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Short Documentaries

Scott Kotick produced this eleven minute mini-documentary on the influence of religion on Southern politics as an Honors thesis in spring 2007. The mini-doc includes interviews with Emory political science experts, religious leaders such as Ralph Reed, and ministers from two very different Southern churches---a large "mega-church" in Atlanta and a small Black church in rural Florida. This mini-doc was supervised by Senior Lecturer Dr. Kris Wilson.

"Evangelicals and the New South"

Seniboye Tienabeso, a 2005 Emory Journalism graduate who now works as for ABC News in New York after working as a special projects producer at WJZ-TV in Baltimore, shot the film, "Voice of the Voiceless," during the six-week Interndisciplinary Internship Program in South Africa in summer, 2004.

Here is the story behind the film:

“Voice of the Voiceless” almost didn’t happen. Originally, Ashley Gleitman, another Journalism student, and I asked to work in television in South Africa. That was the internship we both had chosen for our six weeks abroad in Cape Town. There’s an old hackneyed adage that I used to hear as a child that goes, “Everything happens for a reason.” The initial disappointment at not being able to work in television turned into a journey of adventure that became the most ambitious journalistic experiment of my life.

As Sheila Tefft, the director of the Journalism Program, notified us that we would be working with Bush Radio, she suggested we could still do something visually with a radio internship. I looked on the Internet to read the history of the station, and what a history it was! Blacks and whites working together during apartheid, whether clandestinely passing out tapes, or teaching each other about life and radio! Meager individuals defiantly taking a stand against an evil government! Police storming into the radio station! And today, one of the most influential community stations in not only Africa but the world! What a story!

As Ashley and I traveled around the Western Cape, Gauteng, and the Northwest Province filming and interviewing people across the country, we knew we were filming a story that people should know about. When we returned to Emory, we were only beginning editors and faced the challenge of compressing almost 30 hours of footage into 30 minutes.

None of this, however, would have been possible if not for the generosity of the Emory Journalism Program in particular Sheila Tefft, Sissel McCarthy, our broadcast instructor and Jackie Bullard, the Journalis staff administrator. Others instrumental to this project were Wayne Morse of Academic and Administrative Instructional Technologies and Jack McKinney who taught me how to use, first, iMovie and then Final Cut Pro. More importantly, the incredibly kind South Africans who we met while traveling around the country that invited us into their homes, and told us their stories.

The story of Bush Radio should be a lesson to all Americans who take the freedoms we enjoy for granted. As an Emory Journalism graduate, the story will always stay with me and remind me to write, interview, film, and produce with the utmost integrity and honesty. Why? Because, unlike many in the world, I am able to.