UAB Student Filmmakers Cast Eye on Federal Stimulus Plan Spending

Fifteen students in a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) ethnographic filmmaking class are producing seven short documentaries that illustrate the effect of federal stimulus spending on Birmingham residents and public and nonprofit agencies.

February 25, 2010

"Your Tax Dollars at Work"

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Fifteen students in a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) ethnographic filmmaking class are producing seven short documentaries that illustrate the effect of federal stimulus spending on Birmingham residents and public and nonprofit agencies.

The films will debut at a screening titled "Your Tax Dollars at Work: Documenting Federal Programs in the Magic City," today, Feb. 25 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Vulcan Park and Museum, 1701 Valley View Drive. Admission is free.

The film screening is part of Vulcan Park and Museum's "Collective Perspectives" series. This year's theme is "Birmingham in the 1930s," which examines life in Birmingham during the Great Depression.

In the 1930s, photographers and writers, hired by the government, traveled across the United States to document the ways ordinary Americans were affected by the Depression and President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal - the social and economic policies implemented to help restore the economy and create jobs.

UAB ethnographic film instructors Michele Forman, M.A., and Rosie O'Beirne, M.A., asked students to create similar short documentaries that show citizens and nonprofit agencies that will benefit from the federal stimulus dollars. The filmmaking class is offered through the UAB Digital Community Studies Program.

"Currently, there are more than 200 projects in Birmingham that were created or funded through stimulus spending," said Forman. "For the project, we asked our students to examine the work of photographers Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Gordon Parks, who worked for the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s, and then to research and document the government's response to the current recession."

The student films will explore housing programs for the homeless and the elderly; Birmingham YouthBuild, a job-training program for young adults; public transportation in Birmingham; local education programs such as the UAB Center for Community OutReach Development that promote science education; and several UAB research studies.

"I can see many parallels between the Great Depression and what is happening now. A lot of businesses are closing, and there are many empty store fronts and people struggling to find work," said student filmmaker Erin Hennessy of Hoover. "Our project touches on that and the way YouthBuild is helping people to become more employable."

Hennessy says that she hopes those who watch the films will gain greater insight into programs supported by their tax dollars and the impact they have on the lives of individuals and communities.

UAB student filmmakers include Colin Albea of Homewood, Caitlin Chandler of Pinson, Dawn Coleman of Mason City, Trae Crain of Clay-Chalkville, Kyle Henderson of Bremen, Brittney S. Jones of Montgomery, Eddie Lewis of Montgomery, Alex Lanier of Madison, Rebecca Marston of Mobile, Anna McCown of Springville, Mallory Messersmith of Cullman and Lindsay Whiteaker, Sarah Katherine Johnson and Alyssa Mitchell of Huntsville.