Communiqué
Local High School Student Documentary Films to Air TONIGHT – Starting at 9 p.m.
< < Back toFilms were created by students at Logan, Meigs and South Gallia High Schools
ATHENS, OH – Work produced from WOUB’s Our Ohio high school documentary film project will be broadcast this week on WOUB HD. WOUB Community Engagement Manager Cheri Russo and WOUB Producer/Director Evan Shaw will talk about the project and three films will be shown from each of the three high schools that participated. The television series showcases some of the short documentary-style films created by the high school students and looks at how examining their identity and Appalachian culture impacted the students.
“We were so pleased with the work these amazing high school students created, that we couldn’t just keep it to ourselves,” said Shaw. “So, we decided to showcase this project and the work created on WOUB TV.”
Last fall WOUB was selected to receive an “Our America: Documentary in Dialogue” grant from American Documentary | POV, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The grant supported community engagement activities around a documentary called Portraits and Dreams which included virtual screening events with local high school students and their teachers and allowed students to create their own short films.
Portraits and Dreams revisits photographs created by Kentucky schoolchildren in the 1970s and the place where the photos were made. The film is about the students, their work as visionary photographers and the lives they have led since then, as well as the linkage of personal memory to the passage of time.
“At its core, the Portraits and Dreams film is about Appalachian culture and the people who are a part of it,” said Russo. “We loved how the documentary showed the children telling the story of their roots and culture in a positive way through photography, and we thought it would be a great documentary to show to local high school students to inspire cultural pride and give them the ability to tell their own Appalachian stories through documentary film.”
WOUB worked with students in English, journalism and multimedia classes at Logan High School, South Gallia High School and Meigs High School. Shaw conducted virtual storytelling workshops with all the students throughout the school year to help them create their films.
“I enjoyed working with these students so much,” said Shaw. “The films they turned out were unique and hopeful, and I know they are going to take what they learned out into the world to inspire others.”
“This project combined independent documentary film, Appalachian cultural pride and multimedia storytelling,” said Russo. “The students really had an opportunity to learn about themselves and tell their own story through documentary film with instruction from top notch industry professionals.”
The series will air on WOUB HD on Thursday, August 26 starting at 9 p.m.
9:00 p.m. – WOUB’S Our Ohio: South Gallia High School
9:30 p.m. – WOUB’S Our Ohio: Meigs High School
10:00 p.m. – WOUB’S Our Ohio: Logan High School
ABOUT THE OUR AMERICA CAMPAIGN:
In times of political division, we believe in the power of independent documentaries and their ability to help bridge divides. In light of the aftermath of the 2016 election, and current cultural wars, we seek to partner with PBS stations to use POV films as a platform for dialogue and utilize the resources we create to help start conversations, give voice to the disenfranchised and mobilize individuals, communities, organizations, and for policy makers to take action based on informed decisions. We also desire to empower stations with creative approaches to audience building and attract a cross section of citizens. We propose to activate our extensive network of community partners for a high-impact screening series called OUR AMERICA: DOCUMENTARY IN DIALOGUE, designed to inspire dialogue and understanding around divisive issues in nonpartisan spaces in the regions of the Midwest, West, the South, and rural areas.