My friend, Shawn Van Every, pointed me to a videoblog project one of his students is doing.
Check it out:
Paris Marashi says "This blog is for an experimental documentary that I am working on this
year, where I will be shooting video of my experiences in Iran and
creating shorts, interactive installations, and/or videoblogs using the
footage from my experiences and the experiences of others."
Her videblog is a dream for me. Since I began videoblogging in 2004, I hungered for people to start connecting us with underrepresented places. We need people like Paris who "bridge" two communties together which are separated only by geographic and cultural boundaries.
There is absolutely no reason why we can’t talk with Iranians. But why dont we? Anyone of us could email someone in Iran right now. But how do you meet someone in a culture that is demonized or marginalized in our own media? My belief is that video is what brings people alive on the web. Time, of course, will tell.
incredible!!
That’s my colleague! She worked with the BX21 kids in the Bronx. And we did some production for iVillage.com too. She’s awesome.
Very true. (I am writing this from Rwanda.)
Unfortunately the world has a long way to go before American pre-dominance of the internet (and especially of video blogging) relaxes a little.
But hey, in a country where only 5% of the population has electricity, and 90-95% of the population lives from subsistence farming, there are plenty of other things to worry about….
Maurice (from the other side of the digital divide)