Localfilms.org

Yesterday we watched a film by Peter Jordan of Localfilms.org called The Children They Are Left With. Since many of the students are from other countries, including many from Africa, this initiated a fantastic conversation, where many of the students reflected on their lives before coming to America. Annie and I were thrilled at how the students internalized the movie and how moved they were by them. They asked some great questions and shared their stories. Today, it began to feel like we are getting somewhere!

I emailed Peter Jordan to tell him about the experience and included some photos:

Hi Peter,
I'm a graduate student in Communications at Georgia State University and have
been very inspired by your work. Thanks for making it available to view on your
website. As a mediamaker, I thought you might appreciate how your work is also inspiring
my current collaborators, the 5th grade class at the International Community School
in Decatur, GA. (www.intcomschool.org). My thesis project is a community-based video
collaboration with them.

ICS has a lot of refugee and immigrant children, and today we watched your film
The Children They are Left With to begin our conversation about documentary filmmaking.
Your film initiated some fantastic conversation! Afterward, Majur, who is from Sudan,
said it reminded him of himself and his home. Dilbar (from Iraq) and Farwad (from
Afghanistan) said it reminded them of their lives before coming to America too.
Thank you for creating work that is meaningful and so inspirational to these kids.
They ate it up! I'm attaching some photos for you.

Lastly: where did you get the plastic video cameras the kids use in your projects?
Is there a particular brand to look for?

Best regards,
Brigette Flood