Appalachian Media Institute

On an early fall day in Whitesburg, Kentucky, a van pulls up to the old car show warehouse that is home to the Appalachian Media Institute (AMI). The van has made its usual winding drive through several counties in eastern Kentucky, picking up youth to bring to AMI’s Media Lab. Every year, the focus of Media Lab changes, depending on the participants and the needs of the community. This year, AMI found out that a local high school had lost its art teacher due to budget cuts, and volunteered to run the class throughout the year, bringing students to AMI to use its facilities. It is the only response that AMI could have had, keeping in line with the organization’s – and the region’s – tradition of care-taking, and the belief that everyone’s well-being is connected to the larger well-being of the community.

Central Appalachia is a rural region with a complex economic, social, and cultural history of over 100 years of coal mining.  Legacies of environmental corruption, inadequate educational opportunities, a declining coal mining economy and high unemployment rates have made media-making an organic and necessary response to the region’s hardships. According to Rebecca O’Doherty, AMI’s executive director, documentary production is a kind of resistance that sustains young people’s positive connection to traditional Appalachian culture while “helping them realize they have knowledge and stories they should be telling.”

Willa Johnson, a 2007 Summer Documentary Institute graduate who continues to work with AMI on independent film and community projects, was inspired by AMI’s approach.  “We learned how to make a documentary film, but the best part about the program is the identity-building work. We learn so much about the community we live in and how to be proud, instead of feeling ashamed about it, which is what I was taught growing up.” 

Building skills, creating dialogue
AMI has two core programs, its renowned Summer Documentary Institute, an intensive eight-week program, and the Media Lab, which runs two ten-week sessions throughout the school year. 

The Summer Documentary Institute trains and employs twelve Appalachian youth between the ages of 14 and 23. The program meets 35 hours a week, and for the first four weeks, the young people build their capacity as learners by exploring their communities with video cameras and producing short projects. All youth learn every role of the documentary filmmaking process, gaining technical skills in addition to critical inquiry skills. By the second half of the program, the young people are working independently in small groups to create short documentary videos. The youth are given one guideline: that their film contributes to the community in some way, which can be defined by the young directors. 

Recent documentaries from this past summer’s institute include Mayfield, a portrait of a local former professional boxer who opened up a boxing gym to help youth stay out of trouble; and Gold in the River, a story that juxtaposes the pristine beauty of central Appalachian rivers and fishing traditions with the local pollution that taints its waters.

The Media Lab is a flexible program that provides opportunities for interns in the Summer Institute to continue working, and a way for new youth to participate. They run their own projects and often use a model of peer training. Each ten week session has a lab focus and can include both video and audio documentary production. Appalshop runs a community radio station, and the youth often produce pieces for them.

In whatever media the youth are working in, AMI programs have a strong focus on artistic excellence. Emphasizing high quality production is a way that AMI believes helps youth overcome adverse learning habits they might have acquired. Learning how to set goals, participating in a process of critical review, media literacy, and storytelling are all skills that are crucial to making a strong documentary, but are also skills that help youth become better equipped to participate in a complex world. The focus on high quality documentaries means that media can be used as a tool to engage their communities in critical discussions that can lead to change. “We ask the youth,” says O’Doherty, “How do we tell stories that make people want to have a dialogue? Can we have a dialogue that’s less polemic and more complicated and nuanced?”

Community-based process
The area’s history of coal mining and oppression accounts for a certain hesitancy in talking about individual and community needs, but it also provides a long history of traditions. AMI works to foster storytelling that counters that suppression of speech and preserves those positive traditions.  Appalachia’s strong cultural heritage sustains a way of life that differs from an urban experience and is reflected in AMI’s structure and core values. 

AMI structures its programs on a community-based process, rather than a youth media model. This means that collective thinking is prioritized over individual thinking. Youth are called interns, rather than students or participants, and are paid for the work that they do with AMI.

Paying the youth, says O’Doherty, is an important aspect of the program because it establishes the youth as colleagues who work alongside the adults. She believes that categorizing them as ‘youth’ can be limiting because typical youth-based approaches to media education often focus on youth as individuals, their deficits and the things that they are going to change about themselves.

It also helps legitimize their work.  ”We pay them because young people contribute to their family incomes,” Doherty says.  “AMI is not after-school playtime. It’s hard, serious work we’re doing together, and paying them gives them a real chance to be successful at it, freeing up their time so they can really do it, and helping their families see the value in the work they are doing.”

Giving youth a chance to learn from each other and to advocate for their communities makes AMI a media organization that not only produces beautiful documentaries, but also fosters a community of learning that draws upon and expands the Appalachian traditions that make the region so unique. 

For more information about Appalshop and the Appalachian Media Institute, please visit http://appalshop.org/ami/.

To watch films created by youth at the Summer Documentary Institute, click here.

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Youth Profile: Allie Mullins

Seventeen-year-old Allie Mullins recently completed the intensive Summer Documentary Institute at the Appalachian Media Institute where she made a film about a 13 year-old youth who has ADHD, told from his perspective, rather than from the point of view of the doctors or parents. Watching her documentary on the big screen at the end of the summer, surrounded by friends and family who were incredibly proud of her, she said, “felt pretty awesome.”

The close-knit community of AMI drew Allie to the program. According to Allie, it’s a place where everyone is good friends and you can talk openly about what is on your mind. They give you a chance to make any kind of documentary you want and teach you in a hands-on way.

So far, during her time with AMI, she learned all the fundamentals about how to make a video – how to operate a camera on her own, how to use microphones and most importantly, she says, how to use white balance. Editing was also a big challenge. “Editing the film is hard because it changes so much from the beginning when you have something in your mind that you’re gonna make,” says Allie. “But I learned that no matter how much stuff changes, you can still make the best out of it.” And that, Allie agrees, is a life lesson that can also make you feel pretty awesome.

Q. What has it meant for you to be involved in the Appalachian Media Institute and Appalshop?

Being involved in AMI and Appalshop has been exciting for me. It feels like Appalshop is a family and it is very comfortable being in that environment. AMI makes me feel very successful.

Q. How do you see the role of radio and film documentaries in social change?

Radio and film documentaries have a huge role in social change. Documentaries in any form show a part of someone’s life to people who may never experience the topic. Documentaries help people better understand different social groups and lifestyles.

Q. Why do you think it is important for young people to create media?
  
I think it is important for young people to create media because it gives us different kinds of experiences. While creating media you learn to communicate well with others, work with a lot of technology, and gain better knowledge about your environment.

Q. What specific issue or issues do you think are the most important to young people in Appalachia today?

The most important issue to young people in Appalachia today is drugs. Almost every young person is on drugs or has a family member who is on drugs. I think if we had more activities, the drug issue would get better.

Q. When you imagine a world fit for young people, what would that world be like?
 
When I imagine a world fit for young people, the world is colorful. There are photos, paintings and videos showing everywhere. There are art and sports buildings all around so the young people will always have something to do.

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Links

UNICEF's CRC Video Contest – make your vote count!
It’s the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and we asked young people from all over the world to make a one minute video about what they think about youth rights. The top twelve videos have been chosen and now we want to hear from you again!  Visit our website to watch the finalists and vote for the best video. All of the votes will be tallied and counted as one vote alongside our judges’ votes. Vote by 18 October 2009.  Click here to vote.

Videotivoli Film Festival Call for Videos
The international youth film event, Videotivoli, takes place for the seventh time in March 2010, at the same time as the Nordic and Baltic Kids for Kids. Videotivoli is on the lookout for films lasting less than 10 minutes, made by people under 16 years of age. The subjects and styles of the films are free: they can be animation, live action, documentaries, music videos or art. They can also be funny sketches, lovely fairy stories, thoughts on youth, comments on the plights of the world, or anything that one has always wanted to share with other people. Videotivoli offers its young artists a chance to show their work, as well as an opportunity to meet others, talk and attend practical media education. The deadline for submitting your film is 15 November 2009. For further information send email to videotivoli@videotivoli.fi or visit http://www.videotivoli.fi/english09/index.htm.

Call for Proposals: Moving Walls 17 Documentary Photography Exhibition
The Open Society Institute invites photographers from all over the globe to submit a body of work for consideration in the Moving Walls 17 group exhibition.  Moving Walls is an exhibition series that features in-depth and nuanced explorations of human rights and social issues.  Moving Walls recognizes the brave and difficult work that photographers undertake globally in their documentation of complex social and political issues.  Their images provide the world with human rights evidence, put faces onto a conflict, document the struggles and defiance of marginalized people, reframe how issues are discussed publicly and provide opportunities for reflection and discussion.  Any emerging or veteran photographer who has completed a body of work on a human rights or social justice issue may apply for Moving Walls. The deadline for submissions is 23 October 2009.  For more information, please visit their Website.

Video Competition for Middle School Students
Showcase your video production talent as you share how you are making a difference!  The National Middle School Association is now accepting video submissions to be played at its 36th Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN in November 2009. More than 7,000 educators from around the world will view the winning videos. Chosen videos will also be recognized on the conference website and in the conference program book.   For more information, please visit the NMSA Annual Education Conference website, http://www.nmsa.org/annual/.

Adobe Youth Voices Call for Photographs
Adobe Youth Voices, a global youth media initiative, in collaboration with WKCD (What Kids Can Do), asked youth worldwide to submit pairs of photographs that capture what is challenging and what gives hope in today’s difficult world--from their unique perspective.  Inspired by the remarkable photographs they received over the course of the summer, Adobe Youth Voices are opening a second, fall round of the competition. The theme, “Crisis and Hope,” remains the same, as do the submission guidelines. Submissions are due 1 November 2009. For more information, click here.

The Big Green Grants Program
Nickelodeon’s The Big Green Grants program! is a unique funding initiative that teams up kids and adults in the U.S. to help bring resources to their community. Each Green Grant will provide up to $5,000 for resources to schools and community-based organizations to support environmentally-friendly projects that educate and inspire kids to (1) take care of the environment; (2) be active and live healthier; and/or (3) engage in community service. Deadline for submissions is 31 December 2009.  For more information please visit http://www.bghevent.com/grant/index.htm.

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