Decade-long documentary project

[Doug Thompson]

Last year, I started a foundation with the goal of creating a record of the first decade of the new century. The project, called "Our America" seeks to document the changes this country will undergo during those 10 years. At the time, we didn't foresee September 11 or how it would alter the American psyche.

Over the last year-and-a-half, I've shot about 7500 still photographs, written a number of essays and have more than 500 hours of film and video in the can. We're starting to edit some of the footage and put some up on our web sites for public consumption. Because we shoot a lot of news video for clients, we can take our excess footage from a news or feature shoot and then use it for the documentary projects.

Some of that footage is now on the web on three web sites: Capitol Hill Blue (a daily political news site), Our America (the web site for the documentary project) and Buffalo Mountain Films, our film unit.

We invite all to take a look, comment, offer suggestions, criticism, etc. This is an evolving project and we consider all of the examples here as works-in-progress.

The Moving Wall (a look at the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial):

http://www.buffalomountainfilms.com/vietnamwall.html (the full, high-resolution, 14-minutes version. Broadband needed). I broke the film into segments for use on another web site and it can be found at:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/video/movingwallmenu.html

DeutschFest: A street festival in Belleville, Illinois (I have a weakness for street fairs):
http://www.buffalomountainfilms.com/deutschfest.html

Tax Blues: At the Clarendon, Virginia, post office, they host "Tax Blues Night" on April 15 every year, an attempt to take the bite out of taxes.
http://www.buffalomountainfilms.com/taxblues.html

Metro: A short look at Washington's subway system:
http://www.ouramerica.org/video/metro.htm

As I said, comments are always welcome, along with suggestions on topics, etc. All of us involved in this project are doing so on our own time and nickel. I'm footing the tab for Our America as well.

We're leaving Wednesday to shoot a bluegrass event in the Blue Ridge Mountains as well as a Labor Day weekend gun show.

Details on Our America can be found at:

http://www.ouramerica.org

Doug

[Dan Uneken]

Doug, I admire your courage on a project of this size. There are some great photographs on the "OurAmerica" site.
What do you mean with "come and join us" in your mission statement?

[Doug Thompson]

<<<-- Originally posted by Dan Uneken : Doug, I admire your courage on a project of this size. There are some great photographs on the "OurAmerica" site.
What do you mean with "come and join us" in your mission statement? -->>>

Dan:

Thanks for the kind words. I don't know yet if it is courage or foolishness to tackle a project of this size. I hope it's not the latter.

I welcome anyone who wants to contribute to the project (photos, films, essays) with the understanding that we all are doing this on our own time and our own nickel. Some have written or called and offered to help but backed out when I explained that we all pay our own expenses as a contribution to the project and nobody draws a salary.

I can understand how some can't take the time or spare the expense to participate. I'm 54, my homes are paid for and my biggest debt is the $43 I owe Texaco this month on one of my gas credit cards. Not everyone has that luxury. As explained in our mission statement, our motivation is the late O. Winston Link, who took seven years out of his life, at his own expense, to document the final days of steam railroads. We'll keep plugging along with the hope that others can join us at some point.

Doug

[Hagop Matossian]

how was the gun show?