Director's Note, April 2017

This issue of the MDOCS newsletter wraps up the semester with reviews of several documentary presentations on campus, including a Middle East film series, the story of Albany's Rapp Road, a screening with alumnus and producer Teddy Kunhardt, an audio mini-residency and an interview with a local filmmaker. In addition, students share stories of documentary engagement from classes which took on mapping geothermal spots on campus, catching (sound) waves, collecting and sharing oral histories of Latinx community members and bringing archive stories to life.

ACADEMIC FESTIVAL

Depot interviews

This spring, from the arts to the sciences, across humanities and social sciences, Skidmoreans collaborated, researched, explored and discovered, pushing past limits and finding new stories to tell.  Whether answering questions about the ethics of editing an interviewee's words for a podcast, sharing their own stories or coming up with creative solutions to finishing projects in the wake of fatal hard-drive failures, faculty from across campus, LIB 113 students and staff and friends in Media Services pitched in to bring a slew of projects to completion (or close enough).

Learn more about this year's work, which includes film and sound stories and explores archival and gaming and storytelling, at the Skidmore Academic FestivalDocumentary Studies: Year in Review presentation on May 3 at 3 p.m. in Palamountain Hall, Room 202. 

SPACE AND PLACE ON THE HORIZON

One thing should already be clear: The theme of "Space and Place in Documentary Storytelling" of the 2017 Storytellers' Institute and Festosium has already filtered into the questions and investigations underway in on campus. 

Stay tuned and save the date for June 8–11 for a fabulous weekend of multimedia storytelling and activism, as well as some MDOCS workshops for faculty, community and staff this summer.

Happy summer to all.  We're already looking forward to a dynamic fall semester.

Jordana Dym
Director, MDOCS