Video-Connections
Video-Connections was a youth media project that I facilitated while on a Fulbright Scholarship in the Dominican Republic.
​
Videos were made in El Limon and Los Calabazos in the Dominican Republic and in Troy, NY. They were then exchanged.
​
Final video screening took place in Museo del Hombre Dominicano (Museum of Dominican Man) in Santo Domingo, DR and at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, NY.
Videos include:
1. “Chat Conmigo” 10:45 minutes 2002
This is a video collaboration between Latino/a youth at the Ark and El Limón, Dominican Republic. This class meets once a week and include three video forums where the youth will meet in Internet chat rooms and use web cameras for face-to-face conferencing. Pushing self-discovery and expression, this class provides a space for Latino/a youth to participate in a Spanish dialogue and share their points of view on technology in their lives, issues of identity, stereotypes, daily living, and the idea of Dominicans’ dream to go to Nueva York. Youth will use the class meetings between chats to prepare digital photos, skits and in-camera edits to perform and share their thoughts in upcoming forums. All meetings will be recorded and then edited into the video “Chat Conmigo.”
​
​
2. Luchando Juntos – 11:46 minutes 2002
This is a joint effort between two rural communities in the Dominican Republic - El Limón and Los Calabazos. This video was worked on separately in the two communities over a period of three months and then production was finished in a reunion in Los Calabazos. This exchange and collaboration addresses these two communities similar struggles with modernization. It captures stories of where the communities have been and where they would like to be headed. Youth interviewed community members and each other on what the story of the community was and why it was important to participate in community projects.
​
​
​
3. Connected - 12:09 2002
This video captures the influences of the computer program during the first four years in the community of Limón in th Dominican Republic. Youth give testimonials about their experiences at the center, and the center consultant, Jon Katz, provides social and theoretical context to support the interviews with the teenagers. The underlying theme that is repeated throughout the interviews is that without the computer program in Limón most of the students would not be in school. This technology center has acted as a major motivating tool to seeing the importance of education.