News

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  Prison Portraits: Photographic Self-Representation in an Image Desert
  December 7
  As the Docs Program undertakes visual work on behalf of lifers incarcerated for decades because they are ineligible for parole, we confront a ban on photographing and filming in prisons.  Prison Portraits may be useful in providing not only a way to deal with the ban, but also an argument why it is wrong.
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  Forget Flattery: The Attributes of a Good, Effective Sentencing Video
  May 29
  A sentencing video should be more than a flattering portrait of a defendant; it should tell the story of what the defendant has done to deserve a lighter sentence and why he or she is unlikely to reoffend.
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  “A Civil Remedy” Backstory: How Law Professor Kate Nace Day Came to Make a Documentary Short about Domestic Sex Trafficking
  July 17
  After analyzing numerous documentaries about sex trafficking, Law Professor Emerita Kate Nace Day decided to make one that focuses on a vision of civil justice for survivors.
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  Confronting the Digital Reality: Producing Visual Advocacy and Scholarship (PVAS) in Law Schools
  December 5
  Visual legal advocacy and scholarship (PVAS) are being taught and produced in law schools around the country today and the PVAS Working Group intends to support their expansion.
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  To Ask or Not to Ask? The Law, Ethics, & Etiquette of Capturing the Public for “DIY Stock”
  August 28
  What guidance should law students be given about capturing candid images of the public, in public and without the subjects’ consent, for a “DIY Stock” gallery?
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  Storytellers Needed! Collaborations and the Promise of i-Docs
  August 14
  When social justice collaborations and storytellers are in short supply, visual legal advocates should pursue the promise of i-Docs (Interactive Documentaries) to encourage participation and activism for change.
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  VLA Production Sine Qua Non: A DIY “Stock” Image Gallery with a “Street Vibe”
  August 3
  Having a DIY gallery of stock images of your own making is a sine qua non to teaching and practicing visual legal advocacy.  Capturing stills and video footage with the characteristics of street photography in mind will really enrich the collection.
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  Teaching Advocacy Video Production in Law School: Getting by with a Lot of Help from My Collaborators
  July 26
  This is the first in a series of “how-to” posts on structuring a course that involves law students, supported by a host of collaborators, in producing and directing short social justice advocacy documentaries.
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  The First-Graders Who Were “The Memphis 13”: A Different Visual Take on Brown v. Board
  June 23

  “The Memphis 13” is not only a powerful and thought-provoking short documentary; it also illustrates the potential contributions of visual legal scholarship.   

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  Showing Where We Come From – A Public Defender’s Use of Video in Pretrial Plea Negotiations
  June 16

  In making the case for resources and training in visual legal advocacy, a public defender describes how a video she shot in a client’s home with his mother was effective in reducing his sentence.   

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  “Nowhere to Run”: A Student Video on the Impact of Recreational Disparities on City Kids
  June 6

  Sometimes legal research generates a good topic for a student-made visual legal advocacy video.  It did in the case of “Nowhere to Run: Giving Philly’s Urban Youth a Place to Play.”

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  Affirming Human Connections in Interviews
  May 31
  Conducting interviews for social justice documentaries gives students the opportunity to understand the importance of affirming human connections as they learn how to use cameras, lights, and mikes,
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  Documenting Social Justice Protests #2: “In Struggle” with Signs, Symbols, Spectacle, and Respect for Social Connections
  May 22
  Not only should visual artist activists produce work that is authentic and creative, they should also pay due regard to the importance of social connections to movements for social change.
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  Documenting Social Justice Protests #1: The Visual Impact of “Creative Cultural Resistance”
  May 10
  Video of the 2014 VLA Roundtable “Preparing to Protest” shows how “creative cultural resistance” can increase the visual impact of direct action social justice protests.
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  How to Gain the Trust of Your Documentary Subjects
  January 18
  Call Me Kuchu co-director Malika Zouhali-Worrall talks about gaining trust of documentary film subjects.