Visual, Digital Storytelling as Engaged Learning and Expression.
This project is first and foremost about storytelling from the perspective of students enrolled in ISS 315, a core general education course in MSU’s Integrative Studies in Social Science.
This is a trying time for everyone worldwide, and so many of the student films will explore the complex personal, social, and global issues that so profoundly impacted people’s lives during 2020-2021.
We anticipate with excitement the diverse perspectives, complex social issues, and vital lived experiences that students will explore and express in their films. We also understand the toll that mandated remote learning has taken on many students. We sincerely hope that this platform of a film festival will help students and communities to connect in meaningful ways in our trying times.
Origins & Vision of the Short Documentary Film Course Project.
This project began as a deliberate effort to bring pedagogical innovation to a required MSU general education course in Integrative Studies in Social Science (ISS).
Dr. Eddie Boucher and his amazing and dedicated instructional team (teaching assistants Katarina Keeley and Taylor Quillinan) worked to create a guiding course project on visual storytelling as an alternative to more didactic educational methods that are more typical in large-format ISS courses.
NONE of this would be possible without the incredible willingness and dedication of the participant MSU students who take this class and course project so very seriously amidst the challenges of social turmoil, uncertainty, and mandated remote learning in a global pandemic. We thank you all!
This film festival is intended to serve as a showcase and celebration of your thoughtful work and as a recognition of the pressing social issues you highlight in your films.
With the generous support of the MSU Hub Faculty Fellowship for innovation in curricular design and technology, and with the much needed support of the Center for Integrative Studies in Social Science, our instructional team designed this guiding course project for the following course:
ISS 210/315:
Craft, Material Culture, and Cultural Flows
The course was originally designed in 2019, and with the guidance and support of the Hub and the CIS, the course underwent major curricular changes in 2020 and 2021 with the major change being the implementation of the guiding course project culminating in student-produced short documentary films that are showcased in this virtual film festival.
Students broadly interpreted the guiding course themes; however, each film has some connection to craft studies (broadly defined), material culture studies, and cultural/global studies.
The vision of this project was to engage students in a meaningful course project where they were given the agency to pursue film and research topics that they found to be socially important and worth exploration.
A primary goal was to meet students where they are at in terms of technology and means of expression. Almost every student has experience with digital, visual storytelling as a part of their generation in a globally interconnected digital world.
Thus, storytelling through film seemed the perfect genre for students to explore complex issues while at the same time introducing students to the vital skills of integrative and interdisciplinary inquiry.
If you have read this far, then you likely have taken the time to view the student-produced films that make up this film festival. If not, check out the 2020 Film Festival Archive link on the homepage. We thank you for your interest, participation, and support.
Course Project Instructional Team.
Katarina Keeley.
Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (ULA)
Katarina (aka, Kat) is a Sophomore at Michigan State University in the College of Communication Arts. Among her many talents, she is a gifted film editor and an amazing mentor to students in this ISS course.
Kat has both a gift and a passion for visual storytelling.
Taylor Quillinan.
Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (ULA)
Taylor is a senior at Michigan State University in the College of Social Science majoring in Psychology. She comes from a very artistic family, and this shows in the way she approaches life.
In addition to managing her course load and serving as a teaching assistant for this course, Taylor is a member of an interdisciplinary team from MSU that is producing a documentary film on the topic of Farmers Markets in Michigan.
Eddie Boucher.
Eddie is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Integrative Studies in Social Science at Michigan State University. In this position he teaches Integrative Studies courses in MSU’s core general education program. He also mentors students in the Interdisciplinary Studies major and is working with several students in the IDS/Liberal Studies track to design and conduct interdisciplinary research for their major capstone projects.
Eddie is also passionate about visual storytelling, and while he conducts traditional academic research and publishing in his area of Cultural Studies, his favorite projects are documentary filmmaking where his research becomes more accessible as public scholarship in the form of open access digital stories.