Mary Hess

Redglass Pictures is a studio that is focused on creating short, compelling films. This is one in which novelist George Saunders talks about what’s involved in creating a story — and how it brings us to truth. George Saunders: On Story from Redglass Pictures on Vimeo.

Three new resources that I find particularly powerful in media education are the following: the 2017 issue focused on “Agency” of the Journal of Media Literacy (available for free) Sonja Vivienne’s book, Digital Identity and Everyday Activism: Sharing Private Stories with Networked Publics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) Henry Jenkins’ book, By Any Media Necessary: the New Activism

I frequently invite people — in my classes, in church settings — to do theological reflection using commercials. Patricia O’Connell Killen long ago published a lovely book with an excellent process in it for more general theological reflection, which I have adapted. You can download my handout, based on her book. And here are some

While it is not a digital storytelling site, per se, the Historyapolis site in Minneapolis combines photographs from various archives with blog posts offering more information about the stories from the photos. It’s a really interesting and innovative use of historical documents woven into a set of stories for the purposes of creating engagement with

As we pray and remember this Holocaust Remembrance Day, it is worth noting the “power of individual stories.” Javier Torres writes: It was that Sunday morning I truly understood that part of our mandate is to preserve and share stories like Judy’s. Through her story, and the stories of many others found here in the

That’s the substance of a profound essay by Serene Jones appearing at Time.com. Her prescription for healing America’s spiritual pain? “We need a new common narrative about who we are as a country.” I won’t quote the whole essay — please read it! — but here’s an excerpt: As Americans, we have a “theological” national story we tell

Rainbowfamilytree.com calls itself a “Haven for Queer Digital Storytellers and their friends and families.” Using the core processes of digital storytelling this site (StoryingFaith.org) advocates, RainbowFamilyTree offers dozens of stories created by individuals who seek to share both the joys and the sorrows of their experiences as GLBTQ people in the world. No matter your

Creative Narrations is a nonprofit that does a lot of work on digital storytelling. They have a website with a huge archive of digital stories, and lots of other resources.

Bene Brown is both empathic and eloquent, and she is sharing her wisdom with the world in all sorts of ways. I’m fond of this short piece that was Oprah.com years ago, and think it’s worth pointing to yet again. In it she suggests four practices that can help you to “reckon with emotion and change

I wish we had found this site earlier, before it went into archive mode. I love the idea of finding ways to share stories that people have crafted about their lives. It’s the heart of why I think digital storytelling is a form of faith formation. So here are some stories by other people —