Bill Gentile released applications for the AU/Pulitzer Center International Reporting Fellowship, generously supported by SOC Dean Sam Fulwood III. The deadline for applying is midnight of Friday 31 March 2023. The fellowship winner receives a stipend of $3,000.00 to be used in covering an underreported systemic issue abroad. Since the inception of AU's collaboration in 2014, the SOC has helped send students to Mexico, Thailand, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, Borneo, Laos, Puerto Rico and Panama. See the winners, and their work, by clicking HERE
Bill Gentile hosted Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting grantee Zeba Warsi at his Foreign Correspondence course on Thursday, February 9. Warsi shared her international reporting experience and Pulitzer Center-supported project Ukrainian Children Who Fled to Europe Struggle With Trauma with the class. Bill is a member of the Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium Advisory Council.
Warsi is an award-winning broadcast journalist from India, currently based in New York. Her work focuses on immigration, women, and human rights. On PBS NewsHour, she now covers foreign affairs with a focus on human-centric stories and long-form special projects. For eight years, she closely covered the rise of populist nationalism, religious violence, hate crimes, social movements, and sexual violence in India, based out of New Delhi, as a special correspondent with CNN-News18, CNN's affiliate in India.
SOC Adjunct Professor Peter Kimball’s film "Millstone" won the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance Film Festival and will be playing at the DC Independent Film Festival on March 4th and 5th. On March 4th specifically it will be part of a showcase called "Signing as Screen Language" about Deaf representation in film. Here is a link to that event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/signing-as-screen-language-a-short-fiction-film-program-tickets-534853289587?aff=ebdsoporgprofile&fbclid=IwAR2UXhggHhGURl8s8FNvJ9pzoCTkL_kVBiPObJkorh6Qt1KvA1yeAEF-3Wc
Maya Livio has been selected for the 2023 Caltech-Huntington Art + Research Residency. This competitive opportunity is a collaboration between the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Huntington Library, Museum, and Botanical Gardens. It provides support for further developing a project in conversation with the Caltech and Huntington research communities and includes a public lecture and presentation of work. While in residence, Maya will be expanding her ongoing research and practice, critically examining justice at the overlaps of media and data-driven technologies with environmental conservation.
Brolley Genster, an SOC alum, has been hired by the NY Times for its Home team operation. is a 24-hour hub team in the newsroom in charge of producing and programming the NYT home page, as well as writing and sending out breaking news alerts and emails to subscribers. Genster will be based out of Seoul where has been living and working for several years since graduating.
https://www.nytco.com/press/brolley-genster-joins-the-home-team/
World Radio Day, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, was observed on February 13th in celebration of the power of the medium. Professor Jill Olmsted did an interview with Voice of America for Daybreak Africa, a 30-minute breakfast show that looks at developments on the continent with interviews and reports from VOA correspondents. The interview can be heard at 21:03 into the audio broadcast. Jill learned after the interview that former student, Ndimyake Mwakalyelye is now the English to Africa chief.
Natalie Hopkinson participated as co-lead scholar with Dr. Hasan Jeffries of Ohio State University for a private convening for the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis Feb. 9-10. The Smithsonian-affiliated museum located at the Lorraine Motel, the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 assassination, is planning an expansion across the street. She was among a dozen national scholars of a variety of disciplines invited to set curatorial priorities in telling the story since King’s death.
Natalie Hopkinson is also doing several Black History month talks, including: “The Cookbook Presents: Mumbo v. Gumbo.” In this seminar for the nonprofit No Kid Hungry, she discusses a cultural activation series she and other Don’t Mute DC organizers have organized since 2019 in which they use food and music to lift up the voices of marginalized communities in gentrifying New Orleans and Washington.
Laura Waters Hinson’s documentary, Street Reporter, will have its NYC premiere at the Justice Film Festival on Friday, March 3rd. The festival’s mission is to celebrate diverse voices, amplify stories from underserved communities, and bear witness to injustice worldwide with films focused on racial & environmental justice, poverty, trafficking, equality for women, healthcare, education, and justice for immigrants & refugees. The festival's 2023 acceptance rate was 4 percent.
Street Reporter also recently signed with major international shorts distributor Network Ireland Television which distributes short films to over 100 overseas broadcasters, VOD platforms, educational supplies, and inflight entertainment companies. Network Ireland represents Academy Award-winning and nominated short films such as An Irish Goodbye and The Neighbors’ Window, among others.
Laura was the featured speaker at a virtual event for Documentary Roundtable sponsored by Women in Film and Video and Docs in Progress on January 9th. Laura spoke alongside photojournalist Sheila White, the protagonist of Street Reporter, about their experience of collaborative documentary filmmaking.
Laura’s newest feature documentary, Project Home, will screen at the Oneota Film Festival March 2-5th in Decorah, Iowa. The mission of OFF is to explore critical issues that address the great challenges of our time, such as environmental issues, community concerns, and human rights.
Community Voice Lab Fellows Amin Elsiwi and Philip Bouknight’s short documentary, East of the River, will premiere at the DC Independent Film Festival on March 5th. The film was produced in conjunction with Jeffrey Madison’s Humanities Truck project and Laura Waters Hinson’s Community Documentary class. For more information about the screening, check out the CVL website article here.
Chris Halsne’s documentary about a fatal accident involving NASCAR legend Tony Stewart is now available on Amazon Video, Vudu, and Spectrum on-demand. A special screening is scheduled at 6 p.m. on February 21 in the Doyle-Forman theater. Veteran journalist and SOC alum Derek McGinty will interview Halsne and Keith L. Craig, a film executive and partner at Porter Pictures, which is distributing “The Hit,” after the 80-minute screening. Craig’s credentials include the theatrical release of “Coco” and “Black Panther.” For more information or to RSVP visit bit.ly/TheHitScreening.
Chung-Wei Huang’s PSA video “It Takes Courage: Reporting Sexual Harassment and Sexual Misconduct”, which she serves as co-director and editor, wins Best of Competition in the Faculty Film & Video Competition, Instructional/Educational Category at the 2023 BEA Festival of Media Arts. The Broadcast Education Association (BEA) is the international academic media organization, driving insights, excellence in media production, and career advancement for educators, students, and professionals. This category is for pedagogically oriented videos designed to teach concepts, skills, techniques or procedures to potential learners.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/GG0riMOSGtg
Jane Hall was interviewed on KNX news radio in Los Angeles, re: a new Gallup-Knight Foundation report on trust in national media. https://omny.fm/shows/knxam-on-demand/more-people-losing-trust-in-national-news-media
Jane Hall interviewed and moderated student Q&A with Matt Yglesias, author for the Slow Boring blog and columnist for Bloomberg.com. The event was a co-production between SOC and Kennedy Political Union. Yglesias was one of the co-founders of Vox, and he has a big following for the blog and his writing about politics, policy and media. Thanks to Jeffrey Madison, Jacob Auduoin, Kati Vera, Tom Fish, Tia Milledge, Amy Eisman and Dillin Bett from SOC.