Preparing to Protest: Direct Action, the Arts of Protest and Media Impact
Friday, October 18, 2013 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Gittis Hall 213 Penn Law School 34th and Sansom Streets, Philadelphia, PA
Agenda
9:00-9:30 AM I. Introduction
Regina Austin, a law professor at Penn and director of the Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law Screening “Marchers on Blair Mountain” (2011) (Zein Nakhoda, director) (Video)
9:30-10:45 AM II. The Arts of Protest and Visually Impactful Direct Action
Direct action protest is performance. Its constituent elements draw on various art forms, including choreography and movement; drama, comedy, and satire; passionate oratory and poetry; music and song; memorable posters and placards; costumes and masks; and puppets. Close your eyes and iconic images and sounds of protests of the past captured in photographs, films, and videos and on soundtracks and records will readily come to mind. What makes them iconic? The first panel will focus on proven techniques for maximizing the visual effects of direct action protests.
Speakers: Nadine Bloch Che Gossett Jethro Heiko Daniel Hunter Mark Read
11:00 AM-12:30 PM III. Capturing the Sights and Sounds of Protest on Camera
Digital cameras are ubiquitous. Nearly everyone has a cell phone. It follows that nearly everyone can be a media maker capturing direct action protests as they unfold. On what aspects of a protest should the amateur focus? What kinds of images of protestors have the most impact? Are there legal restrictions on nonparticipants recording protests? Is there anything protesters can do to prevent surveillance of demonstrations by the police? Is it legal to record the police interacting with protestors? Does it make a difference if recording the police in action in public places is the subject of the protest action?
Speakers: Harvey Finkle Larry Krasner, Esq. Kelly Matheson, Esq. Milena Velis
12:30-1:45 PM Lunch in Levy Conference Center (Silverman 245A) Sign Making Exercise and Open Mike on Direct Action (Bring your cellphones.)
What are your experiences, thoughts, observations and theories about direct action? Can you put them into a few words or a drawing? Materials for making protest signs will be available during lunch for attendees to engage directly in the art of protest. Cameras (yours) to capture the effort will be everywhere. An open mike and a cinematographer will allow you to make a statement about the significance of your sign.
2:00-2:30 PM IV. The Impact of Digital Visual Media on Protests around the World
Direct action seems to be on the uptick throughout the world. What roles have digital visual technology and news media that are international in scope played in this expansion of protest? What impact do images of protest in one part of the globe have on the incidence of protest in other parts of the world?
Speaker: Marwan Kraidy
2:30-4:00 PM V. Images of Protest and the Ethics of Capture and Dissemination (privacy, security, surveillance, exploitation, consent, organizing versus agitation, etc.) (i.e., where image ethics and legal ethics meet)
Even if it is legal to capture images of people engaged in direct action protests in public, are there ethical limits based on notions of privacy and anonymity that should nonetheless be respected? Do public protestors have any privacy rights with regard to posting their images on social media? Suppose the protestors are members of socially vulnerable groups, such as children, undocumented immigrants, or persons with intellectual or mental disabilities. Media coverage is essential to publicizing and growing a movement. It can also be a source of surveillance and cooptation. Is it possible to keep such social media making authentic and on message?
Speakers: Kelly Matheson, Esq. Zein Nakhoda Mary Catherine Roper, Esq. Todd Wolfson
This program has been approved for 4.0 substantive law credit hours and 1.5 ethics hours for Pennsylvania lawyers. CLE credits may be available in other jurisdictions as well. Attendees seeking CLE credit should bring separate payment in the amount of $55.00 (or $30.00 for public interest attorneys) cash or check payable to “The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.” If you will not be attending the entire program the fee will be $15.00 per credit hour.
2011
VLA Step-By-Step?
Friday, November 4, 2011 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Levy Conference Center and Silverman 245A Penn Law School 34th & Chestnut Streets · Philadelphia, PA
Learn the steps to making an 8-minute legal advocacy video, including investigating, researching, scripting, shooting and editing, on a small budget and with basic equipment from practitioners of the art. Learn the rudiments of setting up, lighting and shooting an interview through hands-on instruction in small groups provided by area nonprofits engaged in video training.
The Roundtable is free and open to the public. Anyone wishing to attend should register in advance by emailing Anna Gavin, Events Coordinator of the Law School at agavin@law.upenn.edu
Agenda
9:30 – 9:45 a.m.
Introduction
9:45 – 12:00 p.m.
Panel on Sentencing Mitigation Videos: Portraits of Defendants and their Families
Presenter: Denise Arellano, Investigator, Federal Defender Services of Idaho
Panelists: Catherine C. Henry, Senior Litigator, Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Suzanne Levy, Content Director of Generocity.org
Moderator: Regina Austin, William A. Schnader Professor of Law & Director of the Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law
12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
Lunch and Video on Staging an Interview
1:15 – 3:00 p.m.
Small Group Hands-on Demonstration of Staging an Interview Instructors and equipment provided by: • Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law • Penn Video Network (Penn’s Cable Television and Special Event Network) • PhillyCAM (Philadelphia’s Community Access Media) • Scribe Video Center • WHYY (The Dorrance H. Hamilton Public Media Commons) With additional assistance provided by Martin Brigham, Esq. of Raynes McCarty
3:15 – 4:00 p.m.
Questions and Wrap up Session
Continuing Legal Education Credit This roundtable has been approved for 5.5 hours of substantive law credit for Pennsylvania lawyers. Credits may be available in other jurisdictions as well. For CLE credit please bring a check for $55 ($25 for public interest lawyers) made out to “The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.” The roundtable itself is free and open to the public.
For more information please contact Anna Gavin, Events Coordinator of the Law School, at agavin@law.upenn.edu
Images That Change Minds and Win Hearts: A Conversation with Archivists and Social Documentary Photographers Visual images are essential to telling a client’s story or advancing an argument on a client’s behalf if digital video is your medium. This panel is intended to help the visual legal advocate locate and evaluate such images using archives and the work of social documentary photographers. Use of images from these sources, however, raises any number of aesthetic and ethical quandaries. How much leeway is there to use an archival image that is close but not exactly what it is supposed to be? Should a visual legal advocate hesitate to use archival material that shows people in a negative light? What makes a social documentary photograph good? Is it possible to capture structures of powerlessness without sacrificing the individual dignity and autonomy of the people captured as well? Should reality and objectivity trump beauty and aesthetics in a visual work of legal advocacy?
Speakers: Deborah Boyer, Project Manager, PhillyHistory.org John Pettit, Assistant Archivist, Urban Archives, Temple University Harvey Finkle, social documentary photographer
Moderator: Regina Austin
11:15 – 11:30 a.m.
Break
11:30 – 12:45 p.m.
A Primer on Fair Use for the Visual Legal Advocate The doctrine of fair use allows a reasonable and limited use of copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder in order to, for example, critique the work or to illustrate an argument or point. The Center for Social Media’s Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use has made an enormous contribution in helping video makers negotiate our “copyright clearance culture” which threatens to stifle creativity and free expression.
Speakers: Peter Jaszi, Professor, Law School, American University Center for Social Media: Documentary Peter Decherney, Professor, Cinema Studies, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
12:45 – 2:00 p.m.
Lunch and Conversation(Free for Registered Attendees) On Display: The work of social documentary photographers Elizabeth S. Derickson, Laurie Hansen-Flaschen, Leandre Jackson, Anisa Rahim, Zoe Strauss, Jacques-Jean Tiziou, and Mpozi Mshale Tolbert and the art work of incarcerated Pennsylvanians curated by Ann-Marie Kirk of Art for Justice
For Your Perusal: Material from the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Constraints on Visual Legal Advocacy The ability to capture and use visual images in legal contexts is not without constraint. Professor Seth Kreimer will discuss the findings of his research which links the First Amendment to the right to record. He will elaborate on the idea that recording entails preserving experience and reflecting on it. Mitigation specialist Dana Cook will present a video introduced during the sentencing phase of the capital murder case Commonwealth v. Mustafa Ali. She will take us through the making of the video, its admission into evidence, and its impact.
Speakers: Seth Kreimer, Professor, University of Pennsylvania Law School Dana L. Cook, D.S.W. with Atlantic Center for Capital Representation
Continuing Legal Education Credit The Roundtable provides a maximum of 5 hours of CLE credit, including ½ hour of ethics credit for the panel on images and ½ hour of ethic credit for the panel on constraints on visual legal advocacy. The cost for the day is $25 for Public Interest lawyers and $50 for non PI lawyers. There is no charge for the roundtable itself.
Friday, October 23, 2009 9:30 a.m. – 4:15 p.m. Penn Law School – Gittis 2 34th & Chestnut Streets · Philadelphia, PA
This Roundtable should be of interest to public interest lawyers, entertainment lawyers, law students, law professors, ITS specialists with public interest organizations, documentary filmmakers, and members of the Penn community who are interested in nonfiction video production and social justice issues.
Agenda
8:45 – 9:30 a.m.
CLE Registration & Continental Breakfast
9:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Visual Legal Advocacy at Penn Law: The Year in Review Screening of “Silenced” directed by Ann Onymous Screening of “Children Given One Strike: A Lifetime Without Redemption” directed by Wendell F. Holland, II & Nicole Samuels, 3Ls Presenter:Professor Regina Austin, William A. Schnader Professor and Director, Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law
10:00 – 10:15 a.m.
Break
10:15 – 11:45 a.m.
“Witnesses to Hunger”: The Anatomy of a Successful Social Justice Media Campaign Suppose lawyers gave their clients cameras with which to record their lives and their ideas for changing “the system”? Forty women from Philadelphia who have young children were given digital cameras to capture their experiences with hunger and poverty and their ideas for change. Through their visual work and their personal advocacy, they have been able to impact the public policies and programs that affect their lives. For more on Witnesses to Hunger, go to www.witnessestohunger.org. The general technique of combining photography and videography with grassroots activism in order to enable people to represent themselves and their communities is known as “photovoice.” The factors that make for a successful photovoice project as well as the ethical concerns demanded by the technique (which are dealt with in www.photovoice.org/images/uploads/pvethicalpractice.pdf ) should be of interest to lawyers.
Speaker:Mariana Chilton, Ph.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor, Drexel University School of Public Health
11:45 – 1:00 p.m.
Lunch (Free for Registered Attendees at the Goat)
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
Cameras, Cameras, Everywhere: Making Sense of Surveillance and Vérité Footage from the Streets Cameras are everywhere—on the streets and in buildings. The police have dash cams, shoulder cams, and head cams. Soon they will have guns that shoot bullets and video at the same time. Bystanders and pedestrians walk around with cellphones and sound recording devices that can instantaneously document action in the streets. Distribution on the web of the material these cameras capture is virtually costless. What are lawyers to make of all this live-action digital media content, especially that obtained during encounters between civilians and the police?
Though the footage is often blurry and unclear, it aids in the apprehension of criminals, both civilians and law enforcement officers. But how often does it also led to the misidentification of innocent people and false accusations of criminal behavior? Documentary filmmakers who have done “ride-alongs” in patrol cars have tips for lawyers on how to read vérité or observational police footage. Lawyers should understand that what is seen within a frame is only part of the scene. What is taking place outside the frame is also relevant and is possibly more important. Video is introduced as demonstrative evidence in criminal proceedings to support claims of a defendant’s innocence or guilt; in addition, it may prove useful in contesting official narratives and proving allegations of perjury and illegal surveillance by the police. Criminologists are evaluating the efficacy of using cameras as a mechanism for auditing routine police interactions.
Speakers: Ron Kanter, Director, “New Cops” Eileen Clancy, Co-founder, I-Witness Video John MacDonald, Ph.D., Jerry Lee Assistant Professor of Criminology, UPenn
2:30 – 2:45 p.m.
Break
2:45 – 4:15 p.m.
Social Justice and Public Access Television in Philadelphia: Lessons from Elsewhere Public access television is hardly a new idea but it is at long last coming to Philadelphia. Considered an “electronic greenspace” or the media equivalent of the public square, public access TV is intended to promote civic discourse, encourage cultural expression, preserve local histories, and enhance community relations through participation in the production process by those left out of mainstream media. Unfortunately, public access programming has also been criticized for being “technically amateurish,” “quirky and esoteric,”and worst of all “bigoted.” Having gotten off to a late start, Philadelphia has the opportunity to learn from public access leaders from elsewhere in the country. What does that bode for social justice programming on public access television in Philadelphia? Is there a role for public interest lawyers and their clients as content providers?
Speakers: Gretjen Clausing, Executive Director, Philadelphia Community Access Media (PhillyCAM) Betty Yu, Community Outreach & Media Specialist, Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) Richard Turner, Executive Director, Montgomery Community Television, Rockville, MD
Continuing Legal Education Credit The Roundtable provides a maximum of 5 hours of CLE credit, including 1/2 hour of ethics credit for the morning program and 1/2 hour of ethics credit for the first afternoon program. The cost for the day is $25 for public interest lawyers.
Friday, October 17, 2008 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Penn Law School – Gittis 2 34th & Chestnut Streets · Philadelphia, PA
This Roundtable should be of interest to public interest lawyers, entertainment lawyers, law students, law professors, ITS specialists with public interest organizations, documentary filmmakers, and members of the Penn community who are interested in nonfi ction video production and social justice issues.
Michael L. Wong, Penn Law Class of 2009; co-producer and co-director of the documentary short “Shmul Kaplan”
Dr. Gretchen Berland, Yale Medical School; producer and director of the documentary “Rolling: Life in a Wheelchair”
Dr. Carolyn Cannuscio, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Professor Carol Jacobsen, School of Art & Design, University of Michigan; producer and director of the documentary “From One Prison”
William M. DiMascio, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Prison Society
Margie Smith, Partner, Thinktank Films
Mark Eyerly, Associate Dean for Communications, Penn Law School
Anyone wishing to attend should register in advance by emailing Anna Gavin, Events Coordinator of the Law School at agavin@law.upenn.edu. The organizers will seek approval for four and one-half hours of Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education credit to be provided for a nominal fee of $50. Please indicate your intention to seek CLE credit when you communicate with Ms. Gavin about your attendance.
Progress Report – Professor Regina Austin, Director, Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law
Premiere and Discussion of “Shmul Kaplan,” a documentary short – Michael L. Wong, Penn Law Class of 2009, co-producer and co-director
After living most of his life in Kazakhstan, Shmul Kaplan, a 70-year-old disabled Jewish survivor of the Nazi invasion of the Ukraine, visited the United States for the first time. No longer able to endure the religious and ethnic persecution he had faced his entire life, he successfully applied for asylum and began down the path to American citizenship. Little did he know that the journey would be a long and arduous one because of protracted delays in the naturalization process. After seven years of waiting to become a citizen, Mr. Kaplan lost the SSI benefits on which he depended because of a time limitation enacted into law by the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. He hung on for as long as he could—living on only food stamps and $215 a month. Then he became the named plaintiff in a class action lawsuit brought by lawyers from Ballard Spahr, Community Legal Services, and HIAS and Council Migration Service. See how this courageous man helped himself and others realize their American Dreams.
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Video Diaries: Putting Cameras in the Hands of Clients
Speaker: Gretchen Berland – Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale Medical School; MacArthur Fellow; producer and director of the documentary “Rolling: Life in a Wheelchair “
Commentator: Carolyn Cannuscio, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; former Robert Wood Johnson Health & Societies Scholar; co-principal investigator, Health of Philadelphia Photo Documentation Project
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Lunch (Provided free of charge to all Advance Registrants)
1:00 – 2:20 p.m.
Video in the Pursuit of Justice: The Michigan Women’s Justice & Clemency Project
Speaker: Carol Jacobsen – Professor, School of Art & Design, University of Michigan; Professor, Women’s Studies Program, College of Literature, Science and the Arts, University of Michigan; Director, Michigan Women’s Justice & Clemency Project; producer and director of the documentary “From One Prison”
Commentator: William M. DiMascio, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Prison Society
2:30 – 3:40 p.m.
Packaging Your Message with Video for Old and New Media
Margie Smith – Partner, Thinktank Films; director of the “Sugiarto Family Deferred Action Application,” a video produced by Penn Law and HIAS and Council Migration Service
Commentator: Mark Eyerly – Associate Dean for Communications, Penn Law School
The Visual Legal Advocacy Roundtable will bring together private and public interest lawyers, community-based documentary filmmakers, and representatives from Cinema Studies, the Annenberg School, the School of Design, the Graduate School of Education, the Law School, and the Penn Video Network to consider:
Existing forms of visual legal advocacy, their efficacy, and the possibilities for extending visual advocacy to additional areas of social justice law practice;
The economics of visual legal advocacy and strategies for making visual legal advocacy available to clients who are unable to pay the costs;
Obstacles to securing access to film and record in institutions that control the lives of social justice clients (such as schools, prisons, and hospitals);
The ethical obligations of the visual legal advocate;
The use of new media to disseminate information regarding social justice claimants, cases, and causes; and
The role law schools should play in teaching their students and the practicing bar visual literacy skills and the mechanics of producing and directing visual and audio texts on behalf of clients.
Visual Legal Advocacy at Penn Law Regina Austin, William A. Schnader Professor and Director of the Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law
10:00 a.m.
Visual Advocacy for Personal Injury Plaintiffs, Public Benefits Claimants, and Victims of Social Injustice Shanin Specter, Esq., Kline & Specter, P.C. Martin Brigham, Esq., Raynes McCarty Edward L. Edelstein, Esq., ADR Options
11:45 a.m.
Lunch (at the Goat)
1:00 p.m.
Advocacy Videos: Production and Distribution Issues Emily Kunstler, Off Center Media Sarah Kunstler, Esq., Off Center Media Todd Wolfson, Ph.D. Candidate, Penn Anthropology Department
3:00 p.m.
Roundtable Wrap-up Sharon Dietrich, Esq., Community Legal Services, Inc.
3:45 p.m.
Adjournment
Examples of visual legal advocacy done by panelists
The website of the Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law provides an overview of the Program. The Project’s goals of incorporating the analysis and production of nonfiction film into the Law School’s scholarly and pedagogical agenda are explained in an article written by the Program’s Director. Documentaries papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=916791
The Documentaries & the Law website contains law-related videos done by Penn Law Students. Student Videos
Martin Brigham is a personal injury lawyer who specializes in products liability cases involving burn injuries. He has represented children who were burned in oven tipover accidents. Some of the footage from settlement documentaries made by Mr. Brigham was incorporated into KYW/CBS3 news stories exposing the danger. cbs3.com/investigations/local_story_095235446.html cbs3.com/investigations/local_story_212204300.html
A settlement video is basically a visual summary of a case. It addresses the points of contention between the parties and highlights the strengths of the client’s case.
Sarah and Emily Kunstler are the founders of Off Center Media, a non-profit media advocacy and documentary production company. Many of the clemency videos they have made are streamed on their website. www.off-center.com/projects.html
YouTube has streamed public interest videos produced by lawyers. See, for example, the Paxil Settlement Announcement which was produced by the Public Citizen Litigation Group and Guantanamo Unclassified, a video made by William Teesdale of the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Portland, Oregon, in support of detainee Adel Hamad. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZluS3tutxZU www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5E3w7ME6Fs
The websites of organizations like WITNESS and Breakthrough TV, which are devoted to producing videos and other forms of media to expose international human rights violations occurring throughout the world, serve as examples for what might be done in the area of domestic social injustice. www.witness.org breakthrough.tv
Scribe Video Center which is located at 4212 Chestnut Street has been an important partner in the development of the Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law. A nonprofit community media organization devoted to the advancement of the “use of video as an artistic medium and as a tool for progressive social change,” Scribe offers a host of workshops on video production. www.scribe.org
