Master Class 1: Producing Films for Social Change
May 16, 2009
Julie Dubrow, the Director of the Communications and Media Studies program at Tufts University, and Roberta Oster-Sachs, the Associate Dean for External Relations at University of Richmond Law School and Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist, co-lead the the first master class of the day entitled “Producing Films for Social Change.”
The two guests spoke about a class they began at Tufts University to encourage students of all majors to produce films dealing with social issues. Oster-Sachs referred to the class as a “boot camp” that challenged students to develop technical, interviewing and storytelling skills necessary to create a video documentary. Students in this class have had quite an impact on the Tufts University as well as in their community.
During the master class, a clip from a film about bi- and multi-racial students at Tufts University as well as a film about an incident that occurred during a Veterans parade in Boston. Both films were examples of how students can bring about change through the use of short documentaries.
Oster-Sachs brought up an interesting idea during the master class. She said that in the production of films for social change everyone gets to participate. The director and those involved in making the film get to tell the story about what they are passionate about. The audience gets to learn more about that particular issue. And last but not least the different characters interviewed in the film get a chance to tell their story and participate in social release.
Here is a link to the films produced by the students at Tufts University. Check it out!
