Online video journalism / documentary inspiration
A collection of diverse, compelling examples of online video goodness — from news, to web docs to explainers. In no particular order, enjoy!
We walk together: a Syrian family’s journey to the heart of Europe — The Guardian. Thousands of refugees were sleeping rough at Budapest’s Keleti station, waiting for trains to take them to western Europe. Then, they just got up and walked. Guardian journalist and filmmaker John Domokos went with them, every step of the way. This is the story of one Syrian family, and those who came out to help.
Pockets — Channel 4. What’s in your pockets? Filmmaker James Lees asks Londoners to share what they’re carrying in their pockets and what it means to them. Every object tells a story, revealing more than expected about its owner. From tiny treasures to the downright bizarre, the contents of Pockets provide quick and charming social insight. Named in Channel 4’s ‘4Docs’ list of Top Ten Best Short Documentaries Ever Made. Screened on Channel 4 (UK) — July 2008.
Dark Side of the Strawberry — Center for Investigative Reporting. The Center for Investigative Reporting’s multimedia journalism package of videos, graphics and reporting on the human and environmental risks of pesticides leaves you thinking more carefully about popping down those juicy fruits. The video below is part of the package. capture the scope of the problem and their data apps let people find out if they live near fields where pesticides are used.
The Box: Teens in Solitary Confinement in U.S. Jails, Prisons and Juvenile Halls — www.cironline.org — This animation tells the story of Ismael “Izzy” Nazario and the time he spent in solitary confinement in New York City’s Rikers Island jail. This story is based on an investigation by The Center for Investigative Reporting and was created using real audio from an interview with Nazario. It is part of a larger investigation on juveniles in solitary confinement. Read the stories at https://medium.com/solitary-lives. Every year, thousands of teens are placed in solitary confinement cells in juvenile halls, jails and prisons nationwide.
The N-Word — Washington Post A series of video conversations explore the history of the n-word, “its evolution and its place in American vernacular today.” Each of the clips is coded so that people can select themes to compile their own mini documentaries, mixing and remixing the interviews for different perspectives and angles on the n-word.
Hotel 22 by Elizabeth Lo — NYT OpDocs. As a student at nearby Stanford University, Lo seized upon local news stories of “Hotel 22″, a late night bus in the California Bay Area that served as an impromptu late night shelter for the area’s underserved homeless. When we think of Silicon Valley, we tend to imagine a world of extreme wealth and limitless opportunity. What we forget are the populations that have been displaced or neglected by the recent tech boom. Rising property prices in the area have created unsustainable living costs, especially for the poor. At the same time, Silicon Valley lacks sufficient affordable housingand homeless shelters.
Aisha’s Song by Grain Media is an energetic and beautifully shot 16mm documentary that uses the sounds of street life in Kano in order to create a vibrant and organic soundscape. Partially blinded by an unknown illness aged 4 and sent out to work on the tough streets of Kano in Nigeria aged 9, Aisha Sani Abdullahi’s life chances were not great. However, a chance meeting sent Aisha’s life in a completely different direction. Musically lush and uplifting, the film is a positive story of female empowerment from a part of the world where women are all too often overlooked.
Chinese Dreamers — ChinaFile. In a country that has long defined its interests in collective terms, people are no longer waiting for their goals and sacrifices to be decreed from above. In Sharron Lovell’s insightful short film, she shows us the Chinese Dream not as a slogan but as the possession of the ordinary young men and women who will determine China’s future. A migrant worker from Henan, a farmer’s daughter and, an idealistic student.
The Toxic Price of Leather Produced by Sean Gallagher Funded by The Pulitzer Center. On the banks of the Ganges River in northern India, lies the city of Kanpur. It has become one of the most important cities in India as its leather industry has grown and it is now the biggest producer of leather products in the whole country. This success is coming at great environmental and social costs that are destroying the local Ganges River ecology and scarring the local people in the form of life-threatening illnesses.
