I'm looking for online documentary recommendation but stuff that keeps within
the 10 minute format.I'm not after news shows per se -- but POV internet video
There are two internet video streams I really appreciate that are hallmarks for
me:
# Shadow World by David S. Kessler
http://dskessler.com/shadowworld/
http://shadowworld.blip.tv/
which is an extraordinary exercise in cinema verite . Does anyone know sites as
good as Kessler's that work a similar focus?
Kessler writes:The process is fairly straightforward. I walk the streets under
the El tracks, and tripod in hand, mostly concentrating on the play and power
that the El structure has on the buildings and streets below. I stop at points
where I feel that its impact is the strongest, allowing the trains and the
tracks to be the one reoccurring character that forces itself into each moment.
The people I talk to are all strangers. I try to let them steer the
conversation. There isn't much (if any) prying to get them to tell me their
stories. The intent is to appreciate that moment of interaction - whether
something is revealed to me, a stranger, or not...The moments I capture are
boiled down to three to four minute episodes.
# Albatv
http://albatv.blip.tv/
which is a product of the mass scale push in Venezuela to democratize the
media.I like AlbaTV because its in mixes amongst it all and doesn't have
'journalistic' pretensions.It's very plebeian video -- in Spanish.
AlbaTV shoots a lot of the activist stuff like I'm engaged with but it does it
much better than I have done as it works much closer to its subjects whereas
I'm hampered by journalese.
As the Venezuelans say, it's Video communication without intermediaries:Alba
TV plans to construct a different communication model, antagonistic to the
dominant model of social communication, a task that can not be delegated but
must be undertaken directly... because in this model of communication there can
be no intermediaries.
I'm interested in accessing examples of engagement with web video that suggests
a new way of seeing the world of everyday political and social reality without
necessarily being a skilled end product.
There's a lot of videoblogging personalised stuff but I was interested in
material that was more outward looking but wasn't just 'news'.
I'm unaware of resources that monitor web video by genre and report on trends,
review and make recommendations. The scale of the video universe is so large
now you really need a guide book that can see beyond each online aggregator.
However, the potential power of the short online video grab packaged in a
series, as Kessler has done, seems very large indeed. There's a difference
about shooting for the web -- which is not about trying to ape television or
play film schools.
dave riley
