Summer 2009: Listen Up! Audio for Educators

Summer 2009 Introduction to Documentary Studies

Summer 2009 Audio Institutes

Financial Support for Summer 2009 Audio Institutes
[Eric Estes Memorial Scholarship Fund

Summer 2009 Video Institute

Summer 2009 Literacy Through Photography Institute

Gallery: Slide Show of Summer Institutes

Student Testimonials about CDS Workshops / Institutes / Continuing Studies

Past Workshops/Institutes




All are invited to visit Durham to attend one of the intensive institutes and workshops offered by the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke. While students are responsible for their own accommodations during these events, CDS offers assistance to connect students with housing opportunities in the area. Those enrolled will receive monthly email updates by the end of March, identifying housing options, meal provisions (this varies from event to event; all will receive a list of nearby eateries), and additional important information. Check the CDS website for more updates: http://cds.aas.duke.edu/.

Questions regarding the content of these courses should be directed to CDS Learning Outreach staff, April Walton, awalton@duke.edu, and Dionne R. Greenlee, dionne.greenlee@duke.edu. Questions regarding registration and payments should be directed to the office of Duke Continuing Studies Evening and Weekend Courses at 919-684-6259.

To register for courses, contact Duke Continuing Studies by calling 919-684-6259 Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. or visit their Web site at: http://www.learnmore.duke.edu/weekend/courses/







Summer 2009
Listen Up! Audio for Educators

NEW! Johanna (Jones) Franzel, Shea Shackelford, Tennessee Watson | All Levels

Whether you're a school teacher, a youth media activist, or someone who has recently stumbled on the possibilities of sound, join us for a comprehensive weekend of audio for educators. Participants will gain practical skills for working with audio in different contexts and take home tools that use sound to foster youth leadership, learning, and inspiration. From choosing and using a recorder to sharing the audio with the wider world, experienced facilitators will guide participants in creating a catalogue of resources and an active network of supportive peers.

Johanna (Jones) Franzel is the director of Generation PRX , a project of the Public Radio Exchange to support, connect, and distribute youth radio. Before PRX, she taught documentary arts at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University (where she co-founded the Youth Noise Network radio group); taught in Costa Rica, Cuba, and New York; and worked as a guide in the Grand Canyon. Franzel trained at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and holds a Masters in Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. For fun, she teaches radio with Blunt Radio's Incarcerated Youth Project near her home in Maine.

Shea Shackelford is an independent producer based in Washington, D.C., where he produces for nationally syndicated public radio shows, co-curates the Big Shed audio documentary podcast, and coordinates a radio program at the Latin American Youth Center's Art + Media House. After spending ten years as a professional do-gooder, he succumbed to a love of audio, abandoned his job, and for the last few years has enjoyed the ecstasy and anxiety of a freelance audio career.

Tennessee Jane Watson lives in Washington, D.C. where she teaches radio and multimedia production to teens at the Latin American Youth Center's Art + Media House. Watson spent four years at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University producing documentaries and coordinating Youth Noise Network, a radio project for teens in Durham, North Carolina. She's worked on several noteworthy projects, including a documentary exhibition called "Farmworkers Feed Us All" with photographer Earl Dotter, and an installation called "Portrait of Silvia Elena" with the New York artist SWOON about the femicides in Juarez, Mexico.

Thursday to Sunday, July 30–August 2
Thursday 5-9 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (plus evening events); Sunday, 9 a.m.–12:30 p.m. (18 hours)

Course fee: $450
Course ID: 2366







2009 Summer Introduction to Documentary Studies

NEW! Intensive Introduction to Documentary Studies | All Levels
Joy Salyers, Lead Instructor

This intensive, weeklong class is designed for distance students who are pursuing the Certificate in Documentary Studies at CDS and fulfills their introductory course requirement. It is also ideal for any student wishing to get a grasp on the basic history and principles of documentary work. This course will feature a variety of guest speakers including photographers, filmmakers, writers, and audio producers.

Documentary studies is interdisciplinary and multifaceted in nature, encompassing many genres and numerous means of interacting with the world. We emphasize not only methodologies but also philosophies and ethics of fieldwork in different settings. Students will explore examples of fieldwork and at the final meeting will present projects of their own. These projects may be the beginning of long-term documentary initiatives or simply a means to help decide on the direction of a future project.

Please note: Students are responsible for purchasing and reading the following texts prior to the course:
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans
The Vulnerable Observer by Ruth Behar
Fieldwork by Bruce Jackson
Listening for a Change by Hugo Slim and Paul Thompson
I Wanna Take Me a Picture: Teaching Photography and Writing to Children by Wendy Ewald

Additional required reading, in a course pack, will be mailed to students in April 2009.

Sunday to Friday, June 7–12
This 6-day intensive begins Sunday, 6 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. (plus two evening presentations)
(38 hours)
Course fee: $450
Materials fee: $25
Class ID: 12216

April 29 update: The 2009 Summer Introduction to Documentary Studies course is now full.

Wait-listed students will be notified when the summer 2010 schedule is announced. These listings will be available in the fall of 2009. Registration for our fall 2009 course listings, including weekend workshops, starts June 2009.

Joy M.G. Salyers is a folklorist, writer, and anti-racism educator. She consults with individuals and groups on a variety of topics—her specialties include using oral history, experiential learning, and creativity to bridge community divisions, develop identity, and combat prejudice. She is trained to use stories and writing to connect and to heal. Her personal fieldwork includes documenting personal life histories, writing poetry from family stories, and collaborating with members of a modern performance community.







Summer 2009 Audio Institutes

Hearing Is Believing I: An Audio Documentary Summer Institute | All Levels
John Biewen

The Center for Documentary Studies presents a weeklong, morning-till-night immersion in audio documentary work. You’ll learn hands-on skills in recording and digital audio mixing; discuss issues such as the ethics of documentary work; explore varied uses for audio documentaries (it’s not just radio anymore); and hear accomplished producers play and talk about their work in evening presentations. During the week you’ll work with a fellow student to produce and edit a short audio documentary, from the first interview and gathering sound to the final mix. 

Computers and editing software (Pro Tools) will be provided for your use in completing your institute project. Students should bring field-recording equipment, including recorder, microphone, and headphones. No experience in audio production is required. A basic comfort level with computers is desirable. The institute counts as 40 hours toward the Certificate in Documentary Studies. 

The institute will be led by John Biewen along with other staff members of the Center for Documentary Studies. Visiting artists will also join the institute faculty; past instructors include Joe Richman, Ann Hepperman and Kara Oehler, David Schulman, Chris Brookes, Neenah Ellis, Karen Michel, Dmae Roberts, and Judith Sloan.

Financial support for summer 2009 Hearing Is Believing I audio institute: Eric Estes Memorial Scholarship

Information packets and schedules will be mailed to registered students. The enrollment fee includes all lunches during the week and one dinner. 

Sunday to Saturday, July 19—25 
This 7-day intensive begins Sunday, 3 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. (plus evening presentations); concludes Saturday, 3 p.m. (40 hours) 
Course fee: $775 
Class ID: 12217

May 6 update: The 2009 Hearing Is Believing I: An Audio Documentary Summer Institute is now full.

Wait-listed students will be notified when the summer 2010 schedule is announced. These listings will be available in the fall of 2009. Registration for our fall 2009 course listings, including weekend workshops, starts June 2009.

John Biewen is Audio Program Director at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Besides teaching Summer Audio Institutes and undergraduate courses, he produces documentaries and features for NPR, PRI, American Public Media, and other public radio audiences. Biewen has been making radio since 1983. He reported and made special projects for Minnesota Public Radio, did a stint covering the Rocky Mountain West for NPR, and spent eight years producing documentaries for American RadioWorks. His work has won many honors, including two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, and the Third Coast International Audio Festival’s Public Service Award.



Hearing Is Believing II: Making It Sing | Intermediate/Advanced
John Biewen

An intensive six-day workshop for students who’ve recorded interviews and gathered sound and are ready to construct a four- to ten-minute audio documentary. This course is designed for those who are ready to begin editing their project and have a basic grasp of audio editing software, or for individuals who have completed Make That Audio Doc and/or the one-week Hearing Is Believing summer institute and are ready to try a more ambitious project. This time you’ll bring your own recordings to the institute. You’ll get lessons and personal guidance from seasoned radio documentary producers as you structure and script your piece, record your narration tracks (if any), and mix your documentary on CDS’s ProTools workstations or, if you prefer, on your laptop. 

The institute will be led by John Biewen along with other staff members of the Center for Documentary Studies. Visiting artists and editors will join the institute faculty, including Deborah George and Shea Shackelford; past instructors include Emily Botein, Cheryl Devall, and Emily Hanford.
 
Information packets and schedules will be mailed to registered students. The enrollment fee includes all lunches during the week and one dinner.
 
Monday to Saturday, August 10—15 
This 6-day intensive starts Monday, 6 p.m.; Tuesday—Friday, 9 a.m.—4:30 p.m. (plus evening presentations); concludes Saturday, 2 p.m. (35 hours) 
Course fee: $775 
Course ID: 12218 

May 6 update: The 2009 Hearing Is Believing II: Making It Sing Institute is now full.

Wait-listed students will be notified when the summer 2010 schedule is announced. These listings will be available in the fall of 2009. Registration for our fall 2009 course listings, including weekend workshops, starts June 2009.

John Biewen is the audio programs director at the Center for Documentary Studies; he was formerly a correspondent-producer for American RadioWorks, the national documentary unit of American Public Media. He has produced a large body of work on economic and social issues, as well as investigative reports and historical documentaries. His reporting has won numerous honors, including the Robert F. Kennedy (2000, 2001), Society of Professional Journalists (Sigma Delta Chi), Edward R. Murrow (RTNDA), and (American Bar Association) Silver Gavel Awards. A graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, with a degree in philosophy, he lived and taught in Osaka, Japan, from 1985 to 1987.







Summer 2009 Video Institute

Documentary Video Institute | All Levels
Randolph Benson, Jim Haverkamp, Simone Keith, Erika Simon, Carol Thomson, Nicole Triche

In this eight-day intensive, you will be fully immersed in the process of documentary filmmaking. Working in small production teams (one instructor for every four students) led by experienced documentary filmmakers, you will be introduced to an array of tools and techniques as you collaborate with a partner to direct, shoot, edit, and screen a documentary short. By the time you arrive at the institute, we will have arranged for you to do fieldwork in the Durham community on a documentary subject; you will then work with your partner to decide the technical and creative approach you want to take with your project. We will also explore different documentary genres and discuss collaboration, ethics, and community outreach. Small group learning environments and personalized training will keep you involved and on track regardless of your previous experience level. In addition, nationally known guest instructors will teach classes and screen their work in evening sessions. Past visiting filmmakers have include Linda Goode Bryant (Flag Wars), Marco Williams (award-winning Two Towns of Jasper), Ross McElwee (Sherman’s March, Brightleaves), and Alice Elliott (Academy Award—nominated The Collector of Bedford Street).

The Center for Documentary Studies will provide computers, editing software (Final Cut), and cameras. Basic computer skills are required.

Information packets and schedules will be mailed to registered students at a later date. The enrollment fee includes all lunches and one dinner.

Date: Saturday to Saturday, June 20—27
This 8-day intensive starts Saturday, 3 p.m.; Monday—Friday, 9 a.m.—5 p.m. (plus evening presentations); concludes Saturday, 3 p.m. (48 hours)
Course fee: $1390
Course ID: 12221

May 6 update: The 2009 Summer Video Institute is now full.

Wait-listed students will be notified when the summer 2010 schedule is announced. These listings will be available in the fall of 2009. Registration for our fall 2009 course listings, including weekend workshops, starts June 2009.

Randolph Benson is a graduate of Wake Forest University and of the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking. His film Man and Dog has appeared in eighteen film festivals in seven countries and has garnered numerous awards, most notably a Gold Medal in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Student Academy Awards. His work has been featured on the Bravo Network, the Independent Film Channel (Split Screen), WTTW-Chicago, UNC-TV (NC Visions), and Telewizja Polska S.A.—Poland. He received an Eastman Kodak Excellence in Filmmaking Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Jim Haverkamp is an award-winning filmmaker and editor based in Durham whose short documentary and fiction films have screened in festivals across the country. He has been the recipient of a Filmmaking Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council and recently was chosen to tour with Southern Circuit. He is a former organizer of the Flicker Film Festival in Chapel Hill.

Simone Keith’s short documentary Heavier Than Air has screened at numerous festivals and aired on UNC-TV. A native of Brazil, she has been making documentaries and video essays since arriving in North Carolina ten years ago. Keith has earned two Telly Awards and has collaborated on The Wonder of It All, a UNC-TV documentary about the life of George Beverly Shea, which was nominated for a regional Emmy. She currently works at North Carolina State University, where she is the videographer and editor for In the Garden with Bryce Lane.

Erika Simon has been teaching Final Cut to beginners at CDS since 2003. She was an editor for Gatewood: Facing the White Canvas and directed and edited SAF’s Levante: Theater for Social Change and a PSA that aired on Univisión. Her short doc, Gemini World, recently won the Carrboro Film Festival Audience Award. She is a recipient of the Martha Nell Hardy Award for Outstanding Teaching, UNC–Chapel Hill.

Carol Thomson has been creating web sites and multimedia works since 2000 when she began her documentary studies in Australia. She completed her Certificate in Documentary Studies at the Center for Documentary Studies in 2005. She is working on a multimedia documentary, Bridging Rails to Trails: Stories of the American Tobacco Trail, which will be published on the Web and as a CD-ROM. A work-in-progress version can be seen at http://bridgingrailstotrails.com. Thomson’s web and multimedia company, FireStream Media, LLC, is located in downtown Durham.

Summer 2009 Literacy Through Photography Institute

Literacy Through Photography Basic Workshop | All Levels
Katie Hyde and Elena Rue

The Literacy Through Photography (LTP) Basic Workshop is open to anyone with a desire to learn how to bring together photography and writing. The workshop is appropriate for anyone seeking a collaborative approach to documentary work, or wanting to explore new approaches to documentary photography.

Educators, artists, community workers, and researchers have adapted LTP methodologies in communities and schools around the world. This workshop is a wonderful opportunity to engage photography as an art form and educational medium, a mode of self-exploration, a way to connect visual literacy to verbal and written communication, and as a tool to facilitate community dialogue.

Throughout the week, participants receive hands-on instruction as they carry out photography and writing assignments based on LTP’s core themes: self-portrait, community, and dreams. Participants will learn to process film and to print photographs in the darkroom. Both inexperienced and advanced photographers will have an exciting opportunity to creatively explore and produce their own work. In each session the instructors will model core LTP activities that involve learning basic technical skills, reading photographs, engaging with writing and photography exercises, and editing and sequencing photographs and developing curricula. Participants will have an opportunity to discuss their own ideas for future projects. Individuals who have designed and successfully implemented their own LTP-inspired projects will also present their work to the group.

Wendy Ewald, the founder of LTP, will teach a portion of the workshop, meet with small groups of participants to discuss their own projects, and give an artist talk. Please contact the LTP staff directly with any questions about the course content: ltpworkshops@duke.edu.

If you are a professional interested in taking this class for CEUs, please contact Garry Crites at gjc3@duke.edu or 919-684-3178. 

Please note: Participants will be provided with cameras for each of their projects. It is not necessary to bring your own camera. (We will ask that you use the cameras provided to carry about the assignments, but you are welcome to use your own camera for additional shooting if desired.)

Monday–Friday, May 18–22 
9 a.m.–5 p.m. (35 hours, with a one-hour lunch break each day) 
Course fee: $700 Course ID: 12215

May 6 update: The 2009 LTP Summer Institute is now full.

Wait-listed students will be notified when the summer 2010 schedule is announced. These listings will be available in the fall of 2009. Registration for our fall 2009 course listings, including weekend workshops, starts June 2009.

Wendy Ewald, who has worked with children in many countries and in various communities within the United States, is the founder and creative director of the Literacy Through Photography program at the Center for Documentary Studies. She has received numerous awards for her work with children and photography, among them fellowships from the Fulbright Commission and the MacArthur Foundation. Ewald has published nine books, most recently American Alphabets.

Katie Hyde has been involved with the Literacy Through Photography program since she studied with Wendy Ewald in 1998. She currently directs the LTP program and travels nationally to teach LTP workshops at major museums, in schools, and with community organizations. She has a doctorate in sociology from NC State and teaches visual sociology at the CDS.
 
Elena Rue is Literacy Through Photography’s program coordinator. She oversees the LTP program in the Durham Public Schools and helps lead LTP workshops. Before joining LTP, she worked as a documentary photographer for five years and has worked for several projects and programs at the CDS. In 2006, she was a CDS Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow in Ethiopia.








banner image:

Documentary Video Institute, summer 2004. Photograph by Christopher Sims.