MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Workshops launch new projects

During the week of September 19-25, 2009, we brought 6 talented professionals together to collaborate with the MediaStorm team at the fifth MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop. See the projects produced during this workshop below or apply for the next round of Workshops. Family Kocktail by Deanne Fitzmaurice, Stan Alcorn and Doug Grant Kryssy Kocktail always dreamed of leaving her troubled family to join the circus. Now she eats fire and sits on an electric chair as a performer at the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. She also realized her dream of being part of a family. See the project. The Art of Attraction by Paolo Black, Melissa Pracht and Scott Lituchy The New York Post called them “The Best Buskers in New York City.” Street artist twins Tic and Tac perform their acrobatics in The Art of Attraction. See the project. Behind the Scenes by Maisie Crow MediaStorm intern Maisie Crow takes…

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MediaStorm publishes Driftless: Stories from Iowa

Driftless: Stories from Iowa by Danny Wilcox Frazier Life in Iowa can be punishing. Many Iowans expend their lives sweating over soil and spilling the blood of livestock; they endure the hardships associated with a life inextricably bound to the ups and downs of nature. Today, those challenges and a shift in our nation's economy have pushed the youth of rural communities to migrate to the metropolises of America. Those left in the wake of this out-migration continue their lives, seemingly unchanged from the generations that preceded them, and entombed in obscurity. The tension of contemporary rural life plays out here: the struggle of a family farm to continue, disenfranchised youth, the slaughterhouse, migrant labor, and the aged fading from Iowa's mythical landscape. Through their stories we gain insight to a way of life that is disappearing, a culture that could be lost forever. As "community" continues to be homogenized in zones…

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MediaStorm Workshops present Beautiful Noise

The third MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Workshop was held December 6-12, 2008. The project, Beautiful Noise by Morag Livingstone, Mareile Paley, and Kimberley Porteous is now online. Kirk and Evelyna are raising their children in a small New York City apartment far from her home in Germany. They try to stay optimistic while coping with the current economic crisis. See the project. Dates for the 2009 MediaStorm Workshops: Workshop Four: March 7-13, 2009 - Application Deadline: Friday January 23, 2009 Workshop Five: May 2-8, 2009 - Application Deadline: Monday March 30, 2009 Workshop Six: August 8-14, 2009 - Application Deadline: Wednesday July 1, 2009 See the site for more information.

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MediaStorm publishes Intended Consequences

Intended Consequences by Jonathan Torgovnik During the 1994 genocide, Rwandan women were subjected to massive sexual violence, perpetrated by members of the infamous Hutu militia groups known as the Interahamwe. Among the survivors, those who are most isolated are the women who have borne children as a result of being raped. Their families have rejected both them and their children, compounding their already unimaginable emotional distress. An estimated 20,000 children were conceived during the genocide in Rwanda, and many of their mothers contracted HIV during the same encounters that left them pregnant. They feel they have lost their dignity, are alone and utterly powerless. Intended Consequences chronicles the lives of these women. Their narratives are embodied in portrait photographs, interviews and oral reflections.

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