Continuing Studies Summer 2004 Presentations

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Summer 2004 Presentations

Certificates in Documentary Studies to Be Awarded by CDS and Duke Continuing Studies

Presentation of Final Projects and Granting of Certificates:
Wednesday, June 9, 7 p.m.

Recipients:
Sheldon Becker, video: The ArtsCenter: A New After-School Model Program
Blaire Johnson, video: Mary's Gone Wild
Suze McKenzie, memoir: The Weight of a Child
Felicia Montgomery, photography and oral history: A Hairdresser's Journey
Amanda Smith, photography: Personal Enterprise
Renato Velarde, film and video: For Love, Food, and Film
Henry Weaver, photography and oral history: "Tough Times Never Last, Tough People Do": Floods and Recovery at an Appalachian Town

The public is invited to view presentations of work by seven Duke University continuing studies students who will receive their Certificate in Documentary Studies on Wednesday, June 9, at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke. Presentations will range from a documentary video profile of outsider artists to a photo-essay on a West Virginia towns struggle to rebuild after a severe flood. A reception will follow the presentations.

The evening will also provide a good opportunity for learning more about the Certificate in Documentary Studies, offered by CDS in conjunction with Duke Continuing Studies. Certificate students must complete a total of six courses, including an introduction to documentary studies methods and ethics and a capstone seminar, in which the students complete a final project and present it to a public audience.

Student Presentations

In his video project, The ArtsCenter: A New After-School Model Program, Sheldon Becker documents an arts immersion after-school program at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, North Carolina, which is partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. He explores the program's concept and goals, the initial enthusiasm for the program, and the dedication of both national and local artists to its success. The video celebrates the students' artistic accomplishments and examines the rising anxiety over whether the ArtsCenter can continue to finance the program. Becker is recently retired, after thirty-five years of service, from a major communications software company. Since his retirement, he has worked with several local nonprofit agencies to provide video and still documentation of their activities.

Blaire Johnson's video, Mary's Gone Wild, is a joyful call to the magical garden of Mary's Gone Wild Folk Art and Doll Baby Museum. Locals bring truckloads of items otherwise destined for the landfill to visionary artist Mary Paulsen, who then transforms them from trash to treasure with faith, humor, and bright paint. A resident of Holden Beach, North Carolina, Mary is becoming well known for her paintings on the reverse side of old glass windows. Johnson moved to North Carolina from New York City ten years ago. After "studying everything under the sun in fine arts," she has found her artistic home in documentary filmmaking. "I love documentary filmmaking for its ability to capture the moment--how it sounds and how it looks at that particular moment in time. My goal is to capture the magic of reality that is found in the little things and might otherwise be missed."

The Weight of a Child by Suze McKenzie is a memoir based on her adoption and the effect it had on the families involved. Born to an unwed teenager in upstate New York in the late 1960s, she begins the story with her mother's emotional struggles and indecision about being a new mother, and the subsequent developments: her mother abruptly gave McKenzie away to a family that was still grappling with the loss of a daughter to leukemia and unprepared for the consequences that a new child would bring to their lives. In her mid-twenties she decided to seek out her biological family and the journey sent her on a quest for answers. The memoir is told through the eyes of McKenzie's biological mother and grandmother, her adopted mother, and her adopted mother's stepmother. Each brings to the story her own heartache and insight into the emotional weight a small child can have on one's life and a family's destiny. McKenzie has spent the past year and a half exploring the ramifications her birth and adoption have had on the people in her life. She currently lives in Raleigh and works for the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

When Felicia Montgomery was a child, she dreamed of becoming a hairdresser. Later in life, she aspired to teach cosmetology and personal development. A Hairdresser's Journey documents Montgomery's personal journey of making those dreams come true, while exploring the peaks and valleys of her professional career. Now she is an instructor of cosmetology at the North Carolina Correctional Institute for Women. "I truly feel rich," says Montgomery. "It's a privilege to share my experiences, knowledge, and skills, which help to motivate and encourage the students to press on in life and set some goals and dreams for themselves, in spite of their present situtation." Montgomery is married and the mother of two children. She has been a licensed cosmetologist for seventeen years and a licensed cosmetology instructor for six years; she has won twenty-one hair-styling awards.

In her photo-essay, Personal Enterprise, Amanda Smith asks, "What kind of person wants to quit their day job and run their own business? How do they combine the insane hours and lack of security with having a family? What fuels their passion? Who succeeds, and how do they measure success?" Smith's documentary focuses on Good Work, a nonprofit organization in Durham, North Carolina, that trains entrepreneurs in basic business skills. Smith follows one group of graduates from their training in the summer of 2003 until the present. Among other wonders, she found some great bean pie. Smith has lived in Durham since 1972. A consultant in gender issues, for several years she wrote a syndicated column called "The Sexes: Working Together." She is a writer, potter, photographer, and passionate volunteer at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. She lives in the country north of Durham with her husband, James David Barber, and their two sons, Luke and Silas.

In his documentary film and video essay, For Love, Food, and Film, Renato Velarde talks about his own dedication to three things: food, relationships, and filmmaking. He raises issues about self-esteem, body image, and the media's influence on such things. Velarde tells his story through time-lapse images, family photographs, and humorous narration; his work reminds the viewer that we all deal with such personal struggles. Velarde is a freelance videographer and a gaffer for various local fiction projects. He has worked in filmmaking for seven years, and hooked up with CDS last year to further pursue more personal documentary projects through the certificate program.

Through photographs, local news accounts, and interviews with residents, Hank Weaver's "Tough Times Never Last, Tough People Do": Floods and Recovery at an Appalachian Town documents the severe flooding of the business district in the central Appalachian coal town of Mullens, West Virginia, in July 2001. Weaver shows the subsequent efforts of the townspeople to rebuild, renovate, and move on with their lives. He also focuses on what the townspeople think they should do to prevent a similar or worse disaster in the future. Weaver resides in Kannapolis, North Carolina. He holds a B.A. in history from Wake Forest University and an M.A. in Appalachian studies from Appalachian State. He served twenty-seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps, with time in Vietnam and the Gulf War.

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Untitled, from the series Raising Helana. Photograph by Lissa Gotwals, from her project for the continuing studies course Final Project Seminar in Documentary Studies. Gotwals's work from this series was published in issue 03 of Blueeyes Magazine.