We’re pleased to announce one of the 2011 GoAbroad Innovation Awards finalists in the category of Innovative Student Video. We received many wonderful nominations and the selection committee has chosen the finalists. Each day this week, we will be featuring one of the Student Video finalists.
UPDATE: The finalists have been chosen — and now it’s YOUR turn to help choose the winner of the 2011 GoAbroad Innovation Award for Most Innovative Student Video! This is the ONLY GoAbroad Innovation Award that is chosen by a public vote. The voting period is now open and the poll will close (and will no longer be visible) at a pre-selected time on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 — so get your votes in NOW and encourage others to vote! Submit your vote in the column to the right!
FINALIST: Roma by Alex Moskowitz of The State University of New York at Purchase College study abroad program at The American University of Rome in Italy
My first endeavor into the art of the video: I come from a photographic background with a general understanding of aesthetics. This video focuses on an intimate Rome—one that is not filled with monuments and tourism, but rather a Rome which is a city inhabited by actual people. There are a few mentions of the remnants of ancient Rome, but they appear in their contemporary sense—being surrounded by a city which does not directly suggest its great past. The film has a distinctly Roman sense to it which stops shorts of exploiting the city as an “other.” Joseph Brodsky in “Watermark” said that one must first be an “other” in order to notice, or reflect upon something—simultaneously one must begin to know the inherent workings of a place in order to understand it. In this film I have tried to do just that: relay a personal, yet relatable and non-exploitative artistic account of a place of beauty and filth.
Congratulations to each of the finalists! Public voting for best video will commence shortly after all the finalists have been announced. Be sure to vote for your favorite video!
The winner of this category will be announced at the GoAbroad invitation-only reception during the upcoming NAFSA: Association of International Educators Annual Conference and will be posted to the GoAbroad blog.