Join us as we continue the Greenberg Distinguished Scholar Program's Social Impact Media Lecture Series.

In this conversation between filmmaker Julie Perini and Phil Busse, Perini will discuss how the twin practices of her personal, autobiographical work and her community-based documentary films inform one other.

While debates in recent years about new media have risen to a fever pitch, they have raised legitimate concerns about use and abuse of current technologies. In response to these concerns and to benefit the communities in which they work, anthropologists of media have focused increasingly on methodologies that combine in-depth ethnography and collaborative media-making production.

At the same time, a new generation of journalists and artists grappling with the expanding dominance of media conglomerates have looked to grassroots, collaborative, and non-profit multimedia projects designed to both benefit communities and inform larger audiences. This convergence of interest between anthropologists, artists, and journalists has come to be called "social impact" or "social justice" media production, in which producers are concerned as much with the capacity of media to impact and change societies as with its capacity to inform. For this Greenberg-sponsored event, Reed anthropologist Charlene Makley collaborates with Phil Busse, Executive Director of Portland's Media Institute for Social Change, to present a series of five public lectures on the politics and ethics of independent media-making in the 21st century. Explore this emerging form of media production at Reed this spring.

Julie Perini makes experimental and documentary videos/films, installations, and events. Preoccupied with daily life, her short-form personal works are autobiographical, self-reflective, and expressive. Her documentary feature films are produced within and alongside contemporary social movements. She holds an MFA from the Department of Media Study at the University at Buffalo and a BS from Cornell University. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Art + Design at Portland State University and a backcountry guide for the arts/environmental organization, Signal Fire.

Established on the occasion of Reed's centennial with a gift from Dan Greenberg '62 and his wife and philanthropic partner Susan Steinhauser, the Greenberg Distinguished Scholar Program aims to bring visiting scholars to campus to support the work of students and provide faculty with the opportunity for in-depth intellectual exchange with a prominent member in their field.