Introduce Yourself: Sign In Here First

Hi--
I've just joined D-word through the back door, cause of being on the
AIVF board. I'm certainly glad to have found out about it because I've
found like Doug that documentary making can be a lonely art, ironic
because it's also such a collaborative one. . .

I've made a bunch of short docs, coming out of the public access world
in Seattle, seguing in film school in Texas, including an experimental
one called *The Weeping Woman* (because a lot of English speakers had
trouble with the "ll" in Llorona, the real name of the Weeping Woman).
If you're in Dallas in March, you can see my most recent short at the
Dallas Video Festival,*A Summer Day in Central Park* (it's a jungle in
there).

Now I'm working on making the leap to long-form with several ideas in
development. The bread and butter so far is teaching online
(Information Design) and producing corporate and industrial video. :}
But I'm moving into editing as my b&b, am working on a narrative short
right now, *Harvey the Larvae*.

You can see a bit more about my work on my site, soon to be updated.
www.sparklehouse.com/angela

Looking forward to meeting you all, virtually and in the flesh.

Welcome, Angela. You, too, I think meant to post to the private
conference, so please re-post this there. I've sent you an email
with directions how to do that.

Nothing wrong with saying hello here, too, though ;-)

After all this space is available and deader than a door nail.

;-)

Hey, it's hard to find, Robert! And we blew all our advertising
money on that superbowl commercial.

If we can sell the article that would change - Superbowl here we come

Join over 20 filmmakers from around the United States. Use your
videocamera to create a record of people*s reactions to the
Supreme Court decision that stopped the vote count in Florida.

Interview family, friends and strangers-- all kinds of people in all
kinds of places. Our film will analyze whether or not Americans are
holding back their anger and rage toward the *stolen-ness* of this
particular election

Write me an email and I*ll reply with all the details.

Matt Kohn
718-522-4931
firewalkfilm@earthlink.net

Please title your email response: Election Documentary * Phase

Matt, this is why we invented the Shameless Self Promotion topic!
Come back and introduce thyself, sir!

Good luck with the project, though.

Tamra- Did you ever sign in over at the community conference? Your
project sounds amazaing. Community gardens are such an inspiring
topic. As a filmmaker I am also compelled by the use of the medium to
affect change while telling individual stories. Storytelling can be a
radical act.

Matt- I'm really interested in your project and the idea of using
multiple filmmakers to tell a story. Please tell us more.

Hi Everyone,
New here, got a couple docs on the go, been doing it on and off for
about 12 years...thank god for some corporate work to pay the bills..

first project is:
The Moore Tragedy: Suicide or Murder? Documentary, 45 minutes, DV/Beta
SP; The tragic shooting of two young boys leaves many questions after
police call it suicide. Did religious teachings of Armageddon cause
the brothers to end their lives, or were they murdered? The project is
in final rough cut stage.

second project is:
The Walking Wounded, Documentary, 45 minutes, DV/BetaSP; This film is
about the psychological and spiritual after-effects on adults who grew
up as children in a spiritually abusive environment and indoctrinated
with fear. It details personal stories of survival and their search
for healing. In post-production.

My son and I will be heading to HOTDOCS in toronto next month,
hopefully connect with some buyers , future collaborators.

anyway, hope to learn something here

cheers...andrew

good luck with your projects and hot docs. Would be interesting to
hear your experience when you return.

Andrew, be sure to post this intro in the private conference. This
is the public conference, not very well attended by D-Word Community
members.

Hi everyone. Am currently working on my 4th film, called Player
Hating. It follows the life of a young hip hop artist who struggles
to escape, poverty, alienation and racism through music. 4
Minutes is my collaberative project for The D-Word. My prior
movie was War Zone, a feature doc in which I interview men all
over the country who harassed me on the streets. There is more
info on that film at filmfatale.net, if anyone is interested.

Love being a filmmaker, but am currently struggling with the
struggle. Glad to be a part of this community.

You're in the wrong conference, too, Maggie ;-) Not that there's
anything wrong with sharing here, of course, but I know you mean to be
in the private conference.

Given the traffic here doug - this is more private than the private
conference. smile.

Yeah, but that's largely because we haven't made the public area a
priority. That'll change soon, especially with the launch of the
collaborative project on Docuweb.org on June 20. We'll be sending the
public to this conference to interact with the filmmakers. It'll be
very cool.

You'll see.

hey -it's all cool.

Looking forward to that, Doug!

Hi Folks,
My name's Morgan and and I'm very happy to have found the
D-Word group.
I've been in Alaska for 21 years and am working on nature and
historical documentary projects.

I got lucky and scored grant money from the EPA on the first try
for a 60-minute doco on a renowned river in Alaska covering a
time period from 12,000BC to the present. We're also in the
beginning stages of a TV doco about one particular aspect of the
Viet Nam war.

In the summer we conduct 5-7 day/night river expeditions on
extremely remote rivers around Alaska for photography and/or
fishing/wildlife. This helps feed the kids and pay the bills and
also puts us in a position to see and film a wide variety of wildlife
such as Grizzly Bears and other big game.

We've got 4 kids including a little 17-month adventurer named
Zach. Everyone's into the outdoors and I'm grateful we have this
common thread of enthusiam.

We hope to see some D-Word folks up in Alaska in the future.
Give us a call.

Cheers,
Morgan Evans

Welcome, Morgan. You sound like you should join us in the other
conference ... I'm sure Doug will assist you?
I'm dreaming of a D-word face-to-face on some remote river ...

Welcome...What a great addition to this community you would be,
Morgan! Your project sounds fascinating as well as your expeditions.
Some years back, I took a 250 mile kayak trip the entire length of
the Teslin River in the Yukon (your neighbor to the east)and I must
do it again before too long. I also hope you can join the conference
and participate with all the terrific people in there.

Hey everyone, and thanks Doug for providing this opportunity for
connecting! My name is Mark and I am starting my first doc after
a few short film projects over the years. This experience has
been completely different though! To my mind more risk,
excitement and satisfaction than on any film project I've worked
on to date....!

My Project is called " A Small Church in Oakland"; about a 130
year old church whos congregation must come to grips with its
imminent dissolution, (25 aging members down from a high of
1000), or find some way to bring in fresh blood if it is to survive.

I am currently in the "credit card" production phase... and
furiously putting out grant proposals to cover (at least)
post-production. Yes, "Biting off more than you can chew" seems
to be the way to go with docs...Yet somehow, (I dont know why) I
have complete faith the money will come in to get his thing
made...happy to be here.. thanks!

Mark, you'll want to post this again in the private conference. Go
to www.d-word.com and hit "members log-in" to get there. Scroll down
to the Introduce Yourself thread.

Ben & Steven,
Thanks for the warm welcome. Look forward to chatting further.
Morgan

Hi folks - My name, obviously, is Linda. I just stumbled on this
conference while checking out a private conf. I attend here at Utne.
This is amazing. What talent here!

I'm a desktop publisher/graphic artist turned copywriter turned
writer/journalist with a few CO Press Association Awards under my
belt. My projects now are varied and some are getting rather deep.
One is about a woman in Zimbabwe teaching AIDS orphans (mostly young
girls) to grow mushrooms for sustenance and survival on on physical
and on a social level. Am in the process of gathering funding for
this project.

Morgan's post jogged my juices on a project my brother has been
embroiled with in Colorado - my brother is a hydrogeologist who is
currently drowning in a debate over a local dam project.

Both of these works could benefit from film. This is something I have
absolutely no skill with, although I'm a huge fan of the power of
documentaries. I'll be lurking and learning more about all of you, if
that's ok...and if you all don't mind me asking some questions along
the way, I would be most honored.

Ask away. Always nice to see someone pop into the public conference.