Victim-Offender Dialogue Conference

On May 12 I attended an amazing conference hosted by Suffolk University's Center for Restorative Justice, called Healing After Crime: Exploring the Promise of Victim-Offender Dialogue in the Wake of Serious Violence.  We heard from Kim Book, whose 17-year-old daughter was murdered by a 16-year-old man she knew.  After a frustrating judicial process in which punishment was the main focus, and her own needs as a victim/survivor were ignored, Kim finally reached the Attorney General of Delaware and got a tour of the prison where the offender was held.  She then began volunteering there, and eventually founded Victims Voices Heard, which offers victims and survivors of violent crime the opportunity to meet with their offender face-to-face to help facilitate the healing process.  Kim's powerful story is written up in Dr. Susan Miller's book, After the Crime.

There were also presentations by Kathleen Dennehy, Acting Commissioner of Corrections in Massachusetts; Jon Wilson of JUST Alternative, which works to advance victim-centered practices in justice and corrections; Robin Casarjian of the Lionheart Foundatio, which helps spread emotional literacy; and Janet Connors, a long-time community and social justice activist in Boston neighborhoods most affected by violence and social injustice.  Janet's 19-year-old son was murdered during a home invasion in 2001, an event that refocused her activism towards restorative justice practices.

This was a very moving gathering, one that touched both intellect and emotion.  I had a very engaging lunch conversation with a group of people that included two convicted murderers - who are both now working on restorative justice issues.  Congratulations to Carolyn Boyes-Watson and her team for a very successful event!

Dijkstra Piece Premieres in Amsterdam

Photo: Henriette Lohman

My husband Jorrit Dijkstra will be premiering a new piece he composed for the David Kweksilber Big Band on May 21 at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam.

DKBB is known for playing "the ultimate music of this moment," according to I Amsterdam.  Improvisation often plays a role, as it will with Jorrit's piece... which is a moody one I've been hearing emanating from our basement for several weeks and am eager to hear translated to live instruments.  Jorrit will be playing Lyricon, a vintage wind synthesizer from the 1960s.

I was very lucky to have Jorrit write music for my films Monkey Dance and Indelible Lalita. 

Summer Teaching

The semester has now wound down at Boston University, and I'm gearing up for the summer's intensive teaching.  June 25-29 I'll be teaching Producing the Documentary, a weeklong course at the end of MassArt's Summer Film School - which is a great set of courses for anyone wanting to dive into filmmaking.

Then in July I head up to Rockport, Maine, for my first time teaching at the renowned Maine Media Workshops.  My class runs July 8-14 and is called Storytelling with Canon HDSLRs (note product sponsorship!).  We'll be exploring non-fiction storytelling through the beautiful, and affordable, magic of the DSLR camera and Zoom audio recorders.

I'm especially looking forward to a collaborative workshop I'm giving at MassArt over the course of two weekends (July 6-21).  It's called 2 Weeks + 1 Word = A FILM. Class members will together brainstorm a single word as the inspiration point for a film they will make together in the course of two weeks.  Bring it on!

BU Production I Screening May 7

Three selected films from my section of Production I at Boston University will be screening their final projects along with twelve other films from the course on Monday, May 7. It's always amazing to me how students go from basically zero knowledge of filmmaking to being able to direct, shoot, and edit their own short fiction films in a matter of months.

The screening is at the George Sherman Union auditorium, 775 Commonwealth Auditorium, at 7pm on May 7, and is open to the public.

RIP Amos Vogel

I was at the Balagan screening of The Castle by Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti last night (a good film, though I think the concept might have been more consistently adhered to through the piece), and programmer Jeff Silva shared the news that Amos Vogel had just died at age 91.

Vogel, a native of Vienna who fled from the Nazis in 1938, was one of the leading figures in avant-garde cinema.  He founded the influential Cinema 16 film club in 1947 to screen "films you cannot see elsewhere," and co-founded the New York Film Festival.  Jeff mentioned that Vogel's curating work was one of the big inspirations for the Balagan series.

He also wrote the best-selling book Film as a Subversive Art, which I still enjoy 20 years after Juan Mandelbaum gave me a copy upon leaving my first job at WGBH-TV.  And I hear that he also wrote a children's book called How Little Lori Visited Times Square, illustrated by Maurice Sendak.  I'll have to check that one out.

Earth Day Sneak Previews

My Louisiana Love, a film I co-produced and edited with Sharon Linezo Hong and Monique Verdin, is seeing its first audiences at two sneak previews in association with Earth Day.  The first is at the Environmental Film Festival at Earth Day Mobile Bay at Fairhope Pier in Mobile, Alabama on Sunday, April 22.  The second is at Loyola University at 7:30pm on Monday, April 23.

Hear an interview by reporter Ben Kreimer with Monique and Sharon here, or another interview with Monique on the Bridge the Gulf website.