Our sister organization, the New Orleans VideoVoices Project partnered with kids to make this incredible participatory film about their Iberville neighborhood.
Iberville Boys & Girls Club from Lily Keber on Vimeo.
On Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 12pm New Orleans Video Voices, the Make it Right Foundation, and the Contemporary Arts Center will host a reception for the presentation of the youth-directed video exhibit From Devastation to Hope: Rebuilding with Faith and Love and a youth-created photo exhibit. The exhibit was created by four - twelve and thirteen year old girls under the direction of the members of New Orleans Video Voices. Both the photo and video exhibit display the resiliency of Make It Right Homeowners and Lower 9th Ward Residents as they continue to rebuild not only homes, but the 9th Ward community.
New Orleans Video Voices (NOVV) is a local media collective dedicated to using new media to address underlying problems of racial tension, education, economics, health, and health care in our communities. Through community member participation, health and resilience is promoted and sustained. NOVV uses of documentary film to foster critical thinking and media literacy skills, engages the creative power of community and amplifies the voices of a largely unheard population.
Noella Anderson, Sade Jones, Ebony Thompson, and Anastasia Woods all served as youth directors for the documentary From Devastation to Hope: Rebuilding with Faith and Love. Prior to directing this film, the girls directed From Our Point of View: Joining Hands to Save Our Community, a film that explores the history, triumphs, and struggles of the 7th Ward Treme area. This film won first place in the Elisabeth Irwin Human Rights Film Festival in New York, New York.
Anastasia Woods
Anastasia, 12, is an 8th grade Honors student at Slidell Junior High School and a Junior
Mentor and Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. Originally from New Orleans, she
appreciates the culture and traditions of her home city. She aspires to be a Pediatrician.
Until then she enjoys movies, singing, dancing, maintaining excellent grades, and
media. As a member of New Orleans Video Voices, she has the opportunity to continue
to do the things that she loves the most; documentaries.
Ebony Thompson
Ebony,12, is an eighth grader at Holy Ghost Private School and a Junior Mentor and
Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. She is an intelligent young lady who takes her
media skills to new heights. Ebony wants to be a doctor and a cosmetologist when she
grows up. She enjoys hair design, makeup, fashion, movies, singing, and of course
media. She has a natural knack for interviewing.
Sade Jones
Sade 12, is a seventh grade Honors student at John Dilbert School and a Junior
Mentor and Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. She enjoys singing, dancing,
talking on the phone, and media. Sade is a great camera person and has an eye for
scenes. With her new media skills, she is now avideographer for her whole family. The
media skills that she has acquired have allowed her to be a videographer of her family.
Noella Anderson
Noella is a thirteen year old eighth grade Honors student at Holy Ghost Private School
and a Junior Mentor and Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. The quiet one out of
the girls, Noelle is a great technical person, and great at setting up picture perfect
interviews. She loves taking B-Role for the documentaries.
Contact Michele Burton-Oatis, Director of Community Collaboration, New Orleans Video Voices at michele@neworleansvideovoices.org.
UC Berkeley School of Public Health, DrPH Program and Human Rights Center
present
A free screening of In Harmony: Reflections, thoughts, and hopes of Central City.
Tuesday, March 10. 6:PM. 109 Dwinelle. UC Berkeley Campus
IN HARMONY is a film about everyday people finding their voices and coming together to tell the story of their neighborhood, Central City New Orleans. It was conceived, filmed, and edited by people who felt that, despite the swarming of the mass media after Katrina and efforts by filmmakers from around the world, the real story of their neighborhood has not been told. As schoolteacher Michele Burton-Oatis describes it, “I was tired of talking about what was wrong with the way that my city was being treated and rebuilt. I decided to do something about it. I used a video camera.”
As the New Orleans VideoVoice team learned to use video cameras to capture the story of their neighborhood, they interviewed dozens of neighbors and local leaders, some who they had known for years and some who they had never reached out to. They built an archive of stories from local historians, business owners, activists, artists, parents and grandparents, police, homeless, teachers, medical providers, and more. In Harmony is the first film to emerge from this intensive effort to capture the spirit of Central City and its people.
For more information, email catalani@berkeley.edu.
BACK HOUSE PRODUCTIONS, REACH NOLA, & COMIX
presents
Freestyle Love Supreme:
Purpose Party for New Orleans
VideoVoices Project
Freestyle Love Supreme and COMIX are throwing a Purpose Party to raise funds for the New Orleans VideoVoices Project! Join Tony Award-winners Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bill Sherman plus Chris Jackson, Chris “Shockwave” Sullivan, Utkarsh Amudkar, Wade Allain-Marcus and Anthony Veneziale along with special guests for an evening of amazing hip-hop comedy for a great cause. Directed by Thomas Kail.
We will be having some awesome silent auction items up for bid (ITH Tickets and more!) and it’s going to be an excellent show.
The New Orleans VideoVoices Project works to build a groundswell of voices for change using community media, inspiring hard hit communities to tell their stories.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 8th
Tickets: $50 Advance / $60 (day of)
Students: $20 Advance / $25 (day of)
www.comixny.com
The New Orleans VideoVoices Project is a REACH NOLA, VideoVoice Collective and community partnership.
For more information please visit:
www.video-voice.org or www.reachnola.org
-Freestyle Love Supreme
http://www.reverbnation.com/fls
Click here to put our songs on your Facebook profile.
• Caricia Catalani, School of Public Health, Berkeley, Participatory Video in New Orleans, USA
Abstract
Billions of people worldwide have gained access to the Internet, digital recording devices, and other new media tools. More and more, these new media tools are used as innovative solutions to enduring human rights struggles, however often without critical understanding of their potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. To begin to understand these aspects of new media more thoroughly, this evaluation of the New Orleans Videovoice Project describes the processes and outcomes associated with a particular participatory video methodology: videovoice.
Like its predecessor photovoice, videovoice involves partnering with communities to research health and human rights situations by putting digital cameras in the hands of everyday people. The New Orleans Videovoice Project took place in Central City, an underserved nieghborhood that was hit hard in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Those who have returned from displacement have faced a difficult recovery period involving loss of family and friends, loss of housing and possessions, closures of primary sources of health care, marginalization by government and its recovery programs, and the ongoing stress of piecing one’s life and the community back together.
The New Orleans Videovoice Project arose out of a need to organize around human rights and health concerns at this critical time. By building a partnership of diverse community members from the Central City neighborhood, public health researchers, filmmakers, and human rights advocates, the project has produced several participatory documentary videos. The videos describe the neighborhood’s historical and current struggle for human rights, and their own solutions for a better future. Beyond videos, this highly participatory project has resulted in other critical outcomes, such as increased capacity to produce media, understanding of community strengths and concerns, individual empowerment, and engagement in community action.
• Krista Kshatriya, School of Law, Berkeley, World Health Organization/Southeast Asia Regional Office, India
• Miranda Ritterman, School of Public Health, Berkeley, Christian Children’s Fund, Angola
• Nobuko Mizoguchi, Demography, Berkeley, Global Health Access Project, Thai-Burma border
Lunch Break - 12 noon to 1:30 PM
This weekend, we held our world premiere of “In Harmony” in the very New Orleans neighborhood that gave it voice and vision. It was amazing! Over 150 supporters, many of which starred in the film, came to watch it on the big screen at Ashe Cultural Arts Center and Zeitgeist Multimedia Arts Center.
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In true New Orleans style, we started with an incredible food, mostly provided by our friends at J’Anitas BBQ. I am a big fan of the movie, of course, but this pulled pork, brisket, and bourbon bbq sauce was nearly the best thing about the evening!
After the screening, we held an awards ceremony for the filmmakers. Eleven participants were awarded certificates of recognition for achievement in community documentary filmmaking and their own digital video cameras.
Both evenings culminated in a fiery discussion about how we can move forward on the issues that neighbors care about, including housing, schools, and economic empowerment.
It was an incredible weekend! We look forward to sharing the film with all of you through online viewing, DVDs, and screenings in more locations during the next months.
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