The Current State of My Projects
It’s easy to follow what I’m doing.
First, follow me on YouTube and Instagram. Next, be one of the two or three people who read my Frame by Frame weblog :-) about nonfiction visual storytelling. My portfolio is located at Documentary Media (the address is my old Rhetorica weblog site).
Why bother with any of that or even reading this newsletter?
I retired from university teaching two years ago. I did not, however, retire from telling visual, nonfiction stories, primarily through documentary film and photography. I think I still have much to say — many stories to tell — and much to teach. If these things interest you, then following me might make sense.
For now, I’ll leave it to you to explore those links — like you have nothing better to do ;-)
Humanitarian Service
I started doing humanitarian work with Carbon Trace Productions in 2017. Humanitarian service and documentary education were the two missions of that nonprofit organization. I continue similar work in Portugal.
Missão Saúde para a Humanidade: I am working on a series of videos about the work of this organization, primarily focused on facilitating healthcare for children in Guiné-Bissau — a former Portuguese colony in Africa. I’ll be traveling to Guiné-Bissau to cover one of the mission trips this May. In addition to telling a compelling story, I hope to provide my audience across my platforms with an interesting look at producing nonfiction video under challenging conditions (similar to what I’ve done with students in places such as Russia, China, and Jamaica). One of those challenges: I will only be able to work with my SONY a6400 and DJI Osmo on this trip. More on that as we approach May.
Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente and Aveiro University: As part of the National Water Day celebrations, the Portuguese Environment Agency in association with the A-AAGORA project team from Aveiro University, promoted a Biodiversity Restoration action in the Casqueira Marine. I volunteered to make the following video.
Documentary Films
Trinity — the last documentary I filmed in the United States (although probably not the last ever) — is, I promise, in post-production. I hack away on this experimental (one of the reasons it’s taking so long, I think) film regularly. I’ve given up trying to predict when it will be finished. It’s a journey to the heart of the culminating event of the last crisis era while processing the current era of crisis. Click here for necessary background.
I have three projects for 2025. I have announced two so far.
Os Marnotos (The Saltworkers): A short film about producing sea salt the old-fashioned way on the estuary in Aveiro. Filming began this month with a formal interview at the Aveiro Museum. Filming will continue in late February when the saltworkers begin preparing to produce for the 2025 season. I’ll start post-production in October when they close the pans. Here’s a teaser.
Gigantes Verdes (Green Giants): I do not have a teaser to show you yet. Filming begins next week. The Portuguese nonprofit VERDE is running a new program to find, map, and study the largest old-growth trees in Portugal. That’s right up my environmentalist alley :-) More soon.
Unnamed Project: I’ll say more about this when I get a better handle on what it is I’m trying to do. Let’s just say it is my response to the general state of things at the moment.
Other Nonfiction
I do travel and culture videos for GMP!TV. For example:
Well, that was a lot :-)
Thanks for getting this far.
Please be sure to check in with my other social media efforts. I’m @acline on both YouTube and Instagram. If you’re nostalgic for the days of weblogs, check out Frame by Frame.