Chicago, April 16, 2003 - Socially conscious videographers will be hitting the streets the weekend of May 3 to document issues of human rights in Chicago. From the aspiring to the professional, the videographers will have 48 hours to shoot and edit their three-to-five minute project as part of a contest sponsored by Columbia College Chicago's Television Department as part of the college's conference, Dignity Without Borders: Art, Media and Human Rights. All contest entries will be screened at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 8 at the HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo. At the screening, first, second and third place winners will receive software provided by Avid Technologies and Apple Computer. The screening is free and open to the public. For more information call 312-344-7959.
"We're looking for issues that are specific to Chicago," explains Eric Scholl, assistant chair of Columbia's Television Department and one of the organizers of the contest. "Racism, homelessness, social and economic injustice, police brutality, anti-war activism, gender issues are just some of the possibilities. Obviously, these issues also resonate on a national and international level, but for our purposes we want the videographers to focus on the local level."
"Any genre is fair game," adds contest organizer Tom Weinberg, an artist-in-residence in the department. "Documentary, narrative, experimental, music videos, and any creative mode can be used to get the message across."
"When planning this contest we felt very strongly that it should be open to videographers at all levels," says Columbia faculty member Margie Nicholson. "The contest is open to independent producers, media educators and community media organizations. We are encouraging collaborations and can help link producers up with community groups.
"We're very excited about the hands-on nature of this initiative, its wonderful creativity and the terrific opportunity it provides for collaboration between people with diverse areas of expertise," adds Nicholson, who also serves on the steering committee for the entire human rights conference which takes place May 2, and 5-8 on the Columbia College Chicago campus and at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. For more information and schedule updates on Dignity Without Borders visit http://humanrights.colum.edu or call 312-344-8510.
"We hope Dignity Without Borders will function as a catalyst to bring the human rights stakeholders together, explore and examine terms, goals, mutual interests," says Rose Economou, conference coordinator and professor of journalism at Columbia. "We intend to provide a forum for networking between scholars, educators, artists, media makers, social justice activists and other interested audiences, thereby stimulating ideas that will move forward beyond the scope of the conference and develop collaborations and partnerships that will address the issues of human rights on a global level.
"Dignity Without Borders is being organized in partnership with educators, humanists, students from Columbia College Chicago and other educational institutions, representatives from local and national human rights organizations, artists, journalists, documentary filmmakers, community leaders and victims of human rights abuse. It will include community forums, workshops for educators, film and video screenings, exhibitions, and performances and address four main themes: Crimes Against Humanity; Violence Against Women; Children; State; Corporate Abuse; and Religious, Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Intolerance."
Dignity Without Borders is sponsored by the McCormick Tribune Foundation with grants from the Illinois Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Illinois General Assembly and the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation.