Blast from the past! 1998, to be more precise. Recently I was asked by current Brown University undergrads about another documentary I had made in 1998 about TNT, a documentary about The Next Thing, a peer group for LGBTQ students of color at Brown University (contact me if you want the link to this more sensitive documentary since I’m keeping it unlisted). This request reminded me that these documentaries, which were filmed and edited during my senior year at Brown on Beta tapes (yes, Beta! Before VHS!!), have been converted to VHS, then DVD, then .VOB digital files, and I needed to convert them yet again to .MP4 in order to upload them to YouTube. It was like moving fast-forward through the last 25 years of video-making history.
“colored brown,” above, is a video documentary I produced on the history of advocacy and activism at Brown surrounding issues such as student of color representation and admissions, greater access to financial aid for low-income students, and incorporation of an ethnic studies department. The video was part of my senior year Modern Culture and Media (MCM) project and uses archival video footage (many thanks to the documentarians who came before me!) as well as student and faculty interviews conducted from in late 1997 to early 1998 (many more thanks to the amazing people in it!).