COURSE: Journalism 699: Directed Study
MEDIUM: Video, Video Essay, Video Documentary, Informational Video
DESCRIPTION:
This is a documentary video created by fellow journalism student Kiesen Williams and I on Family Scholar Housing, a type of low-income housing for single mothers looking to obtain higher education and their children. The documentary follows UW Odyssey Project — another higher education program for non-traditional adult learners — Success Coach Brian Benford’s quest to potentially bring the innovative educational/residential program back to our city. Our documentary includes interviews with workers at the Scholar Houses, the single moms using their services, UW Odyssey staff and UW Odyssey learners to highlight how bringing such a program to Madison could change low-income learners’ lives.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
I decided I wanted to make a documentary about the UW Odyssey Program and Family Scholar Housing in a directed study I undertook with seven other students on low-income housing and solutions journalism under Professor Sue Robinson, for the newspaper Madison Commons. Mr. Bedford was discussing his plans to travel to the Scholar Houses in Indiana and Kentucky, and I asked Sue if it might be a good opportunity for video journalism about his quest. Being that most of my experience was in print reporting rather than video journalism, Kiesen offered to work with me on the project for the bulk of the filming/editing. We ended up making a documentary about of our interview footage because we wanted to highlight what good can come out of removing the barrier of poverty to education, and how it can empower people with the tools they need to not only meet their basic needs, but to flourish as humans. We premiered the documentary at an event hosted by UW-Odyssey Project in hopes of getting people interested in joining Mr. Bedford on his quest to bring affordable education/housing to Madison, and I presented it to the Board of Visitors this fall in the hopes of reaching someone who had the money or influence to help make Mr. Bedford’s dream a reality. These are the same reasons I hope the Digital Salon will display this project for the wider UW community.