Empowering Media That Matters
Home >> Blog >> Media Impact >> CSM at the BAVC Producer's Institute 2009

CSM at the BAVC Producer's Institute 2009

I had the great pleasure last week to attend the presentation session for the 2009 Bay Area Video Coalition Producer's Institute. According to their website, the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies is a "ten-day residency for eight creative teams (independent producers or public broadcasters) with a shared goal of developing and prototyping a multi-platform project inspired by, or based on a significant documentary project. The intention of the Institute is to develop socially relevant media projects for emerging digital platforms."

The presentation session involved participants of the Institute sharing the projects they developed over the previous two weeks to complement and contribute to pre-existing doc films. Two of the filmmakers Gita Pullapilly and Aron Gaudet had just recently produced The Way We Get By --a film about a group of senior citizens who greet troops returning from war. Through the Producer's Institute, Pullapilly and Gaudet have developed an online platform for veterans to tell their stories of service, connect with currently enlisted soldiers, and create online care packages to send to loved ones in the military. Emmy Award winner Peter Nicks was also a participant in the Institute. He developed a project for his film Hope and High Water that creates a "multi-platform public media experience that will bring the film into the conversations at the center of the public health crisis, including 'face-wall'-style video exhibitions in Emergency Rooms, public Twitter stations that will include reports from people living without health insurance, and a unique online portal that will distribute these stories nationally and become an archive for the testimonials that will highlight the urgency of the national dialogue around health care." These are just two of the eight projects that used the mentorship, resources and expertise of the BAVC team to build a truly participatory experience.

BAVC continues to inspire with their innovative work in expanding the capabilities of filmmakers to reach audiences through evolving technologies. Here is a video of Wendy Levy, director of Creative Programming, discussing the Producer's Institute.