Last week, after trying to get several interviews I realized that something wasn’t working. I was constantly reflecting on how things weren’t working out for my documentary and there was no solution; it was time to make a change. One of those days I received an email from Mr. Topf and told me that there could be other alternatives for topics. And thank god he did!
Sarah Dupont, producer of “Amazon Gold,” a documentary about illegal mining in Peru, happened to be in Lima AND in our school for a few days. Mr. Topf had spoken to her about a possible collaboration with one of the IA students. This is when I stepped in.
Sarah Dupont, producer of “Amazon Gold,” a documentary about illegal mining in Peru, happened to be in Lima AND in our school for a few days. Mr. Topf had spoken to her about a possible collaboration with one of the IA students. This is when I stepped in.
My documentary topic about women discrimination was obviously not working because 1. I was either aiming too high in terms of the people who I wanted to contact or 2. The topic was just not feasible to film. I really liked the topic I had chosen but it was evidently not working and it was only causing me to fall behind on my work progress.
However, I didn’t necessarily feel an expert in mining—not even illegal mining in Peru. I thought this could either be a huge problem or the perfect opportunity to learn about this from scratch.
While I was brainstorming I remembered that the first time we were brainstorming ideas for our documentaries one of the topics I had written was mercury poisoning, which clearly related to “Amazon Gold” and possibly a topic that Sarah Dupont could also help me about. I was quite excited to learn more about this and I came up with one question that related mercury and economics.
Mercury Poisoning and Human Capital
Research question:
How does mercury poisoning affect human capital in small communities?
However, I didn’t necessarily feel an expert in mining—not even illegal mining in Peru. I thought this could either be a huge problem or the perfect opportunity to learn about this from scratch.
While I was brainstorming I remembered that the first time we were brainstorming ideas for our documentaries one of the topics I had written was mercury poisoning, which clearly related to “Amazon Gold” and possibly a topic that Sarah Dupont could also help me about. I was quite excited to learn more about this and I came up with one question that related mercury and economics.
Mercury Poisoning and Human Capital
Research question:
How does mercury poisoning affect human capital in small communities?
I spent about two hours of class time to research about these two topics because I needed to know enough information and start becoming an expert in these two topics because I had to be able to perform an interview with Sarah Dupont if she accepted our request.
I’m still waiting for an answer but I will continue doing research and trying to make my documentary more focused so I can start looking for contacts to interview and having some footage to begin editing.
I’m still waiting for an answer but I will continue doing research and trying to make my documentary more focused so I can start looking for contacts to interview and having some footage to begin editing.