A sharp yet understanding guide to high-quality documentation of family history that proceeds with heart, logic and...
A how-to guide based on the idea that recorded narratives from elders are of long-lasting value to the children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews who will outlive their family’s great storytellers.
Sargent-Hamill’s credentials (a bachelor’s degree in gerontology) and her practice as an independent filmmaker manifest in her heart-and-mind approach to shooting a dynamic video interview. While she relays personal anecdotes of how meaningful these late-in-life documentaries have proven to be, the author also discusses practical matters—such as headroom and symmetrical balance of a shot—that even the best-intentioned amateur videographer may not consider. Structurally, the information in the “Develop the Concept” chapter that opens Section 2 (“Things to Consider Before You Begin) would be more useful if it preceded, or was woven into, Section 1, which is concerned solely with project development. The rest of the book, however, benefits from a smooth, resourceful organization of ideas and exercises. The “Evaluate Your Electronic Equipment” section is thorough while managing to abide by simple terminology that even those aloof to digital technology will comprehend. Sargent-Hamill takes into account many before-the-interview details in a streamlined manner with details such as addressing personal discomfort of interviewees and checking the interview site for the best seating arrangement respective of a pleasant but not overwhelming background, finding ideal lighting and unobtrusive ambient noise, etc. While she provides examples of specific questions to ask, along with a sample genealogy-based interview outline, she also recommends preinterview chats to obtain the nitty-gritty information that can shape, or at least fine-tune, the interview structure. The book also covers supplementary or substitute methods of chronicling loved ones’ lives—photo journaling, exploring community archives and interviewing those whose lives were impacted for the better by the documentary subjects. Near the end of her book, Sargent-Hamill offers some basic tips on editing, pointing readers in the direction of medium-specific resource guides.
A sharp yet understanding guide to high-quality documentation of family history that proceeds with heart, logic and efficiency.Pub Date: June 10, 2010
ISBN: 978-1439271162
Page Count: 133
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...
The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).
Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42850-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
SEEN & HEARD
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