UNC Chapel Hill Students Launch Interactive Project “After the Shooting”

On February 10th, 2015 the violent murders of three Muslim students in the small university town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina caught the world's attention. Within a day global discourse reached a fever pitch - news crews arrived, vigils were planned across the world and hashtags such as #muslimlivesmatter and #ourthreewinners were trending on social media. How and why could a seemly liberal town be the backdrop for an anti-Muslim hate crime? After the Shooting is UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication students' attempt to understand the complicated issues surrounding the tragedy that occurred in their backyard. In their words, "As students, journalists and members of this community, we felt a responsibility to respond to this event. We created this project as a tool for communication, connection and understanding. We analyzed mainstream coverage and worked to provide an alternative narrative by curating conversations between members of our own community."  

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‘The Long Night’ Selected as a Finalist in the 2015 Dart Awards

The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of the Columbia Journalism School, today announced the winners of the 21st annual Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma. The Long Night was named one of eight finalists. This year, The Long Night has garnered recognition from three major photojournalism industry awards, including the Picture of the Year International (POYi) Documentary Project of the Year, the National Press Photographers Association 2015 Best of Photojournalism Best Use of Multimedia award and First Place Long Form Documentary Feature in the World Press Photo Multimedia Contest. It has also been nominated for the 19th Annual Webby Awards under the People’s Voice category for Online Film & Video: Drama: Individual Short or Episode. The annual Dart Awards recognize outstanding reporting in all media that portrays traumatic events with accuracy, insight and sensitivity, while illuminating the effects of violence and tragedy on victims’ lives. The 2015 winners include The Texas Observer with The Guardian US for "Beyond the Border," The Huffington Post for "Moral…

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‘The Long Night’ Nominated for 2015 Webby Awards

We are thrilled to announce The Long Night has been honored by the 19th Annual Webby Awards. The Long Night is a nominee in the Online Video: Drama: Individual Short or Episode category. The Long Night is also in the running for the Webby People’s Voice Awards. The People’s Voice Awards polls are open from April 7th to April 23rd and anyone can vote. Set in Seattle Washington, The Long Night, a feature film by Tim Matsui and MediaStorm, gives voice and meaning to the crisis of minors who are forced and coerced into the American sex trade. The film weaves together the stories of seven people whose lives have been forever changed by this issue. Congratulations to all of the Nominees and Honorees!

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In Defense of Taking Your Time

Editing–good editing–is rarely done quickly. You might call it a slow process but I prefer to think of it as a deliberate one. We think, we ponder, we reconsider. Because good work, work that illuminates some previously hidden part of ourselves and the audience, does not come quickly. For me, creativity is always intertwined with intuition. David Mamet described it like this, “Art is the spontaneous connection of the artists to his own unconscious—about insight beyond reason.” Sometimes it feels like scampering around in the darkness. We dig and we shape. And we take up time. Once, I wrote and directed a five-minute film that took three years to finish. A two-minute one took the better part of a year. To finish is to exhaust all other possibilities. I don’t know a better way. You can compare yourself with others, worry about sliding in to a deadline last minute but here’s the truth:…

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#NowPlaying: Shiho Fukada and World Press Photo on Multimedia Week Podcast

Here are two great episodes of the Multimedia Week podcast to start your week:

EP 22 – Interview with Shiho Fukada


Shiho Fukada joins the podcast to discuss her World Press Photo award-winning project Japan’s Disposable Workers. In this interview with DJ Clark, Shiho speaks about how she worked on the photography project and the additional benefits having a multimedia component brings to it.

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