Moving Pictures

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Dubuque Students' memories, thoughts, hopes and fears one year after the events of 9/11 are captured on film in this compelling documentary. The film also features the music of Hempstead student Michael Gilbertson and music teacher Tracey Rush.

This movie won the Award of Excellence from the National School Public Relations Association.

oving pictures, film, video, comprise a media form that tells stories in a most compelling way. Technology today makes this art form even more accessible especially to the Dubuque Community Schools. First, you need a story, and second, you need a good reason to tell that story. September 11th is a date that for this generation will live in infamy just as December 7th and the attack on Pearl Harbor did for their grandparents. And thanks (or no thanks) to technology again, this was an event whose images indelibly etched themselves on our brains. Continuous coverage and the availability of portable video cameras provided an unbelievable archive of images, some of which will never be forgotten.

Photos at right are stills from the motion picture. Click on any one of them to download an enlargement.

We combined some of these images with the reflections of our students who, for their first time, witnessed a tragic event as part of a mass audience. Many students were watching television in their classrooms and saw, live, the second plane hit the World Trade Center. We weren't sure if the event and its coverage would hurt or help our young people. Those parents who were concerned about overexposure, nightmares, and mass melancholy, soon surrendered to the tide of even more images and horrific news of suicide bombers in Israel, letters filled with anthrax on the home front, and even more horrible details of the worst terrorist attack in world history.

So how did our kids survive all of this? Find out for yourself in this 20 minute film focussing on the memories, thoughts, hopes and fears one year after the events of 9/11.

The movie was conceived by Thom Determan of the Dubuque Community School District, and it was produced and directed by Gary Olsen, Webmaster and Public Affairs Coordinator (and film maker) for the district. Gary has produced nearly 200 videos this past three years of students and teachers involved in the day-to-day activities of public education.

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A beautiful rendition of a classic hymn and a new original composition performed by Michael Gilbertson, a freshman at Hempstead, serve as the sound track for this movie. Michael's composition "Lament" and the venerable "Amazing Grace" also feature the splendid violin of Tracey Rush, a music teacher in the Dubuque Community School District.

 

Collected Feedback on this Story

9/11 Video Feedback

The 9/11 video has caused all kinds of feedback (mostly positve) and for that we are grateful, However, we didn't anticipate the wonderful response from outside of our district. Incredible how our Web reaches such a wide circle of friends.
-- Gary Olsen

Just wanted you to know
that my family and I watched your 9/11 video over the weekend and were touched to tears. Bless you for your efforts.
Nan Welch, Principal of Prescott Early Childhood Center

How can I get a copy of the video for Mt. Vernon School District?
It is extremely well done. I'll be happy to pay whatever it is to get a copy. We want to play it for our students on Wednesday, September 11.

Kim Steele
Mt. Vernon School District

Thought Provoking

Thank you so much for your video presentation of September 11th. As a school we have just completed watching it this morning and my homebase and I found it to be very thought provoking. You did a very nice job.

Kendra Kunkel
Washington Jr. High

The Best from Cedar Rapids:
To all that was involved in the making of this video I would like to let you
know it was well done. Tears ran down my face as I listen to all the comments made by children who should not be worry about the problems we are
facing as a nation and remembering all the pain and sorrow 9/11 brought to
us by a country that hates us because we are who we are. Good luck to all
and thank you very much for sharing your video with the rest of us.
Susan Akers
Cedar Rapids, IA

 

 

 

 

 

 

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