Chicken Soup Isn't Always A Cure

Last week was a busy one for me. I conducted interviews in Kansas City, Louisville and Washington D.C. On my flight back to San Diego, I started feeling a cold coming on and upon my return home I made a large kettle of chicken soup in hopes of warding it off. I was very motivated because I was supposed to fly back to D.C. yesterday to attend a full honors military funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. This was for a client I had interviewed 18 months ago. He had been a p.o.w. in a German prisoner of war camp during WWII. I was so honored when he shared his experiences with me during the interview--especially since he told me when I was setting up the camera that he was not going to talk about the war.
When his widow emailed me to tell me of his death and invited me to attend the interment ceremony, I knew I would attend even though my schedule showed that I would be in D.C. the week prior. What I didn't count on was getting sick and in spite of the soup and laying low for several days I am still too ill to travel. As I write this, the ceremony is taking place at this same point in time and though I'm not there in person hearing the bugle play and the echo of the rifle volleys, I salute this gentle and courageous man. The other day, his wife told me they would be playing his interview at the reception held after the interment. It's rather nice to think that I contributed in a small way to the celebration of his life.

--Bridget Poizner

Video Biographies: Four generations of women. One family.

Enthusiasm is contagious. Which is why by the time I concluded my most recent video biography interview with the most amazing 80-something-year-old woman, I felt motivated to seize the day. Have adventures. Wear crazy wigs that flew off when I threw my head back, laughing at a casino in Vegas(!?). With the ultimate goal of turning into a fiesty old woman when my time comes... because really, they're the best kind!

This particular video took a year in the making. Or more accurately, the gift certificate for the package had been acquired a year ago, but it took until last week to convince 'grandma' that she deserved to be in front of the camera, regaling everyone with the crazy stories she had accumulated over a lifetime.

Hearing about the tricks and ambushes involved in rallying grandma to the venue for the interview made me picture a woman who was quiet, kept to herself, and didn't speak much. I couldn't have been more wrong. The minute I stepped through their front door, I could hear her laugh from three rooms away! When I met her, she graciously offered me her hand but by the time I left, she enveloped me in a motherly hug goodbye. Her voice was loud and got your attention. And she was telling me her stories even before the camera was set up. In fact, she even asked me for mine.

Just like I had formed an image of her in my head, she said she had one of me... a 50-year-old, jolly woman of significantly different proportions than those that I displayed... but I think she decided to like me anyway. Because when the interview did begin, she was perfect. Charismatic. Articulate. Candid. And oh so forthcoming. And honest. It takes courage to revisit parts of our lives, and say it how it is - and she was up to that challenge. In fact, when the interview ended and her lovely daughter entered the room, she was surprised by some of the things that came up. And perhaps, more surprised that her mother had called things the way they were.

Present on the day of the interview were four generations of women from the same family. Grandma and her daughter. Grandma's grand-daughter. And great-granddaughter. The oldest being 80+. The youngest 6. And it was obvious to anyone who knew them (even if only for one afternoon), that there existed between them a wonderful bond of love, respect, spontaneity, enthusiasm, and innocent wonder... ingredients perhaps for a good life?


Aditi

Video Biography: 'I'd like Mom to go first!'

Last week, I had the opportunity of traveling up to Georgetown, TX for an interview. For people who know just how far (or really, how close) Georgetown is to Austin, this might seem like nothing momentous but to me it was. Because well, every interview is momentous. Plus I like checking off names from maps knowing that that's one less place I've left unexplored. So sorry, there's no bursting my bubble!

I had been commissioned by a gentleman who wished to have both his parents interviewed for their individual, customized video biographies.

"I would like for you to begin with my mother please," he said. "She's come second in a lot of things that have happened in our lives and for once, I want her to come first."

I was touched. No doubt so was she.

When I met her, I found her to be a charming, thoughtful lady... and when she spoke on camera about her family, there reflected pride and love on her face. It wasn't always easy for her to talk about her own life or memories from her childhood (in her own words, she was beginning to find it hard to remember details), but when it was time to talk about the family she had raised with her husband, her face lit up and some very interesting stories came tumbling out.

Were some of these stories ones that no one had ever heard before? A few were, I'm sure of that. But what's more important is that ALL of these stories will become ones that no one ever forgets anymore... not even when the 'details' slip from her own mind. Because they're in a safe place now. In her own voice.

In that precious moment when she came first.



Aditi

Video Biographies: Ah, the good ol' days!

It wasn't until fairly recently in my own life did I start expressing an avid interest in the times and worlds of the past. It might be that I was too busy living my own life or it might be that I was too busy trying to plot for the future... whatever the
reason, the past was inevitably in the past for me.

Then I started creating video biographies for other people; 'ordinary' people like me but also unlike me in their awareness and recognition of the value of the past. And oh, what treasures they revealed. Not just about the world as they knew it, but also facets to my personality that I did not know of.

1). For instance, I am complacent. In thinking that there is only one way of doing things - the given way. When it's cold, I want to switch on the heater. When I need to freshen up, I step into the restroom. When I want to have fruit in the winter, a trip to the grocery store will suffice. And when I want to 'relax', the television comes on.

But oh, what innovative ways other than the ones I just listed exist! Holding hot potatoes in your hands while you walk to school can really help in keeping you warm.

Outhouses were a wonderful invention back in the day, not only to freshen up, but also for entertainment purposes as one lady shared with me. The idea of fun for her 8 odd brothers when they were growing up was to go about at night and shift the locations of their neighbors' outhouses... for instance, instead of waking up to a handy outhouse positioned near the back barn, it could now be found a mile into the fields. Not very funny, I'm sure, for the people who really needed to go, but quite a laugh for a bunch of young boys.

Mothers and grandmothers would pickle, preserve and can fruits and vegetables to last for an entire year. To last through war time rations. To last till the date of the next wedding in the family. And no wonder cable television took such a while in being invented... people were actually happy without it! Walking around the neighborhood on stilts, organizing easter egg hunts around the river, climbing trees, roller skating, board games... there was always so much to do!

2). I would probably never survive the dating game back in the day! I recently interviewed an elderly couple in their 80's and the one lament of the husband was that his wife 'dated a LOT' before they got married. Her justification: "Well, my mother told me that if someone asks you out, you should say yes if you want to go out with them. And no if you don't. But then you can't accept another date for the same time that you already said no to. And whenever he came into town and asked me for a date, well, I always already had one!"

3). I've probably led too sheltered a life to ever be able to live through a war or wars without complaint. To endure blackouts. 'Duck and cover' exercises in school. Live on rationed food. Rationed gas. Rationed cloth. To recycle fat drippings and aluminum foil for the army. To make do with censored letters. To survive an uncle being taken prisoner of war.

There's a lot to be learned from the past. And only people who've lived through it can tell us how it was. How it used to be. Inject life into history books and legal documents... all one has to do is ask. And listen. And learn.


Aditi

Video Biographies: Put your best face forward

I know, in a project such as a video biography where the main emphasis is on sharing and revealing stories from the past, who really gives much thought to what to wear? But oh, let me tell you, that's important and the phone call by one of the ladies I will be interviewing next month just confirmed it. We were trying hard to juggle our schedules around and come up with something that works for both of us. We had just decided on a date towards the end of March... when suddenly she remembered her appointment with her hair stylist is every Thursday and well, that did it! Friday would be the day to put her best face forward on camera!

If that sounds superficial, well, let me put it this way. The image on the video biography is going to be how generations forever in the future will remember Grandma. Or great-grandma by then. Or even great-great-grandma. More than the photographs in albums and dusty old trunks, more than words on the family tree, more than verbal stories passed down as folklore, the video biography will the definitive source to form a feel of Grandma's personality and in that case, shouldn't she look the best she can?

So give a thought to what you're wearing. Avoid busy patterns and loud stripes... go in for a nice solid color that doesn't compete with the stories for attention. Spend some time on your appearance. And yes, let's not forget that hair appointment. And let's not feel guilty about it either!


Aditi

Video Biographies: How to make sure they last

An interesting question came up at a recent video biography workshop here in Austin. One of the members of the 'audience' shared her experience recording her mother's stories on video many years ago. She never got a chance to look at the video much since then, and two days before the workshop, she decided that the time was finally right to play the tape that it was stored on. Imagine her shock then when all she saw on the TV screen when she pushed the 'play' button was static-y snow... no image, no sound, no memories.

So what happened?

The lady mentioned lending the tape to someone else who wished to make a copy of it for their own use... and while it's hard to guess what really happened, I'm going to hark back to my TV news channel days to give my take on it. A news channel can use a LOT of tapes (at least the one where I used to work did!) and once they had been stored for the necessary amount of time, they were ready to be reused. At which point they were 'scrubbed' i.e. wiped clean of all existing footage on them and made 'new' again. If I were to guess, I think somewhere along the way, instead of hitting 'copy', the button 'delete' or 'scrub' was accidentally pushed, resulting in the current state of the tape. Of course I'm simplifying the situation a lot here (!) but the point is to provide an idea of how easy it can be to lose valuable information... in this case, precious memories of a very important person in the lady's life.

If you are planning to record the stories of your loved ones, then try and make a copy of the original tape wherever possible. Store the original, and use the duplicate for your editing purposes. Once you're done editing the video to your satisfaction, burn a few DVDs for your records. Yes, there will always be a file stored on your computer and this may seem like an unnecessary precaution, but computers have been known to crash without prior notice... and why risk the loss of all that valuable information?

Now if the lady's video had been a digital file on her computer, there could still be a hope of retrieving the data she lost... of course, you would need to go to someone who is a technical expert in these sorts of things and in no way am I that person. But there is a larger possibility of retrieving files once they've been digitized. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that in my experience, DVDs have proved to be good for storing my audio/video files. They are durable, sturdy, last long, and can be duplicated without much trouble. All this provided you handle and store them right!

Happy interviewing!


Aditi

Video Biographies: 'Stories from the Heart' conference in Austin

What are you doing this weekend? Yes, I'm talking about February 5,6 and 7.

Well, Story Circle is hosting their 5th annual conference here in Austin - "Stories From the Heart" and I'm very excited by it. So far, more than a 100 women from across the country have registered, and apart from the conference program, it sounds like there will be ample opportunity for fun, games and forging new friendships. But before I get distracted by that, let me tell you a little bit about the conference.

The focus of the 3-day conference is, quite simply, stories. Stories from our day-to-day lives. Stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. Stories of lessons learned. Mistakes made. Stories of heartbreak and overcoming heartbreak. In short, the stories of a lifetime.

Over the course of several workshops, one learns to give voice to these stories - either through memoir writing, blogging, poetry or... you guessed it, video biographies.

I will be accompanied by two very accomplished writers / editors - Jane Ross and Pat Flathouse - in giving an informational talk on how to effectively use video as a medium to document individual histories, without getting intimidated by the technology involved. Needless to say, the three of us are very excited to be presenting this 'new' resource in storytelling!

Moreover, there is an opportunity for individual consultations on Friday - so that if anyone has very specific questions, they can get one-on-one talk time with professionals and experts from the field. And there's a silent auction. Open mike. a sinful sounding dessert reception (!). Informal interactions. Slumber parties - okay, so I made that one up but only to test if you were still paying attention! Rest assured, it will be an experience. And if that appeals to you in any way, come on over to the Wyndham Hotel. Online registration may have closed at the moment but there's still the opportunity to register at the door... and I know we're glad to have you there!



Aditi