Mary Hess

I just discovered a lovely wiki site chock full of useful resources, including this page of links on digital storytelling. Wikis are really useful because they allow multiple people to create something together, creating a web of meaning that begins to grow an overarching framework of meaning, a little bit like leaves on the branches […]

There are a couple of really wonderful programs in the Twin Cities of MN (St. Paul and Minneapolis), where young people learn leadership skills through learning media production. The Summer Media Institute of Migizi Communications is one such program: “We were originally founded to train American Indian journalists to tell their stories from their own

In many ways digital stories — of the sort we are encouraging in this site, stories which support faith formation — are closely linked to poetry. Concise evocations of very specific experiences, these stories create resonance through their very particularity. Learning with and from poetry can help in our creation of digital stories. Here is

Andrew Stanton — one of the filmmakers who brought us Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E — visited TED recently to talk about story. I love this quote from his talk there: Wonder is honest, it’s completely innocent. It can’t be artificially evoked. For me, there’s no greater ability than the gift of another human being

Alan Hurst, who writes his blog from a Mormon perspective, has a fascinating essay up about the ways in which story hold meaning in faith contexts. He’s noticed that there are some powerful science fiction writers in the Mormon community (my favorite, Orson Scott Card, among them) and muses on the roots such storying. Here’s

We are convinced that the “create/share/believe” circle is never ending, and an essential way to describe how storytelling works. You can enter the circle at any point, and go in either direction — share/believe/create, for example, or share/create/believe, or any endless number of combinations — but no matter how much we believe that to be

A lot of people have pointed to the auto-tune remix of Mister Rogers that was floating around the net this spring, but Clayfire media is the first attempt I’ve seen to draw lessons from it for designing worship. Their primary point is that our curiosity is the first place to begin — and they offer

Well, this is not what I would call a positive example of a digital story. This is an example of digital “karaoke.” That is, you could probably sing along to this video — since the organ accompaniment is there and the lyrics are provided — but the images constrain the meaning rather than adding layers

Here’s a great digital story that tells a story without really using words. Yes, there’s a song going on in the background which deepens and layers meaning, but to the extent that there is a narrative it’s one that you, as the person who engages the video, helps to create.

Here’s a powerful short video story about a group of women who regularly prepare and offer food to the people clinging to the sides of freight trains as they seek passage into the US from Mexico.