This is Change (RealMedia)
A look at the changing face of Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project through the eyes of old and new residents. Produced by the 2006 TV News Documentary Class.
Documentary : Muslims in Chicago (Little by Little)
Documentary class final project in Real Player. Two of three parts.
Documentary 2007: Muslims in Chicago (Out of Here)
2007 Documentary class final project in Real Player. Three of three parts.
Coming Home Again
Jon Marshall’s Newswriting and Reporting class investigated what challenges returning Chicago-area veterans face.
The students examined congressional budgets, medical studies, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports and public opinion surveys. They then went out and talked with veterans of the Iraq war, ROTC trainees and survivors of the conflicts in Vietnam and Korea. They also interviewed U.S. senators, an admiral, doctors and counselors … and asked if we are ready for our returning veterans.
Documentary: Muslims in Chicago (Awakenings)
Medill and School of Communications students in the documentary class final project in
Real Player.
A Dream Foreclosed
“A Dream Foreclosed,” a documentary about the mortgage crisis, was selected to screen at the first Chicago United Film Festival in September at the Music Box Theater. It is currently under consideration for a variety of other awards. View the trailer.
Under the guidance of lecturers Beth Bennett and Steve James, the film was produced by 15 undergraduate students in the “Television News Documentary” course. The documentary examines the foreclosure crisis in Chicago across a socioeconomic landscape and its effect on a cross-section of the population, including homeowners and renters. The film looks at how people are trying to get out of a bad situation or make a bad one better.
“We tried to follow a verité approach and observe and let the story unfold in front of the camera rather than having a heavy hand in producing,” Bennett says.
The class was also open to radio, television and film students from the School of Communications. And Alex Kotlowitz, who wrote “All Boarded Up,” a New York Times magazine article about the foreclosure crisis in Cleveland, Ohio, visited the class to discuss how to research and how to frame a story.
The students were assigned the topic of foreclosure and hit the streets of Chicago to research and interview. But they practiced more than strong journalism—they found stories that hadn’t been told but deserved to be told. And they worked around the clock (sometimes sleeping at school) because they weren’t willing to produce a mediocre product.
“They were so deeply involved intellectually, but also from a position of empathy that I was just proud of them,” Bennett says.
James directed “Hoop Dreams,” the 1994 documentary about two high school students with ambitions of becoming professional basketball players, while Bennett is an award-winning television reporter who also teaches graduate courses, such as Chicago Broadcast.