LVAIC Documentary Storymaking Minor Films

This collection includes films created by students in the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) Documentary Storymaking Minor. According to the program overview, "The Documentary Storymaking minor emphasizes hands-on experience in the methods, tools, and practices that foster students’ understanding and ability to create meaningful stories for diverse audiences. While developing students’ personal capacities for creative and artistic expression, the minor in Documentary Storymaking is also deeply community-based and connects to the issues, concerns, and stories of broader community life within the Lehigh Valley."

Spring 2020

These capstone projects represent the culmination of work in documentary studies completed by a combination of graduate and undergraduate students, from Lehigh University, Lafayette College, and Muhlenberg College during the Spring 2020 semester.

The class was unified by the COVID-19 experience, which impacted their project development. This lead to a focus on local and contemporary community, particularly exploring the power of connectivity in community, and how social disruption leads to yearning for that connection and community, and how technology can shape community.

When the Woman Screams: A podcast project exploring the cultural reasons behind why women scream in horror films.

How To See WithOut

An Interrupted Complete Count

Continuing Excellence: The Freedom Theatre Family

Fall 2019

Undergraduate students in Dr. Andy Smith’s documentary storymaking capstone course created the films in this collection. Students in the course came from several LVAIC schools and were studying in a variety of majors, from media and communications to Africana studies to computer science. As a class, the students valued interdisciplinarity and creating meaningful relationships in the communities where they did their documentary film work.

A common theme across this collection of films is the power and potential of change. What are the costs of change? What threats to our future link us in a common bond? These films also explore the energy around change. With emphases on the regional environment, arts scene, and economy, the films consider how change manifests in local communities.