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More
than a doodle: Untitled Landscape by Arnold Bittleman.
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Pause
and Playback
Beauty,
it’s been said, is in the eye of the beholder. For George
Stoney, the “father of community television,” the tools for
social change tend to be found in much the same place.
For more than half a century, Stoney has used video to connect—in
both the metaphorical and literal sense—people whose lives
would otherwise be separated by cultural, geographic or political
elements. Along with creating more than 50 documentary films,
Stoney is widely regarded as one of the first champions of
public-access programming.
Now a professor of documentary filmmaking at New York University,
Stoney will visit the Capital Region this week to present
his new film, Getting Out, and discuss the ways in
which video can encourage people to take a more active role
in shaping their community.
Getting
Out, a collaboration between Stoney and former student
David Bagnall, examines how an innovative arts program at
New York’s Sing Sing Penitentiary affected inmates’ lives
and their re-integration into society. The film follows two
inmates who credit their exposure to poetry and other forms
of art while incarcerated as key to their rehabilitation and
eventual release.
“Because
they’ve done very well, they’re just the sort of people to
tell us how difficult it is to get out,” explains Stoney,
adding that heavy restrictions imposed during the first years
of shooting almost convinced them to drop the project. After
discovering how important the program had become to many inmates,
they decided to finish the film.
“We
found out that the woman who runs the group had been duplicating
the [performance tapes] and the guys had been sending them
home,” he said. “Here it was, the first thing the guys were
ever really proud of—that they wanted their families to see—we
needed to finish it.”
In addition to examining the program itself, the film also
details the problems encountered by program alumni once they’re
released back into society.
“They
can never get away from their crimes,” says Stoney, describing
the frequent calls received by the film’s subjects for police
line-ups and the difficulty of finding employment with a criminal
record. “For many of them, there’s no such thing as paying
off your debt to society.”
Stoney insists that the screening of his film is meant to
be much more than just the presentation of a final product.
“Sure,
it’s nice to have you look at my work, but [David and I] want
to make something that inspires people to work for change
here,” said Stoney. “Because it only happens man by man and
neighborhood by neighborhood.”
Stoney has applied a similar perspective in his approach toward
community programming. Since cofounding the National Federation
of Local Cable Programmers, he has experimented with ways
for cable television to connect elected officials, their constituents
and neighbors—and managed to train the next generation of
media advocates along the way. Among the numerous media experts
to have trained under Stoney is Susan Buske of the Buske Group,
an independent consulting agency recently brought in to help
the city of Troy and other local municipalities renegotiate
their cable contracts [“Your Input Please,” Newsfront, July
29].
“With
so many people working long hours now and commuting, they
don’t have time to go to meetings,” says Stoney of the importance
of community programming. “This is a way to let them know
what’s happening.”
Community programming can be used in any number of ways, Stoney
adds, such as one program he encountered in which a town gave
its new schoolteachers an opportunity to introduce themselves
to the community.
And even with the growth of the Internet, says Stoney, there
are still benefits to making locally developed television
programming available.
“People
are using the Internet quite intelligently and in many ways,”
he reasons, “but something that is often overlooked is the
group stimulation that comes from producing programs for cable.”
—Rick
Marshall
George Stoney’s screening and lecture will take place at
the Arts Center of the Capital Region (265 River St., Troy)
at 8 PM on Wednesday (Sept. 22). Admission will be $3 with
all proceeds benefiting WRPI 91.5 FM. For more information,
call 276-4778.
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