Visible People's feature film, released 6 April 2011.
Finale!
Today we presented our final film to the class!
For some of us today was the last day of class before graduation. Although we acknowledge that the issue is ongoing even though our class is finished, today we shared a sense of accomplishment for synthesizing our learning and producing a tangible work as a media team. It was great to get some comments from our classmates during the discussion after the screening. Thank you to professor Baines for being supportive of our creativity to flow throughout the project.
We will upload our film on our blog very soon, so please look forward to it. We'd like to hear what you think, so type away your responses on our blog!
Life isn't too short to be critical. Question from every angle. Share it with people around you. Something can happen from collaboration - just take a look at our project.
We did it media team!
Do you whip YOUR hair?
I can't quite decide if this Invisible Children video from their Schools for Schools campaign says A LOT or nothing at all. See 1 minute 41 seconds for full insight :D
For a bit more info about hair whipping, check out this Invisible Children blog post by Jedidiah http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/2010/12/and-now%E2%80%A6-the-ic-%E2%80%9Cwhip-my-hair%E2%80%9D-music-video/
... haha I couldn't help it...
Thoughts on dancing and singing about pit latrines...
Here's a part from A's letter about Invisible Children video-making that I wanted to highlight. 
When it comes to movie and television, what's the trouble with distinguishing between "real people" and "real lives"? Is making this distinction a necessity? And where does one draw the line?
I think the danger of filming a musical production about pit latrines, HIV, and malaria in an IDP camp is that doing so displaces issues like poverty and disease from the realm of serious humanitarian concern, emphasizing humour and entertainment in its place.
But this begs the question, is there no place for humour and entertainment in humanitarianism?
As Invisible Children is evidence of, entertainment and humanitarianism together can't be all that bad.
I think most of the impact and consequences, positive and negative, come back to audience members and virtual activists themselves. Each of them ends up taking away from what they see and hear a collection of personally filtered knowledge, understanding, and goals. Dancing and singing about pit latrines, HIV, and malaria in an IDP camp may draw some viewers closer to the reality of a humanitarian crisis, making them feel entertained, interested, and ultimately inspired to do something to help change this situation. This humour, however, also runs the risk of misinforming viewers by de-contextualizing the problems.
Torgovnik argues that "generic representations [of Africa] make the suffering seem inevitable and natural, and moreover, even as they might imply some common humanity linking us all, they also establish a distinction between 'us' and 'them'."
Could the same be said of entertaining representations of "Africa," despite a focus on serious subject matter? Does a musical production about pit latrines, HIV, and malaria make the suffering of internally displaced peoples "seem inevitable and natural"?
I'm drawn back to one of my questions from earlier: where does one draw the line of appropriateness? the line between reality and fiction?
Where and when does the reality of an IDP camp stop being real?
Rough Cut
Tomorrow the five of us will be making our final Visible People presentation in-class, and concluding what has been a remarkable journey into the depths of Invisible Children's media.
As part of Visible People's "feature" film (***to be released tomorrow***), I've been working on putting together Take 3 of my Invisible Children movie-making analysis. In advance of this conclusion, please take a look at Invisible Children's first movie, "Invisible Children: Rough Cut," posted via Google Video by Laren, Bobby and Jason, Invisible Children's co-founders and this movie's creators.
The story that started it all, this movie has been the focal point of my analysis throughout our living project.
In all honesty, I've struggled with putting together this analysis as I began our project convinced that Invisible Children's movies had to be biased, and had to perpetuate the saviour mentality evident in other aspects of this organization's media.
What I came to grasp over the course of this analysis is that Invisible Children's movie-making does, in fact, place significant emphasis on the faces and voices of the people of northern Uganda. In letting the children and practitioners from the country speak for themselves, Invisible Children's movie-making makes visible important parts of these people's experiences, knowledge, and wishes.
"Invisible Children: Rough Cut" is a prime example of this visibility. The film begins with Laren, Bobby and Jason's story but quickly shifts to an exploration of the conflict, Joseph Kony, and the people of northern Uganda, told through first-hand accounts or by researchers or officials who are part of the northern Ugandan community. What's shown are representations of hope, not only suffering.
Limited to fifty minutes, Invisible Children simple CANNOT tell the whole story, whether that story is that of the decades-long conflict, Joseph Kony, the thousands of night-commuting children, the Global Night Commutes in America, or a single boy named Tony.
A movie is a select form of media - an art form - who's utility is bounded by its makers, technology, and the experiences, knowledge, and wishes that viewers themselves bring to the theater.
As a viewer yourself, who's voice do you hear?
What emotions do you feel?
And what does a movie like "Invisible Children: Rough Cut" make you want to do after shutting off the screen?
Digital Divide
Can the internet be a tool to connect Northern Ugandans with American high school students?
Digital divide is a term that is used to refer to the gap between those who have access to the information technology and those who do not. In the context of our project, I use the term to compare the internet usage in Uganda and the United States.
Please take a look at the following charts. The first one shows the distribution of the internet usage in Uganda and the second one shows the one for the United States. Since the Invisible Children’s headquarters is located in San Diego, I included the statistics for California as well.
Digital divide is a term that is used to refer to the gap between those who have access to the information technology and those who do not. In the context of our project, I use the term to compare the internet usage in Uganda and the United States.
Please take a look at the following charts. The first one shows the distribution of the internet usage in Uganda and the second one shows the one for the United States. Since the Invisible Children’s headquarters is located in San Diego, I included the statistics for California as well.
Response from Julie Okot Bitek
One of my friends used to live in Uganda and one day when we were having a lunch together she talked about a poet whom she met at the African Symposium on March 25th at UBC.
Thank you to my friend, our media team was able to connect with Julie, who is an award-winning writer who was raised in Uganda, graduated from UBC with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art and currently lives in Vancouver. It turns out that she has worked with professor Baines and they are friends on Facebook as well! Sometimes the network of people surprises me.
As in the following email, Julie got to know about our project through professor Baine’s Facebook post. The impact of the social media is evident. It is intriguing how SNS are working as the hub of information exchange for the professionals.
Thank you to my friend, our media team was able to connect with Julie, who is an award-winning writer who was raised in Uganda, graduated from UBC with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art and currently lives in Vancouver. It turns out that she has worked with professor Baines and they are friends on Facebook as well! Sometimes the network of people surprises me.
As in the following email, Julie got to know about our project through professor Baine’s Facebook post. The impact of the social media is evident. It is intriguing how SNS are working as the hub of information exchange for the professionals.
