The documentary filmmaking process requires a tremendous amount of patience and flexibility. You need to deal with people, but know how to troubleshoot technology; you must be organized, but open to spontaneity; you should be prepared for everything, but comfortable working in the unknown. For the eight College of William and Mary undergraduate students who studied abroad in the summer of 2011 in St. Petersburg, Russia, they had the added challenge of doing it all in Russian.
For the previous three years, The College of William and Mary’s St. Petersburg summer study abroad program required students to write research papers on a “site of memory” within St. Petersburg that exemplified the notion of collective space and social representation. Professor Alexander Prokhorov, the program’s director during the summer of 2011, wanted to include an element of video production and that’s how I became involved.
As The College of William and Mary’s environmental filmmaking-in-residence from 2010-2012, I sought to incorporate media production into current research and coursework across disciplines on campus. Professor Prokhorov saw the potential for collaboration, and through the Reves Center Faculty Fellows Grant, students have attained hands-on experience in international documentary filmmaking.
“Making a documentary is a lot of work, but it’s exhilarating after you interview someone,” says Sophie Kosar ’14, whose project focuses on the controversial construction of a Marine Façade on the western shores of the city. “You realize you had to forge this connection with your subject; you had to do this yourself.”
Will Lahue ’12, whose project explored Smolensky Cemetery as a negotiated space for Russian orthodoxy and Goth subculture, realizes the benefits of working on his film. “I’ve gained a more rapid acclamation into Russian society. Just running around getting things done, meeting people; it’s been a challenge. I’ve needed to accomplish a lot in Russian and that’s been good for me.”
Introducing students to video production in study abroad programs is incredibly enabling; the filmmaking process forces them out of their comfort zone, stretches their limits, and pushes them to interact in ways they would not have otherwise. The project has the potential to serve as a model for other study abroad program that want to challenge their participants to make connections, to pay attention, and to be creative.
“The biggest thing I’ve gained in this project is confidence in networking with people,” says Monika Bernotas ‘12. “It’s amazing how many people have returned my emails to say they would be willing to help out.”
On November 29th, 2011 these documentaries screened to the larger William and Mary community. In March, 2012, they were exhibited at the Slavic Forum at the University of Virginia.
You may read the student papers here. You may read the research Dr. Prokhorov and I cowrote here.