Continuing Education courses in the documentary arts. Some students choose to enroll in the Certificate in Documentary Arts program, which offers a more structured sequence of courses culminating in the Final Seminar in Documentary Studies, where students finish and present a substantial documentary work—projects that often move out into the world in the form of exhibits, installations, screenings, websites, audio shows, and more.
Five students completed their final projects in the fall 2012 Final Seminar taught by filmmaker Randolph Benson; in December 2012 they received their certificates and presented their projects to the public. “The subjects they’ve chosen challenge us to examine our preconceptions and to consider what binds us to our fellow man and woman, and what keeps us apart,” wrote Benson. Read about the students and their work and view three of the projects below (two students chose to not make their projects public at this time).
Lorrie Batton | The Rising (video)
After Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in the spring of 1968, the city of Baltimore erupted in riots, and black community leaders went into the streets, desperate to quell the violence and destruction. As the situation began to calm, Spiro Agnew, then governor of Maryland, called a meeting with what he called “moderate” black civic and religious leaders. Though the mayor of Baltimore, the head of the National Guard, and other city leaders protested that it might spark renewed rioting, Agnew went ahead with a meeting that would shine a spotlight on race relations in Baltimore and across the country, and catapult Agnew to the vice presidency. The story in Lorrie Batton’s video The Rising is told through oral histories gathered by students at the University of Baltimore in 2006 and 2007 and archival footage and photographs.
Batton is a registered nurse from Baltimore with a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan and a graduate certificate in documentary filmmaking from George Washington University. She recently began a fellowship at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, where she will make a longer film about the 1969 riots, focusing on both the history of that time and the current state of the neighborhoods that were the most affected.
Photograph courtesy of the Baltimore News American Corporation, University of Maryland–College Park
Shaun Flynn | Undiscovered (video)
Jason Adamo may not be a household name, or even signed to record label, but the self-employed musician is doing what he loves for a living: playing music. Ten years ago Adamo stopped off in Raleigh, North Carolina, to save up for a move to Los Angeles, but then he fell in love with the area (and his future wife) and never left. He eventually quit his job waiting tables and put together one of the tightest bands around, planting himself firmly in the local scene. Shaun Flynn’s video Undiscovered follows the Jason Adamo Band as they write and record their new album, perform in a major showcase, and pursue their dream of making it big.
A Chapel Hill, North Carolina–native, Flynn graduated from North Carolina State University. In 2010, he began taking production classes at the Peoples Channel, a community media nonprofit. Shaun enrolled at CDS in 2011 to sharpen his editing skills and continues to learn as much as he can.
Medina Korda | One Child at a Time (video)
In 2010 Medina Korda met a ten-year-old girl from a rural village in northern Liberia named Mama Sharif, who told her that just a year before she had not known how to read, and now, having mastered the skill, she wanted to go to college. There are many Liberian girls like Mama Sharif, with dreams and aspirations they may not be able to fulfill. Korda learned that Mama Sharif was living with her uncle and aunt while in school. She promised to pay for Mama Sharif’s tuition, including college, as long as her aunt and uncle promised to keep her in school. And they did just that. Korda’s video One Child at a Time is the story of Mama Sharif’s journey to realize her dream.
Korda is from Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the past twelve years, she has traveled extensively to developing countries and worked to resolve complex issues related to children’s education. Since 2005, Korda has worked as a research education analyst for RTI International. She hopes to return to Liberia to film Mama Sharif as she grows up, finishes college, and becomes a role model for other Liberian girls.
Diana Monroe | Healthy Boomer Homes (video)
The number-one health concern for people over the age of sixty-five is avoiding the trauma that results from a fall; thus, leading-edge baby boomers’ growing interest in safe, accessible homes as they redefine how they want to live for the next twenty-plus years. Boomers who are evaluating their housing needs can explore various options, including “ageless” homes built by residential contractors known as Certified Aging in Place Specialists (CAPS). In Healthy Boomer Homes, Diana Monroe documents “boomer” stories on HealthyBoomerHomes.org.
Monroe is a first-time filmmaker and and a health educator at Duke University’s Employee Health Promotion Program. She now “owns her age” as a sixty-four-year-old baby boomer; Monroe and her husband are making plans for their next twenty years at home in the Triangle, near their two adult children, relatives, and friends.
Indaia Whitcombe | South Boston: Neighborhood, Identity, and Change (audio and photography)
Once a predominately white, Irish Catholic, and working-class neighborhood, South Boston today is different place—ethnically and racially diverse as well as economically divided. A community that was once home to the highest concentration of poor whites in America has now become a blended neighborhood and a place where million-dollar condos sit on the same block as some of the oldest housing projects in the country. But even as the face and geography of South Boston continues to change, the old town spirit remains, which Indaia Whitcombe explores in her audio and photography project.
Whitcombe studied sociocultural anthropology at Bennington College in Vermont. Over the last six years, she has worked on community projects in Kenya, lived on the Hopi reservation in Arizona, conducted fieldwork with Berber agropastoralists in Morocco, taught at a rural boarding school in Namibia, and documented life on the Ganges in India. Whitcombe was a recent Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow who spent a year documenting South Boston.
