tagged w/ criticism : mass media reporting of large-scale trauma
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This is a deeply personal non-linear documentary piece of witnessing to the losses that still linger in the capital of the Rust Belt, Pittsburgh, PA.
I am an artist and poet. I moved to Pittsburgh in 2002. Every day I meet echoes of the losses of the steel industry. For a while I thought I was going crazy, witnessing patterns of behavior that didn't make sense to me, particularly from people in their 40's and older.
Others 'Burgh newbies have told me about adapting to sometimes-insular local behavior patterns. They noticed the odd sensitivities of some of the people who, we later learned, stayed when others left*.
Synchronicity has introduced me to people who tell me their stories. Perhaps because I am an outsider, who will not be hurt revisiting my own pain.
I shot the video and stills in Braddock, PA, a former mill town neighboring Pittsburgh and fighting for its life. I was introduced to Braddock by a local film production competition hosted by the honorable Mayor John Fetterman. His motto for the city, which lost 90% of its population to the industry loss, is: Destruction breeds creation. Create amidst destruction.
To learn more about Braddock, take a look at http://www.15104.cc/
To see more of my art work, go to http://www.drawclose.com
* - Pittsburgh has lost more than half its population since 1970 (the diaspora). People moved all over the country. The reason there are Steelers fans at every NFL Steeler away game is not because the fans travel. It is because the fans live in that city.This is a deeply personal non-linear documentary piece of witnessing to the losses... more
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Fenlon
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added this
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3 years ago
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The damage to the 9th ward of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina-related flooding represented as a measure of time in this video portrait.
An intimate portrait of one street in the 9th ward of New Orleans. Shot in June of 2007, almost 2 years after the levees broke, this 8-minute piece documents the damage to this neighborhood by examining one 66-street block stretch.
I took one photograph of each house or lot on Miro St. The area photographed represents 1.7 percent of the 9th ward. Each photograph gets one second of screen time. If I had photographed the entire 9th ward and produced a video with the same measurement, the resulting video would be about 7 hours and 30 minutes long.
I made this video out of my frustration at the non-information being presented by national news media about the damage to the city. Its as if the shame of this damage is preventing it being shown on television. A representative sample of what is, I hope this video gives the viewer an intuitive sense of the scale of damage to one section of New Orleans.The damage to the 9th ward of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina-related flooding... more
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Fenlon
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added this
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4 years ago
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