Blog posting written by Shawn Steiner, Film, Photography, and Visual Arts '13, FLEFF Intern, Elkridge, MD

And once again we are back in Park 220 for FLEFF Lab Friday. Kelly Matheson from WITNESS is here and Dr. Patricia Zimmermann is moderating this hour. Come on by!

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Kelly begins with the well-known video of Rodney King. It was the catalyst for witness and proved that video could enact social action and change. So, they got together and got video cameras all over to record stories all around. And for 20 years, after working through many issues, they are working to create many international videos and tell compelling stories.

QUESTION: Who is Oscar Grant?

How do you get your video seen when there is an absurd saturation of digital media out there? That is an issue that Kelly and others like her deal with constantly.

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Informed consent is the current topic of Kelly's. She is screening clips from a huge variety of projects. Including a short from her TRUST series about youths fighting climate change.

An new take is how to take perpetrator shot video and turn it back onto the perpetrators, as opposed to the humiliation to the victim intended by the original video.

Verification is another thing that needs to be analyzed. Kelly cites the website storyful.com as a source for validation of video for news. Here is the fireball example that Kelly cites.

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"Technology is always a double-edged sword."

QUESTION: What do you do when your documentary or video risks the well-being of your subject?

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The question of reconciliation is a major talking point during the discussion. And it may bery well be added to Kelly's list of major things to think about when dealing with video. We need to determine how citizen-shot footage will allow usage in things like court cases and how they can be verified.

What does it mean when that image is recorded, circulates, or as evidence?

The ethics behind the usage of a video as evidence requires it to have a much more intense method of verification.

"Give the archive love. They are the unsung heroes."

Blog posting written by Kacey Deamer, Journalism and Environmental Studies '13, FLEFF Intern, Binghamton, NY

Some people hate to talk about themselves. I'm not one of those people. I'll tell you just about anything you want to know about me. More than anything, though, I love to talk about the environment. That's probably why I am a double major in journalism and environmental studies. It is my job to write and talk about the environment, ranging from the science of climate change to eco-friendly lifestyle changes.

Working with FLEFF is a perfect combination of these passions. I get to promote an incredible, interdisciplinary environmental film festival through blogging! Through this platform I'll share with you the inner-workings of a festival: profiles, reviews, top 5 lists and many other musings. Think of this as a special preview, brought to you by students who care.

As a student who cares and who will be sharing stories on this blog, I thought I'd tell you some more about myself (since I do, in fact, love to talk about myself). I grew up in the suburbs of Binghamton, NY, which is not too inspiring in the environmental department. Despite that, I always had a consciousness of the planet and its well-being. Attending Ithaca College was an easy choice given the sustainability efforts of the campus and the perfect combination of majors.

My time on campus has been spent doing just about everything. On the journalist side: I'm an editor for Buzzsaw Magazine, the environment/sustainability beat reporter for The Ithacan, a member of SPJ and SEJ, and developing a personal blog. On the environmental side: I help maintain the student-run organic garden, am a member of the environmental society and Slow Food chapter. 

Off-campus I am a full-time foodie and wine connoisseur (which will come in handy working on the festival). I also have a fondness for DIY projects and therefore a new addiction to Pinterest.

I'm here, as an intern and a blogger and an insatiable academic, to broaden my understanding of the festival world and to find new avenues to share environmental messages. Why are you here?

Meagan McGinnes

Class of 2014, Journalism

Minors in politics and environmental studies

Norwood, MA

Fun Facts About Me:

1.     I am a Boston girl.

2.     I have a twin sister, who also goes to Ithaca College.

3.     I am addicted to caffeine.

4.     My favorite color is yellow.

5.     I have Bieber fever, and I am not afraid to show it!

Don’t laugh. I am 100 percent serious when I say that Leonardo DiCaprio helped me discover my passion for environmental activism. My ridiculous love for DiCaprio began with the release of the movie Titanic. While casually stalking him/scrolling through his website, I stumbled upon his eco-link. I was enlightened. I was shocked. I was hooked.

Since then, I have become dedicated to environmental advocacy and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles through my love of journalism (check out my blog from the Ithacan!). I am President of Ithaca College’s chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. I am also Co-Editor for the upfront section of Buzzsaw Magazine. I love to talk and meet new people, but even more so I love to write. Sometimes, I have a hard time articulating exactly what I am feeling, but through my writing I am able to take the time to say exactly what I want to say, how I want to say it. And trust me, I have a lot to say. Words are beautiful. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and now it is time for me to look for beauty elsewhere.

I am so pleased to be working with FLEFF so I can explore a medium of journalism outside of my comfort zone, while still advocating for something I love: the planet. I am captivated by this art form that uses visuals to stir action, and I can’t wait to learn more. But even more so, I am thrilled to be a part of the community created around this festival. Which is what the theme of microtopias is all about: building an ideal community on a local level to explore the world without constraints. We create boundaries and limits for ourselves all of the time.  My resolution at the beginning of this New Year was to live my life by the words of Neale Donald Walsch who said, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” I believe this statement is true for the environmental movement as well. By breaking through these zones we create for ourselves, only then can we challenge existing systems, mindsets, boundaries and limits.

So here is what I want to know from you: other than participating in FLEFF 2012, what will you be doing to advocate for the environment in your own daily life? What will you do to break out of your comfort zone? How will you work to make your own utopia a reality rather than an ideal?

Blog post written by Evan Johnson, Journalism, Environmental Studies, German Language Studies ‘13, FLEFF Intern, Marlboro, VT

Danny Schecter is a journalist and independent film producer. He is the winner of multiple awards including the Society of Professional Journalists' 2001 Award for Excellence in Documentary Journalism. His film, Plunder: The Crime of Our Time will be shown at FLEFF on April 16 at 2 pm at Cinemapolis. Mr. Schecter and I spoke recently about his film, the recent financial crisis and the responsibilities of journalists.

Evan Johnson: What originally drew you to the theme of your movie, Plunder?

Danny Schecter:  In 2005 I began thinking about what kind I could do that would bring people together and about the shared problems in our country that transcend partisan politics. I focused on the issue debt. So many people are in debt; students, people with mortgages and credit cards. So I made a film called In Debt We Trust and that film warned of the financial crisis. That came out in 2006 and the reaction was ‘you’re an alarmist. How can you say the economy is going to crash when everything is going so well?’ And the six months later the market began to melt down. I went from a zero to a hero. I wasn’t the only one who saw these problems coming by any means but the people who did see them coming were ignored. We’ve moved from warning of a crisis to an actual crisis. And as that crisis developed they saw the same patterns. No one was asking any deeper questions and that led me to stop looking at the problem as a business problem and start looking at it as a crime problem. I believe this is the most serious problem because it’s the economic security of the entire planet.

EJ: As a lone journalist or investigative reporter, how do you confront an issue as large as white-collar crime or chronic debt?

DS: You have to find who’s going to be willing to talk to you and a lot of people. I couldn’t get the FBI to talk to me because they did. I also wanted to talk to insiders, not just critics, professors of economics, radicals the like. I wanted to talk to people who were actually in the industry and I actually did find some. I talked to a convicted white-collar criminal. I talked to financial journalists, people who worked at Bear Stearns or Goldman Sachs and they basically confirmed or gave more details on all of this. I tried to tell this story about the financial crisis through the prism of crime and that’s what makes the film unique and different. But it’s not a view that’s accepted.

EJ: When confronting something so enormous and convoluted, how do you explain it to a lay audience? How do you simplify the crisis in the film?

DS: Look at the film and you’ll see how I did it. I try and break it down and I’ve also written a companion book called The Crime of Our Time to further detail and document my findings. I’m an investigative reporter. What I wanted to try and say who is behind this and what is the nature of our economy. We have a “F.I.R.E.” economy. This means it is made of three principle institutions. The “F” is for financing companies, the “I” is for insurance companies and “R.E.” is for real estate. What we found is that these three industries were working together at a profit to get people to take on more debt than they could afford. I’m fighting a battle not just to find out the facts, but also to communicate the facts.

EJ: If this system is ripping off so many people, what actions should consumers take to protect themselves?

DS: The first action an individual can take is to educate themselves and understand what actually happened. And you can’t go rely on the mainstream media for that – you’ve got to try to investigate it yourself. Ask deeper questions Read books like mine, seeing films like mine and other films. Inside Job, another film on this, won the academy award for documentary. It doesn’t go as far as my film goes, but it’s a good start in understanding the financial crisis. We live in a country where there is very little financial literacy. Most people are scared of money and don’t know much about it. The main thing is to press the government to put these [criminals] to jail. WE have to prosecute them and not let them get away with it. We don’t need a bail-out – we need a jail-out. 

EJ: What are some changes that journalists need to make in their coverage of the financial crisis?

DS: There used to be what were called labor reporters who reported on working people. But as the unions lost power, a lot of these people became business reporters. They went to business school and they identified with the people who were running these companies. They’re weren’t skeptical and they weren’t asking hard questions. But that’s the goal of a reporter – find the truth. You’re not a stenographer - you’re a journalist.

EJ: What advice do you have for aspiring journalists or students who want to pursue a career in investigative reporting?

DS: There are lots of different filmmakers. You can make YouTube videos and watch your cat jump through hoops but if you’re really interested in more serious issues, what I would recommend would be to find a mentor - filmmaker, an educator or someone who you can work with and learn by doing. I’ve had interns from Ithaca College and they all come away feeling like they’ve learned a lot. 

I'm Gena (pronounced like "Jenna") Mangiaratti, I'm a sophomore Journalism major with a minor in Anthropology. I'm from right outside of Springfield, Massachusetts.

In a little more than a year and a half at Ithaca, I feel like I have learned more about the world outside of my surroundings than in all the time leading up to it. As a journalist, I'm drawn to writing articles that spread awareness of human rights abuses or that bring understanding to differing sides of a conflict. One of my main commitments at Ithaca is being a staff writer for Buzzsaw Magazine, a student-run alternative literary magazine that focuses on politics and social justice.

I was drawn to FLEFF because I wanted to learn more about film as a vehicle for educating others. I am also very interested in learning about the inspirations behind creative people. So far as a FLEFF intern I have had the opportunity to watch a screening of "Gimme Shelter," after which director Alfred Maysles gave an engaging and informative question and answer session.

I look very much forward to interviewing FLEFF guests so I can provide readers with Q&A's and profiles.

What would you most like to find out about FLEFF filmmakers?