Digital journalism at its best: Moz Diaries

The SILVERDOCS conference and festival are well under way and everyone at the Center is immersed in conversations on new innovations in the field of media and doc filmmaking.

Yesterday at the AFI Digital Content Lab Showcase panel I was impressed by the innovative journalistic pursuits of Kit Carson. Kit shared his work on one of his most recent projects, Moz Diaries. In collaboration with filmmaker Tim Johnson, Kit traveled down to Mozambique to document the state of transition of the country since its recent "miraculous" success in the global economic sphere. Not wanting to complicate the already precarious situation by bringing a large clunky camera, Kit purchased a Nokia 93 cell phone camera and shot with that. The result has been an incredibly beautiful series of shorts that shed light on the complexity of the current situation in Mozambique. These three shorts have been purchased by the Sundance Channel, but you can watch them here as well. Kit's work in Mozambique continues. During a recent return to the country, Kit passed out disposable cameras to Mozambique citizens so that they may document their lives.

As explained in our recent white paper Public Media 2.0: Dynamic Engaged Publics, access to state of the art equipment is no longer necessary to create engaging, relevant media. Kit's work is evidence that all that is needed is a cell phone camera and a poignant subject. Sundance Channel agrees.