Sunday, August 14, 2016

Episode #83 - Snowden Becker (Police Body Cameras and Evidentiary Videos)



"We know from our training as archivists that these are tricky materials to integrate into mixed collections of other record keeping...so what's happening?

While this show has often staked its interest in the kinds of audiovisual materials we come to praise as art, there are many different types of moving image materials out there. None feels more pertinent to our moment today than the discussions around the introduction of police body-worn cameras alongside the amateur videos that display evidence of police brutality toward members of the African American community. To address these topics is often to approach them from one of politics, but a surrounding series of questions deals with many of the same questions that cinema-minded people might find familiar: what can we learn from analyzing how they were made? What elements are manipulation are present? How will these videos be stored? What access should the public have? What is the emotional affect of viewing them?

Today's guest, Snowden Becker, has worked as a program manager for UCLA's Moving Image Archive program and the co-founder of Home Movie Day. She's also spent over a decade researching the judicial system's management of audiovisual material, and is the co-manager of this week's National Forum, "On The Record, All The Time: Setting An Agenda for Audiovisual Management," which will bring together legal scholars, social justice activists, camera manufacturers, and the LAPD among others to workshop these issues. In this episode of the podcast, Snowden discusses many of the issues that come out of a cinephile interest when it comes to thinking about these types of videos, as well as what it means to be a public citizen engaging in this emerging genre.

0:00-4:10 Opening
5:13-11:16 Establishing Shots — O.J.: Made in America
12:00-1:06:48 Deep Focus — Snowden Becker
1:07:21-1:11:32 Sponsorship Section
1:10:59-1:32:14 Double Exposure — Police Body Cameras and Evidentiary Videos
1:32:18-1:33:56 Close 
Notes and Links from the Conversation
—Learn more about the National Forum at their website and follow on Twitter with the hashtag #OTTATT. Many of the research papers discussed can be found here.
—Learn more about Snowden Becker and her work here
The Castro Cinema (which is also where the SF Silent Film Festival occurs)
Questor Systems for Museum Management
Japanese American National Museum
Home Movie Day and The Center for Home Movies
Northeast Historic Film Center
—UCLA's Moving Image Archive Studies Program
—For more on the politics of film preservation, see Caroline Frick's Saving Cinema
—Watch Dave Tatsuno's Topaz, his amateur footage of the Japanese Concentration Camps
—Watch the Zapruder Film
—More about the National Film Preservation Foundation
—More about Lance Hayden's study of red light cameras and the surveillance of public space
—Snowden's 2007 study of the San Antonio Police Department's audiovisual archival practices
—More about TASER, the most popular body camera manufacturer 
—Watch the Seattle "Police Video Requests" on YouTube
—More about the CSI Effect
—More about the Daubert Standards
—Stanley and Steinhardt's "Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an American Surveillance Society"
—More about the Institute for Museum and Library Services
—I have decided not to post links to individual videos related to police brutality, but many can be found on this page through the New York Times.
—Witness.Org's rules for documenting police abuse
Don Dellilo's passage about the Zapruder film in Underworld

1 comment:

  1. This is an extraordinary episode (and the extra resources) - thanks to you both!

    ReplyDelete