In September, Meraki Folk Dance Astoria was created by Greek dance educator Dimitri Carabas with a goal to promote a cultural hub for people of all ages.
Meraki Folk Dance covers a variety of cultural dances and performances from regions all over Greece and encourages children, teens and adults to learn these traditions with weekly classes at different locations in Astoria.
These classes are accompanied by community performances at different events, and Carabas has made many connections with other small cultural vendors and educators in the area at a quick rate.
Through this video project, I want to highlight what Carabas’ purpose for creating these classes was, why students attend weekly folk dance sessions, and how he has accumulated such a large community within Meraki Folk Dance.
I really enjoyed this documentary. My favorite aspect about this documentary is that it really captured the emotions of the people being covered in this film. It made you feel as if you were right there with them feeling the emotions they were going through.
There were a few questions that came to mind while watching this film. My first question is, how long did this whole film take to make? There are a lot of events that happened in this film and I am wondering how they captured all of it, time period wise. Another question I have is during the throwback scene in the very beginning, they showed clips ancestors. How did they get access to those clips? My last question is, how can you report this story without them possibly getting invaded?
Some ethical concerns about this piece is the video for them setting the area on fire, interviewing people that can risk getting their story exposed, and them talking about what action they are taking with violence and how they are not going to sit around and do nothing. My concerns with these three things is that is that good behavior showing that they light someone’s shelter on fire?
My favorite part about this piece was definitely. I love how they spoke about the importance of recording and how it does more than pictures. They also added how they can use film as a weapon which I thought was interesting. It captures how one feels and shows what other people may not be able to see just in pictures.
Lastly, an observation I made watching this documentary is that people are risking the people’s lives who are filming. I also notice how much the music plays effect within the film.
During the 2021-22 CUNYAC season, the first season back since the Covid pandemic, the Baruch College bearcats men’s basketball team defeated the Lehman College Lightning in overtime of the CUNYAC Championship. This year, the CUNYAC men’s basketball preseason poll has selected Baruch as the projected favorite to repeat as the 2023 CUNYAC Champions. With 9 returning players and an additional 9 new players to their roster this season, the Bearcats are looking to repeat as champions and hopefully make it back to the NCAA Tournament.
I plan to speak with one of the returning players, Mohamed Gueye, a junior on the men’s team, about his experiences on the team and his expectations for this year. Gueye received the honor of player of the week on December 6, 2021, during his last season after scoring a career-high 20 points in the CUNYAC opener against Hunter College. This year, in only the second game of the season, he led the team in scoring with 18 points in their win against Chatham University. For this project, I hope to speak with Gueye about his goals for this year and how he’s grown as a player these past few seasons. I also expect to hear more about how the team is accommodating the changes they’ve experienced since last season and how they plan to repeat as the CUNYAC Champions this year. For b-roll, I hope to capture video of Gueye at basketball practices, any type of preparations/routines before game days, and hopefully record some action at a game.
Burnout comes in all different forms. It is a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.
At Baruch College, a lot of students, faculty and staff are dealing with these feelings of burnout on a daily basis. With midterms coming to an end, students having to balance school, work, and life, it gets to be a lot. Why are so many people getting burnt out? When is it time for people to take a break? Why do people feel that they take on so much?
Individuals are experiencing this from class, work, sports, or just from life in general. Sometimes things just pile up and get to be too much.
My plan is to speak with one student who goes to class and work, a faculty member, and a student-athlete, three different areas of the school. I want to see how their forms of burnout come in different areas, but how they are more common than one may think. My goal of this project is to follow around these people for a day to show why and how burnout is a real thing.
My other goal is to speak to a psychology professor about burnout and have them explain the effects it has on individuals.
Modern cheerleading began in the 1980s. It was recognized as an independent sport in 1997. And in 1999, it was officially declared a sport.
However, many people have trouble recognizing its status. They disregard it as a sport because they don’t believe there’s anything that qualifies it as such. They think that cheerleading is just cheering on boys football or doing a dance routine for audience members at a game. What they fail to realize is the amount of practice and hard work that goes into curating routines and perfecting their stunts.
Cheerleading, in some aspects, is considered the most dangerous sport in the United States. With the high flying stunts and over the top tumbling, cheerleaders are always at risk for breaking body parts and enduring concussions.
As a follow up to my radio story about CSI’s move from D3 to D2, i would be recording their cheerleading team as they practice and prepare for competition. Cheerleader Deanna Soueid informed me that with this move, she’s hopeful people in the school will start to take their sport more seriously. I plan to interview their coach about how being seen as a club negatively affects their team and how they hope the change to D2 will help more people appreciate cheerleading for what it truly is.
The film was really well done with some great shots and even better quotes. At the very beginning, there was a shot where the camera seemed to be placed on a tree stump and then kids ran past it. What made the shot so interesting cinematically is that the person working the camera eventually grabbed the camera and started running along with the kids, making it as if a child had grabbed the camera and started running with it. It was a playful shot but it added a lot to the film. I especially enjoyed the different perspectives – the side of the Uru-eu-wau-wau people along with the side of those recruited to burn down and cut the trees. Another interesting shot was when they were burning the forest. How did the cameraman manage to get it? They seemed to be right there as they were setting the fire, a dangerous and amazing sight. But I can’t help but wonder how they were able to capture such a scene. The idea and concept for this film would be hard to access unless someone had a direct connection to the Uru-eu-wau-wau people. At the end, when we see Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau helping a child set up the camera and filming his own scenes for the documentary, it’s a personal touch that allows the viewer to see the story in a different light. These people needed their story told and to have someone so close to them being a part of the storytelling process is amazing.
The Territory is a film that is not only journalistic in informing viewers on the deforestation going on in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, but it does a deep dive into everyone involved in the situation that is entertaining. From the Uru-eu-wau-wau natives’ inability to protect their land due to government incompetency, to the Association of farm land owners that built on that deforested land over the last couple years and were looking for the government’s go ahead to continue their work of building homes’ for their families. I appreciated how the editing didn’t go out of the way to present any one person or party as a villain. There was no sinister music when either party was giving their case via the plentiful monologues sparsened throughout- their ability to balance cinema and objective journalism was very appreciated and I think one of its most underrated strengths.
HOST INTRO: Baruch is considered to many the crown jewel of the CUNY system. According to U.S News and World Report, it ranks 1st among top performers on social mobility and 3rd among the best public universities in the north. However, some students, specifically those who are a part of Baruch’s liberal arts programs, feel like there’s room for improvement. Charlene Figueroa is here to tell us more.
AMBI: students chatting in the cafeteria
TRACK: On the first floor of the William and Anita Newman Library, there is a small cafeteria where students come to study, chat with friends, or enjoy a bite in between classes. One of these students is Dorian Tejeda, who when able to grab a seat in the busy caf mixes beats on his laptop. He’s a sociology major with a passion for music.
ACT: I started producing 10 months ago but I first started in 2017 and it’s mostly just a journey that I’m on to have fun.
TRACK: Music has always been an important part of his life. While he now aspires to be a producer, there was a time when he wanted to be a musician.
ACT: My first instrument handheld was a violin but I stopped playing it. But just keeping that hold of music in my life was very important to me.
TRACK: Tejeda tells me that he hopes Baruch helps in doing so but he has some doubts. The college is split into three schools: The Marxe School of Public & International Affairs, the Weissman School of Arts & Sciences, and The Zicklin School of Business. Close to 20,000 students attend Baruch and more than half of them are enrolled in Zicklin. Because of Zicklin’s size and reputation, it often steals the spotlight and leaves liberal arts students feeling under-appreciated.
ACT: I feel like Baruch doesn’t advertise that part of their school as much as they do the business side. Since it’s not a music school they don’t really care as much about the music like any music hobbies that people might have.
TRACK: He explains how is part of WBMB radio a music club at Baruch that he had only joined recently.
ACT: I didn’t know the club existed until a friend told me about it and that basically applies to everyone in that club. No one really advertises it, no one really talks about it. It’s like in a corner of a school and not easily accessible unless you know where the room is. All of these factors kind of apply to the general idea that the school doesn’t do enough for music.
TRACK: There appears to be a consensus that Baruch can do more to advertise and support the humanities they offer. Emery Peralta, a Journalism major at Baruch, agrees. She first came to Baruch as a management major but at the beginning of sophomore year made the switch to Weissman.
ACT: I made the decision to switch because I had a friend, multiple friends who were liberal arts majors, and one of them, in particular, told me he felt like I would be a better fit because I was debating on leaving the school altogether so he told me to give it a try, give the new major a shot for a semester and see if I fit in more there.
TRACK: If it wasn’t for that friend, Peralta believes she could have very well decided to leave Baruch. Because promotion was so heavily focused on Zicklin she wasn’t very exposed to the options Weisman and Marxe offered.
ACT: All the people that I knew aside from two friends were all business majors, I knew they had clubs but I also didn’t see those advertised a lot so no not really, everything I was seeing mainly was business-focused.
TRACK: Since Peralta has changed schools, she has noticed a difference between the resources at Zicklin and Weisman.
ACT: I feel like we have a very limited selection, although some of the classes are really fun and the teachers are really great we just don’t have the same catalog of things to choose from. If you go onto degree works it says that these are all the courses we have available usually almost always, everytime I go to register for the ones I want, the really really fun ones aren’t available.
TRACK: A solution Peralta suggests is an increase in staffing that would help expand the course options. Allowing liberal arts students, a similar variety afforded to their business counterparts. Nathan Fletcher, a professor at the department of fine and performing arts had a similar proposal. Fletcher is new to Baruch and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he teaches a Harmony 1 class. Where each student has a desk with a keyboard.
ACT: In my classroom, as you can see we have probably close to 20 keyboards these are great to have especially for a music theory course so that the curriculum doesn’t have to be so abstract and theoretical. If a student wants to experience the music in a tactile way and also listen to it they can play the keyboard in front of them
TRACK: Often those passing by in the hallways can hear the class as Fletcher and his students play. Attracting a lot of attention.
ACT: Thus far in my time here is people walking by this room and peaking in and being like oh my god what is this what are these there are pianos here. People are very surprised. I wish there were a way and I’ve had conversations with students about this. I wish there was a way for more pianos to be more accessible to more students outside the context of what is required for class. I know that I have students and have met students who might not be in my class but are involved in music and they wanna have access to instruments.
TRACK: Fletcher believes this access will help students explore a side to them they may not even know they have. But he hopes this can also be achieved by other means like on-campus events that would encourage students to look into the music courses Baruch has to offer.
ACT: Today was great for that because we had a concert in the plaza. We had 11 acts all different musical styles were represented and it was great.
TRACK: It can be said that whether it’s staffing, course options, clubs or events there are ways that Baruch can further support their liberal arts programs and extracurriculars. Allowing for every student to nurture outside interests and further enrich their education, whether they attend Weissman, Marxe, or Zicklin.