Thursday, November 15, 2007

Feminist Housewife- Take one



I finished my first documentary a couple weeks ago. yay! I have been fascinated with all the mommy blogs out there from friends and family. It's such a cool way to express yourself and to keep people updated. I was checking out one of the blogs out in my office one afternoon and a friend walked in and asked what I was doing. I told her I was reading blogs. We got into a very cool conversation about stay at home moms, housewives and feminism. She convinced me to do a story on a housewife that blogs. After searching through LOTS of blogs marytsao.blogspot.com totally stood out, especially because she lives only an hour away. So my friend and I worked on this project together. I worked on the audipo part of the project and another student Amanda Abel did the pictures. I should probably start my own blog so that I can post things like this. Anyway, I do trust your comments and feedback and I would love to get some feedback. At this point my life is being consumed by a documentary I am working on about freecycle.org. Again feedback would be great and ideas for my upcoming project would also be very appreciated.

11 comments:

Pamela Palmer said...

cool. who's doing the narration? do you think it's mainly money that makes other jobs more valued than taking care of a family? the fact that no one pays you? when i think about the things people do for money and find valuable, they hardly ever seem as valuable to me as kids.

Pamela Palmer said...

cool doesn't really cover it. very cool. good job, da. how did it all come together?

Damaris @Kitchen Corners said...

I started out doing the narration but after hearing my voice over and over again I just couldn't do it. By the way I am looking for a narrator for my next project.anyone interested?
first we did an interview than I transcribed the whole interview (super pain in the neck) then wrote a script. My favorite part was finding the music and then edited all together. It was time consuming but very fun.

I think it definetly has to do with money. Being a mom is the hardest thing I have ever done. I wish society would value mothers more. My mom told me that Brazil just passed a law that mothers will get 6 months paid maternity leave. In order to secure that jobs will be open for women the govenment is giving huge tax breaks for companies that hire women. I think this all helps to value mothers more.I am glad you brought this up because I think we should have mentioned it in the documentary.

Colleen said...

This is great, very thought provoking and so well done. I love the music, and bright photos. Another chapter could be on those moms who work (by choice and also not be choice) who feel rebuked by those mom's who don't--particularly feminist moms who think working moms have sold out to the male establishment. And maybe we have. And there are class issues involved--staying home feels like the "privileged class."

Damaris @Kitchen Corners said...

Thanks colleen for your comment. This was character based so we were focusing on just her experience. However, she did go back to work after her daughter was born but it was too hard with babysitting, plus her husband got a great job at google so she COULD stay jome. Can you tell by her fabulous house?

Mariko said...

Cool. I'm glad I finally got to see it. --- I don't really get the choice of the black. It just lingered there too long. It makes it uncomfortable when the picture comes back up -- like, "ok, so it's supposed to be the important part?" I know you weren't doing the visual, but it definitely affected what I was thinking during the audio. I like the narration's voice. And the sound quality seemed really good (sorry I don't know anything about that, but it's just my opinion). It did seem slightly random in organization to me. It felt a little incomplete since it didn't really climax to a theme. I hope you're not offended by my comments, because I'm also thoroughly impressed that you did this-- I mean, I would obviously have no idea where to even start with such a project (although I like to make my kids do video projects-- not that I'm comparing you to them). I'll have to read her blog more. I only got to look at it once.
I'm excited to watch one about freecycle because it sounds like such a cool project.

Mariko said...

When I said "organization" I was mostly meaning the pictures, but since they didn't really follow the audio, I felt disjointed.

Damaris @Kitchen Corners said...

I agree about the pix. Amanda and I worked together since she's photo and I am audio we needed to do a combined project. The freecycle will only be audio.

Thanks for the comments!

Kaity said...

Good Job Da. You are amazing. I don't know how you do it. You are an awesome feminist mom and you're actually getting things done.

Mariko said...

So your major is audio only? That's cool. Then I'll get to hear you on NPR, which is my favorite source for audio documentary. :)

Melinda said...

great, damaris! i could only watch the first half, our computer's fault. but i enjoyed the topic, it's something i could relate to, and i know many people have opinions about stay at home mommying, one way or the other.
beautiful photos, well written story. although some more collaboration could help them work together better, if an a/v presentation is the end goal.
i really liked how she said her choice to marry & have kids helped her to be more stable, healthy, and altruistic. (i rarely feel those things in my daily domestic warfare.)
you did such a great job, damaris! you're definitely in the right field. keep sharing!
p.s. i've been wanting to do audio docs on different people's lives here in am samoa. fish cannery workers, school kids from outer islands... i don't know if it'll happen. you know, daily domestic warfare. how do you do it?!