For two weeks in April 2012, Second Story creative director David Waingarten and his crew, Jefe Greenheart and Kirsten Southwell, set out on a whirlwind tour of North Carolina. Their mission: to capture stories of real citizens speaking about issues that affect their lives. These short documentary films will be featured in the Emerging Issues Commons, an interactive exhibit and web app launching later this year in the new James B. Hunt Library on the North Carolina State University’s Centennial campus in Raleigh.
Driving from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Atlantic, the film crew traveled North Carolina’s back roads to find faces, landscapes, and moments that show the diversity and humanity of the state.
“Second Story’s been working on this project for almost two years,” says David, “with the goal of using interactive media to help illuminate how policies affect everyday people in North Carolina, to understand the state as a whole, its complexities, and educate people about the challenges the state is facing. This trip was a personal awakening to the importance of the Commons itself, both a physical location and an online avenue that reaches out to the entire state and beyond. We’ve steeped ourselves in facts, data, maps, state history, and policy ideas. But the crucial element is always the people. To me, our trip underlines the need to connect visitors emotionally to the reality of the land and the people whose lives we’re talking about. That’s what I hope these films will do.”
David, Jefe, and Kirsten logged thousands of miles, met hundreds of people, and came back with their own stories to tell. Get a glimpse of their journey in this video.
