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Finding Kirsten is a half hour long documentary film produced by Heather Duthie, a student at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California Berkeley.Kirsten Brydum was on a mission. She believed that within the scattered outposts of radical communities spread out across America, a movement was beginning to emerge. She called this movement “Collective Autonomy,” and in the summer of 2008 Kirsten set out to document it with little more than a camera in her hand and an Amtrak pass in her pocket – she would not return home.The film will follow Kirsten’s good friend Tyson, as he retraces her journey across the country. Beginning in the Northeast, it will revisit the alternative communities where Kirsten spent time. Crossing the Midwest, the film will introduce the audience to the projects and people that Kirsten believed are “creating a post-capitalist world today.”Kirsten’s beautifully written journal entries and letters home will be used to narrate the film; her still photographs will be used to illustrate her journey.Kirsten's final stop was New Orleans. After months of traveling alone, she was brutally murdered in an abandoned neighborhood in the Upper Ninth Ward; her killers remain at large. The film will use her journey to explore the culture of avante-garde thinkers and seekers that she was a part of and examine the ground-up solutions they're using to create a better world.

North Richmond is distinguished by both bad reputation and bad luck.Around the turn of the century, North Richmond was a tiny enclave of flimsy dwellings near the shore of San Pablo Bay. Italians, Mexicans, Asians and other immigrants who had come to the West Coast made up most of the population, along with a handful of African Americans.But things changed drastically with the onset of WWII, which profoundly transformed Richmond and many other American hubs of war industry. North Richmond’s story has always been intertwined with Richmond proper, but with its own distinct evolution.The changes were just as profound, but far less noticed or recorded, in North Richmond, which had already established a civic, cultural and political identity all its own.It was rural, and multi-ethnic. Particularly before the war, when the city was small and transportation even more spotty, North Richmond felt removed from Richmond, linked principally by a slender strip of road called 7th street.North Richmond is a community forged during World War II and shunted to the margins ever since. In the early days, the rains and surging tides turned the streets to mud and swept away all but the sturdiest fixtures. Even today, not a single traffic light stands here, and the streets take on an inky darkness every night thanks to poor street lighting.The community comprises fewer than 3,000 people, and carries the dubious distinction of having the lowest per capita income in Contra Costa County, about $9,000, or less than one-third the county average.The stark contrast is that this one-square mile of poorly-lit streets and aging structures is nestled within one of the world’s most vibrant metropolitan areas. Within miles the largely undeveloped shore of San Pablo Bay, bridges, major highways and public transportation lines. How and when the seemingly inevitable rush of investment and development occurs could be one of the biggest stories of the next decade and a driver of area growth.The potential exists not only for revitalization and an improvement of existing conditions, but for many of those who have lived here for generations to have a legitimate opportunity to be a part of the community’s rebirth.Or North Richmond could continue to languish, repelling investment with its incomparable concentration of poverty, violence, reputation and political division.

Roots & Hollers, 2011A documentary by Thomas Gorman & Patrick KollmanMaster’s Project Abstract:Roots & Hollers uncovers the wild American ginseng trade, revealing a unique intersection between Asia and rural America. Legendary in Asia for its healing powers, ginseng helps sustain the livelihoods of thousands in Appalachia. A single root can sell for thousands of dollars at auction. Shot on-location in the mountains of Kentucky and West Virginia, this student documentary follows two Kentuckians as they continue the “‘sang” tradition handed down from their grandfathers. The men hope to crack the lucrative Asian market, selling directly to a Korean ginseng buyer. Through stories from ginseng diggers and dealers the audience will understand the growing threats facing ginseng culture as strip-mining and suburbanization permanently alters the Appalachian ecosystem.Master’s Project Source ListBooks:Johannsen, Kristin. 2006. Ginseng Dreams: The Secret World of America’s Most Valuable Plant. The University Press of Kentucky.Symons, Van Jay. 1981. Ch’ing Ginseng Management: Ch’ing Monopolies in Microcosm. Arizona State University.Taylor, David. 2006. Ginseng, the Divine Root. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.Articles:Bilger, Burkhard. “Wild Sang”. The New Yorker, July 15, 2002.Hufford, Mary, 2004 “Knowing Ginseng: The Social Life of an Appalachian Root.”Cahiers de Litterature Orale. 53-54: 265-92.Ibid., 2003 “Reclaiming the Commons: Narratives of Progress, Preservation, and Ginseng.” Culture, Environment, and Conservation in the Appalachian South, ed. Benita J. Howell. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Kim, Seonmin, 2006. “Borders and Crossings: Trade, Diplomacy and Ginseng between Qing China and Choson Korea.” Dissertation (Ph.D) Duke University.Robbins, Christopher, 1998. “American Ginseng: The Root of North America’s Medicinal Herb Trade.” TRAFFIC North America, Washington DC.Interviews:Robin Black, West Virginia Division of Forestry, Charleston, WVNorse Bowlen, ginseng digger, Wise, VATerry Cable, ginseng digger, Jenkins, KYMichael Chung, ginseng dealer, San Francisco, CABurk Chung, ginseng dealer, San Francisco, CARandy Halstead, ginseng dealer, Charleston, WVKenzie Ison, ginseng dealer, Slemp, KYTony Ison, ginseng dealer, Slemp, KYJames McGraw, Professor of Biology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WVJeremy Tackett, ginseng digger, Jenkins, KYDavid Taylor, author, Washington, DCArchival SourcesBerkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California at BerkeleyBeinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale UniversityDavid Rumsey Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com

The photographer traveled to three rural villages in southern Uganda to photograph women who brew ajon, a traditional beer, the men who drink it, and to understand the economic and cultural importance behind this lucrative beer business.PDF attached of pages of book only; Please go to Blurb Book (www.blurb.com/books/2138365) to view my book entirely.

Promises, Promises, and Not a Job in Sight Abstract: This piece was produced in October 2010 and looked at California’s impending gubernatorial race. Jobs and the economy were a big issue in that campaign between Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown, and I set out to answer whether either candidate could provide the economic relief they were promising. Resources: Mathews, Joe and Mark Paul. California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It. 2010, University of California Press. Interviews: Mark Paul, Senior Scholar, New America Foundation. Sept. 20, 2010 Frank Webb, Former Senior Software Engineer. Oct. 15, 2010 Broke Ass State Abstract: With California’s unemployment numbers at a record high 12 percent and a bleak economy, I wondered why anyone would run for office in California. Enter Holly Mitchell, who ran for the state Assembly as a first-time candidate—a single woman who planned to uproot her life and ten-year-old son to make a difference. Interviews: Carole Migden, former state senator: Sept. 23, 2010 Holly Mitchell, candidate: Sept. 24, 25; Oct. 6, 7, 31; Nov. 2, 2010 Ryan Mitchell, son: Oct. 7, 2010 Jim Brulte, former Republican Assembly and Senate leader: Oct. 12, 2010 Sylvia Johnson, mother: Nov. 2, 2010 The Violinist Abstract: Ramzi Aburedwan grew up in a Ramallah, West Bank refugee camp during the height of the first intifada between Israel and Palestine, during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Without resources, he led a violent life until a chance encounter gave him the opportunity to play music. Now 31, his music school, al Kamandjati, is changing lives in the heart of Ramallah’s old city for children of low and mid-income families. Interviews: Peter Sulski, American violist: Dec. 9, 2010 Mahmoud Karzon, student at al Kamandjati: Dec. 12, 2010 Ramzi Aburedwan, founder of al Kamandjati: Dec. 13, 2010

Nigella Lawson and Lisa Lillien are both self‐proclaimed food lovers who have translated their branded personalities from cookbooks to television. Each has a vastly different relationship with food, which extends from the types of ingredients they use to how they talk about and prepare meals. These distinctions exemplify the power cooking shows have in reinforcing hegemonic views of femininity as well as the complex cultural discourses revolving around “proper” relationships with food. Whereas Lillien exemplifies restraint, guilt, and synthetic substitutions in her relationship with food, Lawson embodies pleasure and indulgence in consuming food as well as the female form.

This article presents an overview and history of the position of Casting Director in the Film and Television industries. It shows how the position, over time, transformed from a position often filled by men to one most often filled by women.

In this article the author presents ideas about the media representations of Michelle Obama. The author argues that the public perceptions and favorability of Michelle Obama are tied to which aspects of her identity are presented in the media.

Since the release of the 1967 film classic, The Graduate, the name ‘Mrs. Robinson’ has become synonymous with older women seducing younger men. However, the historical context produces her character as much as her actions, and the way society portrays women like Mrs. Robinson changes over time. Because of cultural, political, scientific, and legal innovations, a woman today who behaves like Mrs. Robinson has different motivations and will be treated differently by society than she would have in the 1960s. Films and television shows simultaneously shape cultural norms while reflecting existing ones. Thus, depictions of real and fictional Mrs. Robinsons jointly figure her within a particular time period. This essay focuses on three disparate ways in which society has portrayed women who have sex with younger men: calculating predators, liberated role models, or troubled criminals.

In this essay I analyze how, within the space of the museum, recent media installations by Albanian artists Helidon Gjergji, Adrian Paci, and Anri Sala appropriate, and critically engage with, multiple narratives about migration in Italy produced and circulated over the past two decades across various media, with particular attention to the Albanian case. The imaginary and material sites the spectator traverses in Gjergji’s, Paci’s, and Sala’s installations open up space for a new audiovisual discourse, one that is still indebted to, and yet distinct from, the televisual and the cinematographic, as it emerges from the double relationship between on-screen and off-screen space, as well as between collective and personal history. Installation in the museum thus produces a transmedia memory, which simultaneously criticizes the televisual reality effect as well as Italian progressive representations of the Albanian migrant as a screen onto which Italians can project their own history of emigration, as is the case with Oliviero Toscani’s advertising campaign Boat for Benetton (1992) and Gianni Amelio’s feature film Lamerica (1994). Drawing on the scholarship on self-reflexive spectatorship by Elizabeth Cowie and Catherine Fowler, among others, I analyze how these Albanian artists invite the spectator to explore the virtual space on screen, the material space off screen, and the screen itself as an object, in order to prompt a different identification with the migrant figure in Italy.

The story began in the winter of 2007 during a Critical Media Literacy course taught by Dr. Rhonda Hammer. Understanding how the media constructs images to influence and sway the public in different and politically charged ways, and identifying and critiquing those characterizations is the course's objective. As we became progressively more aware of the the influencing factors of media, we took our first step toward learning how to create film with this consciousness. Though our topic had yet to be finalized, we knew the video documentary would delve into the politics and social representations of black women, and how black women deal with their intersectional identities. The double consciousness of black women, who concurrently negotiate their race and gender, was the focus.

"Spitballs and Battleships: A show and Tell of Women in the News" is a minidocumentary that exposes the fallacy that national broadcast news is a source of objective journalism and examines its greater role as entertainment. Certainly women are a part of news and therefore a part of entertainment. Recognizing this the film asks a broader and perhaps more pith question: are Women agents in the degradation of the news or victims of sexism and misogyny?

It seems harder and harder these days to find individual conviction in relationships pertaining to current societal events, given that so many voices on so many issues go unheard. By finding like minded people we can begin to discuss and debate a variety of dominant cultural beliefs and practices which the majority seems to accept as the norm (or what the esteemed cultural studies expert, Stuart Hall, has called common sense). In other words, there is a pressing need for courses or workshops that provide students with the opportunity to express their own concerns and help them gain the necessary critical skills.

I firmly believe that educators must embrace the media in their pedagogical practices, recognizing its possibilities and preparing students for their encounters. Much of my beliefs and understandings regarding critical media literacy were informed by the theories and activities that were a Part of Dr. Rhonda Hammer's course. This class has served as a remarkable model of how a critical media class should be taught.

Directing and co-producing "Commodifying Lolita: The Hypersexualization of Tweens in America" gave my group the opportunity to combine media literacy discourse, feminist theory, personal artistic expression and activism. I also learned how to use the media as a catalyst for discussion, education and social change. Examining the hypersexualization of "tweens" (girls between the ages of 8 and 12), our film reveals a connection between the hypersexualization of young girls and the prevalence of pedophilia in the U.S. Why, our film asks, does a society that claims to oppose pedophilia and child pornography market images that promote the sexual exploitation of young girls?

As a UCLA undergraduate I had the great fortune to be a student in Dr. Rhonda Hammer's "Critical Media Literacy and the Politics of Representation: Theory and Production" class. As a result of her dedication and organization to a diversity of class components, we gained the skills necessary to speak another language - the language of media representation. Given the stereotypes of current students as being literate in new media technology, it was surprising to discover that the majority of students in my class had little experience. This course provided us with the necessary skills to be able to decipher stereotypical media representations and convey an alternate view that challenges the norm.

It is incumbent on any educated person to understand the implications of the media. In Dr. Rhonda Hammer's course "Critical Media Literacy" she is doing a great service in educating her students to become cognizant of its pervasive manipulation. Because the course it not only theoretical but also pragmatic, it is highly accessible to students, regardless of their background or experiences.

It was my last quarter at UCLA and I was on the steady path toward becoming a lawyer. Then I took Communications 178. Not only did it change my career path, it also changed my life. Although I had taken another class with Dr. Rhonda Hammer, this class was completely different because it not only challenged me to become media literate but also to create a project that reflected my new media literacy. My groups project: "Now Showing: Gender" was created with the intent to explore the role media plays in the socialization of femininity and masculinity, focusing on advertisements and reality shows.

Making the short video documentary, "Deconstructing the Superhero: American Idols in Film" on the politics of superheros was a whirlwind experience. We learned film making techniques while expanding our analysis of popular culture, especially in relation to media constructions of masculinity. Research was situated within the historical context of film studies and included interactions with students and faculty, both inside and outside of the classroom. Our film contained both short interviews with students framed by a longer interview with Emeritus Professor John Lawrence who has written extensively on the role of superheros in American culture. We then juxtaposed these interviews with clips from a number of recent superhero films. Our documentary not only offered an entry way into video/ film making techniques, but it also encouraged a more critical view of media itself.

My group learned how current media creates problematic and often harmful stereotypes that are essentially harmful to the community. Our group decided that the central topic of our project, "Inside the Digital Closet" would be the misrepresentations of queer people in the corporate mass media. We wanted to distinguish what it means to be queer, queer theory and LBGT (Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Gay and Transgendered)

The inaccessibility of the North and South Pole makes them a crucible for persistent questions of access and data visualization that characterize the information age. Arctic and Antarctic have become increasingly topical in popular cinema as well as in media arts. As representations of polar regions grapple with the fictions that mark representations of science, they illustrate the perils and perks of polar travel in the age of digital media. This essay sets out to trace representations of the Arctic and Antarctic in media history. To this day, the attraction of South Pole and North Pole remains one of heroic detection: they have been discovered, inspired myth, literature, science, and art, yet the polar regions remain unrepresentable - there to be found and rediscovered. This is true for the kind of art history that hews to patterns of the detective novel, reconstructing from traces a grammar of objects and authorship; and it applies also to film and media art in the age of eco-tourism, where discovery remains the motive, following snow-blown trails into nothingness, even and especially after the preceding discoverers had imprinted the landscape with their names and deaths. Polar media raise complex issues of mapping cultural space from colonialism to post-industrial globalization. One trajectory of what one ought to be able to excavate as the historical logic of polar media indicates a shift, in the 19th century, from a pronounced emphasis on race to a growing concern with environmental factors, with weather, and with the global metereological consequences of melting polar ice caps in the course of the 20th and into the 21st century.

Good gameplay has been characterized as a series of interesting choices. Therefore, to have gameplay of any sort requires the player to be presented with decisions. Given this definition, many quests within computer role-playing games are not playable as they currently exist. Instead, quests are given to the player as a series of tasks to perform in a specific way in order to advance the story within the game. We look at making quests playable – adding choices for the player – and what a system that could support playable quests would look like. Finally, we address the impact playable quests would have on a designer and discuss QuestBrowser, the system we created to handle these concerns.

In this essay, I argue that The Edge of Heaven constitutes a sophisticated and complex, and in part seemingly paradoxical, response to globalization. I suggest that the film captures the effects of globalization’s most pronounced characteristics. Transnational mobility, digital media, and the increased speed of transportation and information technology have changed narrative conventions, perception of time and space, and the structure of intimacy and familial relations. The film portrays the interconnected local belonging and global mobility characteristic of transnational culture and captures what geographer David Harvey has labeled the “time-space compression” of globalization, the result of increased speed of transportation and communication technologies.

Sommer vorm Balkon has received critical acclaim for its director’s specific brand of low-key and crowd-pleasing realism. Praised have been also the film’s stylistic austerity and peculiar post-unification mix of various generic elements. At the same time, Sommer vorm Balkon can be considered a part of the venerable tradition of earlier Berlin films written by Wolfgang Kohlhaase, a tradition that this latest work draws from and reinvents. Instead of looking at the film exclusively as an example of the work of two auteurs, this paper analyzes it as a case of creative intervention into the historical interplay of place and cinema. This collaboration between the representatives of two different generations of filmmakers (Dresen and Kohlhaase) consciously transforms this Berlin film into an archive of urban memories – buried memories from preceding decades, cinematic memories, as well as memories that are now in the making.