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The 2004 Third Coast Festival ShortDocs: Stories About Darkness
Each year the Third Coast Festival commissions four new works, the TCF ShortDocs,
on a single theme. This year, producers created stories about darkness,
interpreting the word both literally and metaphorically.
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2004 TCIAF Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: Susan Stamberg
Susan Stamberg has been an award-winning host and correspondent with NPR for
more than 30 years. In 1972, she made broadcast history by becoming the first
woman in the country to anchor a national news program.
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From the audio vaults at NPR, here's an excerpt of Susan Stamberg
co-hosting All Things Considered back in the 1970s. (1:30)
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A recent interview with Mel Brooks shows that Stamberg's voice has
matured but hasn't lost any of its zest. (8:05)
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Listen to Stamberg's speech accepting the Lifetime Achievement
Award at the 2004 TCIAF awards ceremony. (link to LAA page)
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Stamberg's Read excerpts from the letters supporting Susan
Stamberg's nomination, Behind the Scenes.
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The Audible Picture Show
curated by Matt Hulse
Filmmaker Matt Hulse regularly invites filmmakers to submit short films for his
Audible Picture Show with one catch: No actual film is accepted; only audio.
Here we offer you three selections from a recent Audible Picture Show program:
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The Modern Woodsman
Filmmaker Adam Clitheroe
playfully puts forth an audio portrait of a traditional woodsman ... equipped
with a cellphone. (3:47)
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A Sense of Place
Filmmaker Tony Hill takes his
blind friend to a mystery location, where she discovers her whereabouts solely
through her sense of touch. (4:58)
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A Drinking Song
Could "The Star Spangled Banner" be recast as a drinking song? Holger Mohaupt suggests that in this family, it
could. (1:39) |
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Read more about how Matt Hulse straddles the line between
filmmaker and audio devotee, Behind the Scenes.
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Radio art from Canada
via the 2004 Deep Wireless compilation CDs
The Canadian non-profit organization New Adventures in Sound Art, run by Nadene
Theriault-Copeland and Darren Copeland, produces Deep Wireless, a month-long
celebration of radio art that includes a conference and workshop for radio and
sound artists. Deep Wireless recently produced a two-disc compilation on the
theme "Radio Without Boundaries-what is your culture?" Here are three
selections:
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Radio—what do I do?
Sole proprietor of Puppy
Machine Productions, Chandra Bulucon recorded a 45-minute phone conversation
she had with a friend about her relationship to radio. She then edited the
conversation down into a piece that excludes all of the actual content, leaving
only a variety of the hesitations. (5:04)
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Railway Lines
Sound artist Sylvi MacCormac tells
this story about coming home by train along the Canadian Railway Lines. |
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Waiting ... for Love
This is a playful
exploration of Nicholas Longstaff's first forays into the world of
relationships, documenting the semantics of falling in and out of love.
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Read more about the Deep Wireless project, including thoughts by
the creators of the pieces featured here, Behind
the Scenes.
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Reflections on Return
by Youth Radio
When Youth Radio reporters in Oakland, CA spoke with their friends returning
home from Iraq, they realized that the public wasn't hearing the perspectives
of these young soldiers. So they produced a six-part series, Reflections on
Return. Here are two pieces from the series. (http://www.youthradio.org).
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Soldiers React to the Prison Abuse
Youth Radio
reporter Belia Mayeno talked to Ed Reyes, a Marine who returned from Iraq just
after the prison abuse scandal broke at Abu Ghraib. (4:18)
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Return to Oakland
When Charles Handy returned
from Iraq, he left behind his gun and his Kevlar vest. But back at home, he
says he feels unsafe. Handy shares his feelings about returning to civilian
life. (2:08)
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Youth Radio reporter Belia Mayeno talks about how public radio
might engage younger listeners, Behind the
Scenes.
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Resonance FM
Resonance FM is London's first station devoted to broadcasting radio art.
Started in May 2002 by the London Musicians' Collective, it exists "to provide
a radical alternative to the formula of mainstream broadcasting in the UK." The
project brings experimental sound and new music to London's airwaves and to
thousands who tune in online from all over the world.
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Listen to the 24-7 live stream of Resonance 104.4 FM.
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Resonance FM programmer Ed Baxter discusses the station's history
and mission, Behind the Scenes.
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The Translator's Tale
by Jacki Lyden and Julia Buckley
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In the early 1980s, Esho Joseph was one of a select group of men trained as
English interpreters for Saddam Hussein. When NPR's Jacki Lyden met Joseph in
Baghdad in 1991, he had just been warned that he was marked for execution. He
and his wife defected to Jordan but he always hoped to return to an Iraq free
of Saddam Hussein, and last year, he did. Lyden accompanied him on his journey
back. |
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View a photo gallery of Esho's homecoming. (22:08)
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Two from outLoud Queer Youth Radio Project
outLoud is a group of young lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender producers in San Francisco learning how to tell their stories. Led
by independent producer Noah Miller, the group explores the cultural issues of
being gay through personal narratives and reportage.
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Dia's Diary: My Mother Dia Fallana
is a young
transgender woman living in a depressed area of Oakland, California. In this
radio essay, she explains how her mother's anti-gay attitude kept her in the
closet—until she was forced to tell the truth. (6:09) |
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When Do You Feel Feminine?
After a teenager was
killed near San Francisco for having a different biological gender from the one
she expressed, some local middle-schoolers wanted to know why. What is gender,
anyway? (2:09)
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These stories aired on San Francisco Liberation Radio, a pirate station
recently shut down by the FCC.
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Alamo: A Radio Play
by Rick Moody
In this radio drama, a middle-aged doctoral candidate named Irving Paley, is
obsessed with the Alamo (aka "the Cube"), a contemporary sculpture which sits
on a traffic island in Astor Place in downtown Manhattan. During an interview
with a "public radio reporter," Paley reveals how the Cube has slowly consumed
his life, while back at Astor Place, a mystery around the sculpture deepens.
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The Next Big Thing host Dean Olsher talks with Rick Moody about Alamo:
A Radio Play (3:00)
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Part 1 (15:53)
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Part 2 (16:30)
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Part 3 (15:45)
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Four by Ken Nordine
An actor in soap operas, the king of voice-overs, and a writer/producer of his
distinctive Wordjazz programs, Ken Nordine has been in our ears for more than
seven decades. He created Wordjazz in the 1950s as a blend of beat poetry and
cool jazz. Here are four short examples of Nordine's work:
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Yellow (1:35)
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Cerise (1:36)
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These are from the album Colors, originally produced in 1967 and re-released on
CD in 2001.
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Seratonin Syndrome
In this bit of wordjazz
Nordine wonders if the warning pamphlets included with many powerful
prescription may cause some of us to suffer mild paranoia. (3:35)
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Cliché Heaven
“...is where I go in dreams to
revisit the thousands of lovely cliches, phrases so worn by time they are
looked down upon as old hat,” says Nordine. (Note: This clip includes video.)
(1:52) |
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Holy Soul
by Matt Power, Dean Olsher and Emily Botein
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Matt Power first met poet Allen Ginsberg at his cousin's Bar Mitzvah, when he
was a 15-year old aspiring writer himself. Through the years the two developed
an intimate friendship, and Ginsberg's influence as a mentor, friend and writer
is still ever-present in Power's daily life. (17:43)
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Matt Power talks about being a writer and visual artist masquerading as a radio
producer, Behind the Scenes.
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The Most Beautiful Sound in the World
by Matt Thompson and presented by Piers Plowright.
(Note: The audio for this documentary is not available at this time.)
What is the most beautiful sound in the world? This simple question led radio
producer Piers Plowight on a search to the heart of why we listen to the radio.
This program might be best described as a contemplation by someone who has
spent his life listening.
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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
by Alix Spiegel
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Thirty years ago no one believed that the psychological problems suffered by
Vietnam soldiers were caused by their service in the war. Producer Alix Spiegel
documents the evolution of post-traumatic stress disorder from a nameless
experience into an officially recognized medical condition. (12:10)
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Alix Spiegel reveals the roots of her fascination with mental health and
psychiatry, Behind the Scenes.
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the paint mixers
by damali ayo and Dmae Roberts
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Wired with a low-fi tape recorder, performance artist damali ayo visited
hardware stores and asked employees to mix paint to match different parts of
her body. Working in collaboration with producer Dmae Roberts, she turned these
intimate recordings into this story. (5:09)
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How did hardware store employees respond to domali ayo's unusual requests? Find
out Behind the Scenes.
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When the Dog Was Just the Dog
by Lea Redfern
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When her husband brings two puppies home, producer Lea Redfern becomes
completely immersed in the world of canines. Now dog culture pervades her every
waking moment, from commanding her social life to steering her personal
politics. (44:36)
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Lea Redfern discusses the important role dogs play as social instruments,
Behind the Scenes.
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StoryCorps
created by Dave Isay
In the Grand Central Terminal sits the space ship-like Story Corps booth where,
for ten dollars, you can interview anyone you want. You receive a copy of the
conversation and another is filed with the Library of Congress. David Isay says
his WPA-inspired project strives to "document the lives of ordinary people."
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StoryCorps sampler
An overview of the whole
project, hosted by Dave Isay. (30:46)
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Seod Matta
In this excerpt from a longer
interview, Seoud Matta sings an Egyptian pop song while his son Adam beatboxes.
(:42)
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The Bleckmans
In this excerpt from a longer
interview, newlyweds Anne and George Bleckman recount their first meeting.
(:43)
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Isay talks about the lasting impact he hopes StoryCorps will have,
Behind the Scenes.
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Refugia
From the series The Whole Wide World, hosted by Christopher Lydon,
produced by Mary McGrath.
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The Whole Wide World tackles issues of
globalization by featuring leading economists, historians, political
scientists, and some of the most influential artists, novelists and musicians
of our time. This episode, titled Refugia, focuses the restaging of an Athenian
play as well as modern tales from refugees on the run from Bosnia, Haiti, China
and Somalia. (53:34)
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Christopher Lydon and Mary McGrath talk with Johanna Zorn about
The Whole Wide World, Behind the Scenes.
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File Under Soviet Bizarre: Vyachaslav Mescherin's Orchestra of Electro-Musical Instruments
by Charles Maynes
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It was the closest thing to Muzak in Russia. This is the story of
the rise, fall, and sudden resurgence of the music that dominated television
and radio airwaves and whose spacey sounds made it the favorite of the USSR's
cosmonauts. (9:58)
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