Artists' Statement
Rae Finlinson & Nate Christofferson
For this assignment we interviewed
Rae’s delightful friend Tamerra, a young woman who is nothing if not INVOLVED
in the community. In our final video we
focus only on her role as chief editor of the student-run newspaper “The
Student Review” here in Provo. However,
in our time interviewing her we heard about the details of a few other
organizations in which she not only participates, but takes a leadership
role. After her mission she had several
friends who were no longer attending church, so she organized a weekly
get-together with these friends to talk about gospel principles and discuss
doubts and concerns. Eventually several
of these friends returned to activity in the Church. Tamerra also helped organize the Provo Peace
Forum, which is a place for people to come into a safe, moderated environment
for discussion of controversial and/or timely topics with healthy debate rather
than the usual venomous flame wars that tend to erupt on the internet when
touchy subjects arise.
Our approach to the interview was
simple. Rae prepared and asked the
questions and Nate ran the camera. With
just a bit of prompting, Tamerra gave us all the information needed to reveal
the way she chooses to exercise her agency and why. She is a sensitive soul, feeling for the
people around her, and she has chosen to channel this trait to work with people
who need a voice or who are misunderstood.
Her work with “The Student Review” is motivated by her belief in the
importance of people voicing their opinions and not just complacently accepting
one single point of view, namely the “Daily Universe”. She is aware of the many alternative points
of view among her peers and wants these individuals to be able to express their
thoughts. Provo has many stereotypes
associated with it, not all of which are accurate or healthy, and she hopes
that “The Student Review” can help people become aware of the diverse voices in
town and on campus.
Tamerra
strives to give a voice to the voiceless and reach out to the “different”
people in what is largely perceived to be such a homogeneous community. She is working to help real understanding of
who we are and what is happening around us.
She wants to get ideas flowing and people thinking.
For our
part, we kept the video simple. The
whole shoot consisted of two camera setups.
One still shot for the interview, and one b-roll shot of Tamerra showing
us some copies of “The Student Review”.
Her story and the way she tells it is interesting enough that in the
editing we leave long sections alone with minimal cutting and just let her
talk.
