Storytelling: The Important Places
My heart is on fire. I am surrounded by and continually following behind these incredible preservers and creators who have a knack for threading the important scenes through storytelling—a skill I want to keep growing forever.
Enlightenment
Earlier this year, I attended the Citizens’ Environmental Coalition’s Film Festival to watch (and eat popcorn out of a recycled brown bag) the short films documenting the kind of work you can’t see once, and don’t easily forget about. Films that simply portray the importance of going back to our roots, going back to the soil and protecting the land of our heritage—the very land feeding, protecting and sustaining life.
I never once felt separated from the message, or like I had nothing I could offer. Each film brought me to another part of the world and empowered me.
How? How, as a marketer, did these films (most of them very simple and short) resonate with me so mightily? How could I apply this magic to my own work?
Storytelling
Then it occurred to me. I was able to play a role in each of these films; I sat in the canoe with the old man taking care of his river, I stood with wonder next to wildlife biologists surveying tiny birds, I felt the grief from locals as they watched their resources slip away.
That is the power of storytelling. And lives in the power that comes with the ability to tell a story, pique interest and ask for action from listeners.
This video was the last film of the night—The Important Places. And I was in tears. I couldn’t help but want to get up, get in the Jeep, go load up my Gramps and take him back to Big Bend.
This film’s story lit a fire in me that’s long been smoldering, waiting to do more, to say more and be more for the stories we can’t afford to lose. Because without stories, without ties, without connections, these moments and places disappear. That frightens me to death.
Storytelling is more than conveying a message. It’s a tradition, an ancient practice. It’s the preservation of words and actions, people and scenes, and the important moments.
Photojournalism
This film and the blogs and write ups that followed reminded me of the many different ways we can tell stories. Photojournalism is a type of storytelling and documenting that I hope to be able to incorporate into more work. To be able to extend an experience is a true talent I never want to stop growing.
Photography and film by Forest Woodward
Article mentioned by Artifact Uprising