So, tonight is THE night!

I must admit I am a bit nervous but so excited to show you guys my doc tonight. I fell in love with it for sure.  It’s weird that the class is over, i feel like i just going into the groove of things. I just wanted to say I enjoyed being in class with you guys, and Ellen i need more strong women in my life like you.  I learned a few thing in class that i will be sure to take with me, not just from our professors  but from  my peers as well. Chelsea taught me it’s never to early to take my work serious and to consider myself a legit filmmaker, your professionalism is infectious. Jordan i haven’t met too many people who have been outright  just so nice and help and willing to share their technical know-how, thanks for never having a bad day. Patrick, I don’t know that many people with your unabashed honesty, I hope it rubs off. I enjoyed being in this class with all of you.

See you guys around,

Brittany Washington

Power Paths Screening

I found Power Paths to be an interesting insight into the energy crisis our world is facing. The issue of finding new, renewable energy resources impacts the entire world. Power Paths condenses the world narrative, and stages it specifically upon Native American reservations. By making it a story for a small group of people, rather than pedantically telling the world to change their energy consumption practices, the documentary’s message is less overwhelming and becomes more immediate, because actual characters, instead of faceless masses, are at risk.

The documentary at times I felt could have come across as a laundry list of problems that need to be addressed. Several key issues were covered: coal factories, water conservation, and corporations’ deceit to name a few, all of which are a significant threat to the Hopi and Navajo communities. The manner in which they were addressed one after the other, traveling from county to county, state to state, felt somewhat forced, as though if the last issue didn’t hook the audience, the next one sure would. The editing, however, following certain characters in the last scene into the next, I believe helped the documentary flow much more smoothly. The audience is able to meet a new character, understand their plight (like the families who have lost multiple loved ones do to local coal plants), but then follow them as they try to fight the pollution and the corporations causing it (like the meeting to protest the construction of a new coal plant). This is not about an environmental group coming in to save the Hopi and Navajo communities. The change in Power Paths is catalyzed from within, which is more empowering for them and the viewer.