Before computers, I read a lot. Joseph Campbell thought that stories are vital to human beings because they teach us about our own lives, and I’m definitely a learner. Since, I’ve gravitated to film and television as my primary story delivery method and I realized watching Bill Rose’s This Dust of Words, that I have forgotten the importance of the written story.

Dance as though no one is watching you,
Love as though you have never been hurt before,
Sing as though no one can hear you,
Live as though heaven is on earth.
Source Unknown

The Life of Norman Mailer
And if you’ve never read “Armies of the Night,” to please do yourself a favor. It is at once about what is best and worst in America.

I did an independent study in documentary film as an undergraduate, and my professor allowed me to choose my textbook. I chose Collecting Visible Evidence edited by Jane Gaines and Michael Renov. Well, neither my professor nor I were quite sure what to do with that book. The essays are dense, to say the least, and unfortunately I haven’t yet made it to a Visible Evidence conference to see if an in-person interaction with the folks who write these essays would prove more fruitful. But for theorizing documentary, this is were its at.

I just read via H-Film that Visible Evidence is launching a listserv that “aims to continue to grow the community by providing a forum on documentary images, sounds, and situations in film, television, on the internet, in journals, in museums, in galleries, and on billboards (to name just a few).” I’m not sure if anyone who reads this blog keeps their eye on the academic film community, but there is a lot of great stuff going on at conferences and in film writing, outside of festivals and the larger marketplace. If you wish to join the listserv, go here for directions.