Yellowknife Documentary Project: “Ultra-cool”             

I like this project because it welcomes ordinary folks to tell their Yellowknife stories. If you live in Yellowknife, used to live there, visited once and loved it or are purely a Yellowknife fan, you can get involved. The project team encourages people to collaborate to create a documentary about , what they call, “this ultra-cool city”.

They ask you to think about what you love about Yellowknife. What makes it unique? What makes it tick? What’s your best memory of the place? How has it affected your life? Then go ahead and put those thoughts on film.  Make a video.

No experience is necessary. You can do it using the camera on your phone or a video camera. It doesn’t matter. “All videos and video-attempts are welcome.” Then you can share your video with others, with the whole doggone world, by uploading it to the YK Doc Project website. You and other fans can then comment on all the different video clips.

The project team says their goal “is to figure out which video clips resonate with fans.” And then, as more and more clips get added, different themes will emerge. It’s true, they will. And those themes “will inform the basis for a longer form documentary about Yellowknife”.

I like it. The fans become the filmmakers, collaborating to tell the Yellowknife story through the lens of their personal experiences, with their own voices, on camera. Living history by real people. Yeah!

Check out the site. So far, December 2011, my favorite video is the one about ravens.