The Akoto Brothers

• I will do my project on the journey of the Akoto Brothers.
• Fred (Senior) and Francis (Junior) Akoto are blood brothers who both attend Lehigh University.
• The exciting thing about these two brothers is the fact that they a very prestigious artists in their own way and instead of letting their talents go to waste, they are actually doing a lot of things on campus, making a small buzz here and there, planning event, throwing parties, etc.
• The idea that i have for this project is to have a conversation type interview which will bring more authenticity in the responses that they give me. In addition to this, I will also get b-roll of the two brothers showing their artistic skills.

Through volunteering and various animal shelters in the Lehigh Valley, I have built a relationship with a woman named Maria who is a professional dog trainer and caretaker. She has worked at several animal shelters and had seen the conditions and behavior that the dogs are exposed to. Animal welfare is an obvious passion of hers and of mine as well so I thought getting her perspective on working in Shelters would be interesting and valuable.

I already reached out to her and will be filming her interview on Thursday. I set up the interview to be at the shelter she works at, which is about 25 minutes away from campus. I’m kind of nervous because since it is far, I feel pressured to get the interview done in one go, due to her busy schedule and mine.

I plan to get shots of her with dogs, the dogs at the shelter, with her maybe interacting with them through the gates. Ideally she would have a dog with her throughout  the interview but I’m not sure how practicable that would be. I would love shots of her close up interacting with dogs and her body language as she talks about potentially controversial topics.

Potential Questions:

How long have you worked with dogs?

Did you always want this as a career?

What has influenced you to move between shelters?

Have you had a memorable experience with dog training you would like to share?

What drives your passion?

What is your opinion on the status of stray dogs and animal shelters in the lehigh valley?

Seidman is a pro story teller. He has great experience and the most colorful portfolio that no one could even dream up. He has an amazing work ethic that is driven by one thing; his never ending curiosity. Each film that he chooses to write is nothing like his last, because he is always in search for something else to excite him. He said that when he is presented with a story, it has to drive him to think deeper and want to know more. This is not a new phenomenon that has been presented to this class. We have already been exposed to it via Documentary Storytelling‘s concept of the train.  Seidman is only wants to write a ticket if he is willing to buy a ticket for the train. The train of the story is the most important part and according to Seidman has to come from innate intrinsic curiosity. The story of the train has to inspire you and through your story telling it will inspire others. For example, Seidman is not religious but yet made a movie about a religious jewish movement. What inspired him to write it was as he said “money” but what fascinated him was curiosity for how they treated the women within the religion. Through his telling of the story of the movement he wanted to highlight and emphasize the mistreatment of the women in the religion. That was his train and that is what helped drive the film the extra mile. The train of the movie is important, but what is more important that that is what motivates you to get on the train.

I found this short series, which focuses on the challenges surrounding adopting/fostering a child in foster care, to be really impactful. Personally in my life I have little exposure to the foster care system. Any information I knew regarding foster care before this film, was from the news and focused on issues with the system. All I have really heard about was worse case “scenarios”, as Jillian Lauren a mother of adopted children from foster care and best selling author of “Everything You Ever Wanted” talks about. In her interview she try to bust open some of these stigmas. This interview (in episode 3) was both moving and profound, obviously her openness in regards to her and her husbands fears right before becoming parents, and love for her children from that point on brought me to tears.

Fears and this urgency that surrounded the desire to do what is best for child was carried throughout the film. Whether it was the discussed in the interview with Johnny Symons director of “Daddy and Papa” and his husband William, when talking about his son original foster mother giving him up because she knew she wouldn’t be able to provide him with all the support he needed to flourish; or, the multiple instances in which Nicole and Kristan thought they would be adopting a child and the situation didn’t work. Everyone just wanted what was best for the child at the end of the day.

I really respect both Nicole and Kristan choice to document such an emotional and personal journey in their life. Their story and journey that allows for people who have never experienced adoption to connect to the topic, and appreciate it in way that they could never fully grasp on their own. Watching both their disappointment and joy, made the film and the film’s journey genuine. The film focuses on a serious topic, but the overlay of the cartoons, colorfulness, and goofiness of the film made it a feel good film. I enjoyed the film series, and I am interested in seeing how everything turned out for Nicole and Kristan. I really believe that deserve a family, and that a child or multiple children deserve parents like them.

“F Word” is a great series. The format of the series is laid back but at the same time the content presented in the videos is heavy. The series is deeply personal but also playful in the way it presents a lot of the content. One thing that stands out when I watch the series is how Nicole uses animation to share information.  Animations are used throughout the series to do things video simply can’t, for example in the first episode when Nicole and Kristan share how they met and eventually settled in Oakland animation is used to give us a lot of information without taking up too much screen time in a short film series. In addition, Nicole’s use of animation adds to the laid back nature of the series.

It didn’t take more than a few minutes into the first episode for me to feel connected to Nicole and Kristan’s story. The human emotion portrayed in the series is so honest and relatable. The series allows us access to a deeply  personal story, which I really appreciate. I have never had to experience the immense pressure this couple must be experiencing, but with every  episode I find myself  identifying more with them in different ways and I hope to see their story end happily for all parties involved.

I will be interviewing Liz Wagner: she owns Crooked Row Farms in the Lehigh Valley. I met her at a Farmer’s Market I started at Muhlenberg College and I realized she has great stories to tell about the challenges of farming in modern day America. She farms for Community Supported Agriculture which I thought would be a way to flesh out the interview: her perspectives on farmer’s markets, agriculture education in cities of the Lehigh Valley, etc. She also has opinions on the progressive of farming legislation in America which I thought would be a nice direction for the interview to end at.

I have been studying sustainable agricultural practices for a while now at college and am interested in picking her brain about the process of becoming organically certified and the economic and community benefits supported by farmers markets and CSAs. I should be interviewing her on Thursday of this week.

B-roll:

I’ll be interviewing her (and maybe her boyfriend who runs a kombucha brewery) at her farm. So B – roll will be shots of the farm, shots of her gardening/farming, shots of the surrounding scenery (roads, cars, urban/suburban farming) and shots of the kombucha process if available.

For the interview assignment, I plan on interviewing Louise Frazier an operation manager at the admissions office at Lafayette. My purpose is to get insight on how she selects kids that are a good fit for Lafayette. The acceptance rate for the class of 2020 was 28.2 % I’m going to ask for clarification on the ethnicity chart online for the 2020 class profile.

Pitch:

This is a film about Louise Frazier, an operation manager of admissions who talks about making tough decisions on whether she believes a student is a good fit for Lafayette College

Questions:

Describe what are some of your tasks as the operation manager at the admissions office?

What characteristics do you look for a student to be a good fit for Lafayette?

Have you had to fight for a student you wanted and other people on the committee didn’t agree as much?

Is there enough diversity at Lafayette? If not, do you feel like you are an agent in changing that?

With the college expanding has that made your job harder?

B roll:

Louise’s office + desk

Louise on her computer, making a phone call + her everyday tasks + walking into Markle Hall+ talking to a student

Admissions booklet

Markle Hall

Quad

Prospective students – Our Beloved Community

Who: For this interview, I will be interviewing my mother.

What: In the midst of the humanitarian crisis currently undergoing in Puerto Rico, the resilience of Puerto Rican citizens who have migrated to the U.S has been outstanding. People such as my mother are consistently in contact with organizations to provide basic human necessities to the people of Puerto Rico; a selfless act that most Americans are failing to consider. It seems as though America does not see Puerto Rican citizens as important as Americans on the mainland which has already caused political discourse between the two spaces.

My mom has been leading an organization in providing care packages to the people of Puerto Rico and has been doing so since the hurricane hit the island. She has been traveling all around Pennsylvania collecting from institutions, businesses, organizations, and even neighbors trying to send as many care packages as she possibly can. This act is not meant to result in a reward, but is an act in which she believes is necessary as a Puerto Rican living in America. As she has recognized the privileges of living here, she uses it to her advantage to assist those in desperate need.

Some questions I plan on asking will be:

-Is taking on this responsibility a result of the lack of awareness and assistance from the U.S?

-Should the Jones Act be permanently lifted so other countries can assist Puerto Rico?

-What is the responsibility of Puerto Ricans living in the U.S?

-What are the items included in the care packages and why?

-Who and where will these packages be sent to?

-Why take on this task all by yourself?

In the article “Mirrors Without Memories”, the film The Thin Blue Line is examined in a very particular way. Linda Williams talks about Morris’ approach to the film, and how the documentary has a hypnotic pace. She also believes that Morris doesn’t tell the viewers all the truths about the film.

After speaking to Professor Smith about this film, I realize that I didn’t think deep enough about the overall theme of the film. I think I was too focused on the specifics of the film instead of focusing on the overall meaning and message. The overall message of the film is the aspect of memory. Everyone’s memory in the film is different which brings all the characters in the documentary together. Williams writes, “the truth of the past is traumatic, violent, and unrepresentable in images. It is obscured by official lies masking the responsibility of individual agents,” (14). This proves that this film was full of many people’s memories, and not all of them accurately portrayed what happened the night of the crime.

I never had an idea about the process of adopting from foster care, but after watching The F Word I have learned so much. This docseries allows the audience to feel like they’re experiencing the search for a child with Nicole and Kristan. It is challenging from their part, because they’re in limbo and are trying to figure out a way to remain hopeful. Their approach of speaking to other parents who have adopted is insightful. It is painful to see them struggle and to see how desperately they want a kid.

To maintain the audience’s interest, the doc series is kept short and has animated parts, adding some comic relief to their tense waiting period. I was so curious to know as to what would happen so I watched all episodes in one go. I enjoyed how they went about defining terms such as concurrent planning and disclosure meeting. While sharing their experience, they are also educating their audience on the adopting process. I admire how Nicole and Kristan question their roles as transracial parents and realize that it might not be easy for the kid or them. Their open-mindedness and clear communication is shown very well in every episode of this series.