LTS Collaborates in SouthSide Film Festival Workshops
In June Digital Projects Coordinator Julia Maserjian
coordinated two Documentary Workshops in collaboration with
the SouthSide Film Festival, now in its sixth year. In only
four days participant teams of two learned about, trained
for, and produced short documentaries in the Digital Media
Studio in Fairchild Martindale Library.
Greg Reihman, Director of Faculty Development at Lehigh
University, noted that these workshops were significant in
that they were in alignment with Lehigh’s strategic plan to
forge community partnerships and they contributed to faculty
members’ deepening experience in the use of innovative media
in the classroom. The workshops were sponsored by the
SouthSide Film Institute, Library and Technology Services,
Arts Lehigh, and the SouthSide Initiative.
The five south side related topics in these productions are:
the Loop bus between the Sands Bethlehem Casino and
Bethlehem’s two downtowns, the work of local peace-making
organization LEPOCO, the South Bethlehem “rails to trails”
Greenway, the Bethlehem Boxing Club, and the local Alliance
for Sustainable Communities.
The workshops were taught with independent filmmaker Shanti Thakur whose recent production Skypeople was featured
at the Festival. A large group gathered to view the films on
June 20th during a Festival event at the Victory Firehouse;
the films are now available on the website,
http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/beyondsteel
by searching the term SouthSide Film Festival.
Lehigh University faculty and staff who were among team
participants include: Ravi Chitturi, Marketing ; Vera
Fennel, Political Science; Terry Harnett, American Studies
Coordinator; John Jirik, Journalism and Communication; and
John Pettegrew, American Studies.
Also among the participant filmmakers was well known
writer Nicholson Baker who contributes regularly to the New
Yorker and has authored some fourteen books. Baker spoke on
the Lehigh campus in November 2008 about his most recent
book, Human Smoke. Other Lehigh faculty and staff
contributed by being interviewed in the process of the
documentary productions.
--Susan A. Cady
LTS Director for Administrative and Planning Services
Article posted August 27,
2009
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