Digital City Films

Digital City Films is a film series which is an annual project for an honors course on ethnographic filmmaking offered through the UAB Center for Urban Affairs. The project instructor is Michele Forman. Teams of students plan, research, write, film, and edit short documentary films about specific ethnographic subjects in area communities.

The course began in 2000 as "Guerilla Filmmaking in Anthropology" taught by Forman and Nick Kouchoukos. The course was initially co-sponsored by the McWane Science Center which planned to use the films in its exhibit "The Street". Other instructors who have participated in the class include Janice Kluge, Loretta Cormier and Rosie O'Beirne.

2010

• Films documenting the implementation of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 stimulus programs

2009

• "Get Rhythm" by Doug Granks, Anna Lloyd and Patty Wang (music education)
• "A Pound of Debt: Insurance and the Arts" by Nadria Tucker and Catherine Wright (health insurance for artists)
• "All for Prayer" by Brad Daly (Hindu Temple and Cultural Center in Pelham)
• "Road to Recovery: Living With Mental Illness" by Jeralyn Powell and Autumn Stockwell
• "One of 3,000: The Janet Gillespie Story" by Morgan Anders and Thomas Wood (a former homeless woman)
• "One Closed Door After Another: Domestic Partner Benefits and UAB" by Jade Delisle
• "What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: Sex Education in Alabama" by Jennifer Baggett and Ashley Davis

2008

• "Birth Right" by Emily Jackson and Neeta Kirpalani (Alabama midwives)
• "Food to Fuel" by Rachel Thompson and Jim Warnock (Birmingham and Hoover biodiesel programs)
• "Hopheads" by Paul Sholly and Jonathan Sutton (Free the Hops)
• "Making the Most at Hoover: Female Minority Achievement Council" by Jerald Appling and David Bala (Female Minority Achivement Council at Hoover High School)
• "Positive" by Joshua Vazquez and Stephen Webb (1917 Clinic)
• "Saved: The Story of the Watercress Darter" by Linh Tran and Ingrid Pfau (Watercress darter and Seven Springs Ecoscape)
• "Under One Roof" by Tyler Godsy and Chris Lee (early learning for autistic children)
• "The Whole-Way House" by Nejla Harris and Logan Talbot (Lovelady Center)

2007

• "A Street Divided" by Sarah Hereford and Krysta Parsons (protesters and escorts at New Woman All Women Clinic)
• "Growing Birmingham" by Eric Franks and Kelly French (Jones Valley Urban Farm)
• "Mixed Hope" by Allen Hyde and Anamaria Santiago (mixed-income living at Park Place (Hope VI development))
• "A Second Chance: The Cullman Area Animal Welfare Association" by Juli Bussman and Lance Mailloux (Cullman Area Animal Welfare Association)
• "New Horizons" by Rachel Gainer and Gregory Young (Horizons School)
• "Una Iglesia" by Skye Geerts and Jessica Walston (Hispanic parisioners at St Peter's Catholic Church)
• "La Casita" by Fred Mitchell and Spencer Roeder (Hoover Multicultural Resource Center)
• "The Least of Those Among Us" by Heather Nix and Vlad Sheinfeld (Jefferson County Cemetery)

2004

• "Benching: The Art of Watching Trains" by Bo Hughins and Neil Kirkpatrick (Railroad Reservation, train graffiti)
• "The Magic City's Clowns" by Lindsay Mouyal and Jen Pouyadou (Magic City Clown School)
• "Growing Up at Home" by Jacqueline Homm and Leslie Lambert (Hoover Little League Baseball)
• "A Separate Place" by Alan Barton and Christina Cooley (home schooling)
• "Meet Me at the Alabama" by Alan Franks and Ginny Humber (Alabama Theatre volunteers)
• "A Tribal Fusion" by Stephanie Kahalley and Lesley Wheatley (Devyani Dance Company, et al)
• "Abraham's Bosom" by Marcia DeFiore and Charles Kelley (faith-based ghost hunters)
• "The Big Six" by Rachel Corona and Miles Keith (Big Six hip-hop group)

2001

• "In Search of the Dude" by Mason Isbell and Wayne Skipper
• "Brown Paper Bag" by Tom Dalby and Janice Weeks
• "This is Just a Game" by Brock Owen and John Fields
• "Wounded" by Brittney Pietrzak and Val Bowden (body piercing)
• "House of Prayer" by David Gathings, Corine Sinnette and Emily Simon (Southside Baptist Church and Temple Emanu-El)
• "Shoot" by Ingrid Atkinson and Melanie Norris
• "African/American" by Glenny Brock and Scott Silver
• "Hope Lodge" by Lindsey Elmore and Theresa Bodon

References

• "Street Scenes: UAB and the Sidewalk Film Festival" (Spring/Summer 2006) UAB Magazine
• Hickerson, Patrick (May 6, 2008) "UAB students' Digital City Films project focuses on endangered watercress darter." Birmingham News
• Ratliff, Phillip (February 25, 2010) "Your tax dollars at work: Documenting federal programs in the Magic City." Birmingham Weekly