Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Rape of a Nation

Today in class, we had a guest speaker talk about multi-media projects. Between introducing us to Garage Band, she told us about mediastorm.org a site dedicated to multi-media short films, documentaries, cultural issues, etc. The first one I watched was about the Congo... the poverty, fear, lack of medical help, war. I cried through the whole thing.

Watch eleven minutes - Rape of a Nation

This is the sort of thing I REALLY want to do. My heart lies in Journalism, in documentary photography. Sometimes I fear that being a woman will keep me from doing a lot of these things, though at times I know it would help. But God help me, I want to do it. If I could choose my death, I'd go out mid-battlefield of some sort. I fear censorship in the news and media, it scares me that I am the upcoming generation and I know nothing of what's going on in the world. That They are successful in keeping general disinterest in the younger generations, of encouraging children to be unthinking, unimaginative, sheltered and knowledgeable about only enough to keep the lower rungs of society functioning. Having come from this (though obviously with the desire to know more) I feel unable to trust politics, or even to be led to believe for a moment that as a normal lower-class or even middle-class citizen that my opinion matters. I don't believe that if I vote, it will change anything.


I do, however, believe I can make a difference through photography.


"We must all fear evil men... but there is another kind of evil that we must fear most. And that is the indifference of good men."
-Boondock Saints


I had to leave after the presentation because I was so riled up and wanted to go home, watch a few of these videos, pack for NY, talk to James about it and mostly give my mind time to wrap around how I would start working on my first multi-media piece.. whatever that ends up being. It's a terribly anxious feeling I feel at moments like these. Inspired, in a hurry, stressed, seeing some sort of big picture and trying to make sense of it.


But mostly Driven.
Start small...

2 comments:

saverio said...

Good for you! To be moved is the start. To be moved to tears will give you a start. The media is the best way to reach the greatest numbers. You can and will make a difference.

Stacy Leigh said...

Do it!!!!!!

You are a good person.