OUR CITY, OUR STORY: COLLABORATIVE VIDEOGRAPHY
Ages 16-29
Summer 2024, ROCA and on location
In this workshop, student fellows will team up to create a collaborative film about their shared world. They’ll begin with storytelling; sharing experiences and reflecting on a wide range of themes, including family, friends, neighborhoods, childhood memories, current challenges, successes, and aspirations. They'll extend their storytelling group to include community members of different generations, and they'll get out into the field, exploring Baltimore's natural and built environments, making discoveries about the city, each other, and themselves. They'll collect still and moving images, testimony, interviews, and ambient sounds drawn from their surroundings. Then, in a group editing session, they'll decide together on the shape of a final short film, a weave that honors each distinct, individual voice. They'll explore both the technical and aesthetic aspects of video and audio recording, and be introduced to the basics of editing. Their film will be shared on the BYFA website and at a ROCA exhibition, where contributors will serve on a panel for a discussion of their work. Limited to 10 student fellows.
Our City, Our Story is a co-production of Baltimore Youth Film Arts and ROCA.
Greg Carpenter has worked in reentry for twenty years. He is a 2015 Open Society Institute Fellow (OSI) and owner of the 2 AM Bakery, which houses his program Eye Can B-More. Eye Can B-More offers returning citizens work experience, job training, and a range of support services. He also co-chairs the Greater Baltimore City Grassroots Network, which is comprised of more than forty service providers and advocacy groups that assist the formerly incarcerated.
Charles Cohen's recent documentary films include Riding Wild, which follows a group of BMXers into Baltimore's urban wilderness, and The Crooked Tune, an Old Time Fiddler in a Modern World. He holds an MFA in Film and Digital Media from American University and has written for The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, and Baltimore City Paper.
Darian Jones is Program Director at Wide Angle Youth Media and a student at the University of Baltimore, majoring in digital communications with a focus in media design and production. Teaching allows him to work with Baltimore’s future; his goal as a filmmaker and teacher is to help others re-discover their voices.
