2012 ShortDocs Challenge: BlockDocs
-
Flecks of Grey (by Pidgey)
2012 / 03:01
One pigeon's emotional journey to understand his neighbors: the seagulls.
-
On the Orange Dusty Streets
2012 / 03:00
Meet Juma, a Rwandan street boy, whose dream is to become a singer, and Bosco who spends his days fixing broken plastic buckets, casserole pots, shoes, radios and umbrellas to earn a living for his family.
-
My Blue Bucket
2012 / 03:00
A simple scene of sharing language, laughter, songs and daily chores with my neighbours in Kigali, Rwanda.
-
The Green Controller
2012 / 02:43
Typical day at the dormitory - the usual sounds that are heard across the hall.
-
Through the Perforated Tan Walls
2012 / 03:00
A community of music lovers share their experiences with the practice rooms at Allen Hall, a Living and Learning dorm at University of Illinois.
-
Grey Areas
2012 / 03:00
Grey Areas is about how close Dave Pickering is to his dad, in a literal sense; it's also a tribute to the the neighbour they buried in his back garden.
-
Ordinary Brown Frogs
2012 / 02:45
A couple from Amsterdam East talks about the brown frogs they introduced to the neighborhood. (You might find this english transcript handy!)
-
Recollections Dream in Blue
2012 / 02:39
This audio captures the essence of Matthew Wilmott's internal neighbours - silence and recollections/dreams (per say those that that drift dark and heavy in the mind just before sunrise).
-
Soft Footsteps Fade to Black
2012 / 02:58
Soft footsteps fade to balck is abstract in relation to the conventional form of neighbours, however flashing thoughts and the path can be seen as comfort akin to the world next door.
-
Pink Pong
2012 / 02:49
Louise tries to teach me singing, and Philip speaks about silence and writing.
-
Romantic Red Love, But Not in Sweden
2012 / 03:00
With the couple next door constantly fighting and my friends failed marriages in good memory I started to wonder why Sweden seems to fail in loving until death do us part.
-
Ernie's Green Free Tree
2012 / 02:59
Under Ernie's Free Tree neighbors and passersby pick from the free pile, the last of Ernie Winger's possessions—recycling, laughing, crying, remembering a generous man who began life as a poor cast-off to become a neighborhood treasure.
-
-
White Picket Pretense
2012 / 03:00
The truth behind the white picket fence: A story of neighbors at odds, egos at war, and kids at play
-
East Oakland (in Blue)
2012 / 03:00
East Lake Neighbors wax poetic about their neighborhood mixed in with rhymes from Oakland hip-hop artist DO D.A.T.'s album "Oakland in Blue".
-
Forget Me Not Suburban St. Louis, For You Are The Site of My Sexual Liberation
2012 / 03:01
St. Louis kinksters demonstrate that an history of lab-based human sexuality studies in the city can be recast as communal, playful, and liberating in the suburbs.
-
A Black Tie Affair
2012 / 03:00
In Ireland where the tradition of waking the dead is strong in rural areas, we go behind the scenes of this centuries old tradition.
-
Barmy Banff Blackout Bingo!
2012 / 03:01
Welcome to Thursday night $1,000 jackpot bingo at The Royal Canadian Legion in the small Rocky Mountain town of Banff, Alberta.
-
Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Lutheran?
2012 / 02:51
I challenged my neighbors to a good old fashioned college chant off!
-
The Purple-Spotted Sock
2012 / 02:59
A story about a neighbour, which turns out also to be a story about another neighbour – and when all comes to all: about the narrator herself.
-
That Mill House Yellow
2012 / 02:59
In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, gentrification advances with a cautionary yellow light as a local property manger paints the town his own special hue.
-
Red White & Bruised
2012 / 02:57
2012 ShortDocs Winner! Don Floyd looks back on his life of eighty years, after surviving a heart attack in March of 2012.
-
-
Black Paris Spleen, American Mouths
2012 / 03:00
Journalist Ajai Raj muses about art, fact, and truth with his metaphysical neighbors, the notorious dramatist Mike Daisey and Charles Baudelaire, the renowned poet.
-
-
-
-
(Gold)en Age of the Newspaper Business
2012 / 03:00
Experience the almost-lost memories of a team of journalists from St. Catharines, Ontario.
-
-
-
Strawberry Margaritas
2012 / 03:00
Your neighborhood Mexican restaurant may have a deeper history than you know.
-
Orangey Brown Meets Yellow and Black
2012 / 02:00
Two neighbors discuss the thing that inspires fear, sweetens our lives, and keeps food on the table.
-
Bing Fu is Not Blue
2012 / 03:04
Bing Fu is an ESL teacher in Toronto, and she tells her story about misunderstanding a word in spite of looking it up in the dictionary.
-
Duke's Street Corner Blues
2012 / 02:42
Duke, one of the many artists in the historic African American arts district of the Fillmore neighborhood, discusses his surprising first step in becoming an artist.
-
A Golden Summer
2012 / 02:50
Benct and Rosie are German backpackers who became my neighbours for a weekend when they parked their camper van, "Bussy", outside my house. This is the story of their travels so far...
-
True Blue - The Story of Anzac Day
2012 / 03:01
Here's the untold story of the origins of Anzac Day.
-
-
Happy in Black and White
2012 / 02:57
This is the story of a triangular-shaped green – bordered by busy commuter roads in Dublin, Ireland – which offers a place of sanctuary to more than just people.
-
We Thought He Had a Black Heart
2012 / 03:01
Through their journey down Letaba road, Brandon, Keith, and Jameel quickly realise that appearances may not be the entire story and that there is much more to their neighbours than they think.
-
Grey Skies and Packed Basements
2012 / 02:58
A Canadian arrives in London to find herself living with a Swiss Italian and a Brit who have some quirky secrets; after one week she learns more about what her new neighbours are like.
-
Yellow Bellied White Woman Fights the Blues (Sat 11-5)
2012 / 03:00
Hello neighbor the weather is fine outside and my old stuff is all yours all free, well, kind of.
-
Game, Set and Tennis Whites
2012 / 03:00
Jo's boys love living on Elliswick Road because of the Tennis Club on the corner, where neighbor Veronica does her bit to help keep things running smoothly.
-
Bee a Good Neighbor - They'll Give You Gold
2012 / 02:59
The story of how I helped a neighbour move thousands of his tiny friends to a new home.
-
Bye Bye Blue Bird
2012 / 02:53
Strange visitors to an otherwise unremarkable strip mall on Cape Cod face eviction.
-
Fire Engine Red
2012 / 02:34
This is a story about getting to know your neighbour, when your neighbour is a sound.
-
Black, White and Green
2012 / 03:00
A woman makes her 'home' at a bus stop across the street from my office, this is my fantasy of what her seemingly miserable life could be the result of.
-
Whistler in Blue (Sweater)
2012 / 02:49
In a tiny village the rhythm of life is surprisingly loud, and one neighbour keeps time with his whistle.
-
Roses are Red, Sandwiches Are Yellow
2012 / 02:50
Neighbors of Bushwick, Brooklyn are asked, "Which do you prefer, the perfect love or the perfect sandwich?" -- vox pop-style.
-
Yellow Short Pants
2012 / 02:47
Daily life can be tough for a foreigner living in Japan but luckily Ueko and Hitomi, my neighbors from down the road, are always on hand to offer advice....even when it involves a missing pair of yellow shorts.
-
False Teeth, True Love, and Blueberry Pie
2012 / 02:59
My neighbor Earl has been a logger all his life; Betty, who lives up the mountain tells me those logging men are known for their sweet tooth, and Earl tells me about his sweetheart.
-
Ten Daughters One Dairy, The Brown Family Farm
2012 / 03:01
The Brown Family farm was run by ten daughters.
-
Red Envelope Fairy
2012 / 03:00
Across the street from my apartment, Elaine Autwell delivers Freedom of Information Act requests to every department in the City of Evanston, a job which has earned her the title of the "Red Envelope Fairy."
-
The Green Door to the Future
2012 / 03:00
In a corner of Santa Monica, CA, the Village Trailer Park and its residents face an uncertain future.
-
The Red House on Maple
2012 / 02:58
At the Red House on Maple, ten best friends (including me!) relish in each other's companionship, as the time they have together comes to an end.
-
The Black Dog: If You're Going Through Hell, Keep Going
2012 / 02:46
A simple neighborly gesture means a lot, in a time of need.
-
The Gray Area
2012 / 03:00
After a grueling 35 min dance entitled "Little Mortal Jump" by Alejandro Cerrudo, resident choreographer of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, dancers Kevin Shannon and Alice Klock reflect on not only their young love duet but the thoughts that cross their mind after the lights have gone out.
-
Red Brick Houses
2012 / 03:00
Here's a conversation with my 92 year-old neighbor Liza about how our neighborhood has changed since 1959, with "Mack the Knife" played on ukelele by fellow neighbor Tom Bassett.
-
The Wine-Dark Sea
2012 / 03:00
Homer's Odyssey re-imagined through my neighbors' experiences on the wine-dark sea.
-
Mike Schmidt on a Purple Bike
2012 / 03:01
Old friends and newly neighbors, Andy and Amanda stalk their Brooklyn block to uncover the mystique of a neighborhood legend who curiously resembles one of baseball's greatest Hall of Famers.
-
Logan Square's Brown Bread Underground
2012 / 03:00
On one block in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, an unnamed baker whips up artisan sourdoughs to sell to his neighbors.
-
Romance at the Red Line Tap
2012 / 03:00
Characters come out of the woodwork to take the stage at a weekly open mic at The Red Line Tap in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.
-
Rust, Gray and Black - The Story of National Instruments
2012 / 0
This is a story of a factory, The National Instruments, near my home in Jadavpur, Kolkata that gradually became sick, and then closed down. It has been given to a University by the Indian Government to build another campus. All the sounds and voices of the workers have been recorded before and during the demolition of the site.
-
The White House
2012 / 03:02
Living next door for years, they soon learn each other's ways, not only to be nosey but also for support.
-
Crown the King: Red Takes Black
2012 / 02:32
2012 ShortDocs Winner! One block from Adam Kampe's apartment sits the Capitol Pool Checkers Club where, each week, men with nicknames like the Hammer, the Pressure Man, and the Razor gather to trash talk over heated games of checkers.
-
-
From Green to Gone
2012 / 02:58
A tree is a precious thing in a city...but does anyone care when a tree in their own backyard is cut down?
-
The Color of Somebody's Skin
2012 / 03:00
My neighbor Eddy Jr. shares his love and lament for the neighborhood he's called home all his life.
-
New Neighbor Blues
2012 / 03:00
Susan and Joe discover just how much the ocean they grew up with meant to them when they are 3,000 miles from home.
-
White Noise
2012 / 02:55
White Noise is about what happens to the residents when several construction projects invade one block at the same time.
-
Dancing Away the Teaching Blues
2012 / 03:00
Life experiences told by my neighbor and colleague: Chris Nho, the breakdancing math teacher.
-
The Man With the Long White Beard
2012 / 03:00
He's not just the Santa Claus-looking guy who walks his dog every day on my street--he's Larry Bauer: carpenter, man-of-letters.
-
Fwd: Have You Red the 'Welcome Back to the D' Thread?
2012 / 02:53
My neighbors read their own words in this piece which spotlights excerpts from an e-mail thread that went out on our neighborhood list-serve, a source of fascination for all involved.
-
Unobstructed Pink and Blue
2012 / 03:00
A landlord and a tenant inhabit the same building on West 18th Street in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.
-
Pretty in Pink
2012 / 02:52
The girls upstairs are loud and fun, and one of them is Miss Wicker Park.
-
-
-
Sunset Ridge Brown
2012 / 02:54
One morning I looked out my front door and...oh, my, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?
-
On the Day I Died It Was Mostly Blues
2012 / 03:00
I live next to the Westwood Cemetery in Carrboro, North Carolina and my neighbors are the ghosts who reside there.
-
Black Box
2012 / 03:00
"Black Box" is a performance art piece based on a confidential survey asking both local and international participants, 'What would your metaphorical black box say?'
-
Green Fingers Gather
2012 / 03:00
"Reflections on gardening, allotments, and community in a Garden Sunday event at Plot 22 - a nature space, allotment garden, meeting circle, and learning resource."
-
At First Blush: The Case of the Girl in the Purple Hoodie
2012 / 03:00
When you ask someone an impossible question, be prepared to listen closely for your answer.
-
If Bob Was a Fruit, He'd Be a Yellow Quince
2012 / 02:53
Sometimes neighbours impact our lives -- even when, at first, we don't notice.
-
I Still Dream of My Grandfather's Red Roses
2012 / 03:01
Asking people from her community to make a statement beginning with the words "I dream of," Australian documentarist Phoebe Hart curates these fragments and creatively envisages the literal and figurative world of dreams, arresting our collective hopes, desires and fears.
-
Blue Blood on the Boulevard
2012 / 02:59
Blue Blood on the Boulevard is a short story highlighting the light and shade of a neighborhood; the sociable, family-orientated neighbor on one side and the cheating, scheming one on the other – with horrific consequences.
-
The Red That's Left Behind
2012 / 03:00
The house on the corner has an eccentric paint job. Who's behind it?
-
Scaredy Cats (in Grey Scale)
2012 / 03:00
While many people find their small feline neighbours endearing, this is the story of a man who finds them frightening.
-
Doggie House Blues
2012 / 02:59
There are two types of neighbors: those with dogs and those without dogs.
-
Redbricks and Weatherboards
2012 / 02:58
I've lived in Melbourne's suburban inner west for five years, walked my street of redbricks and weatherboards every day, but never stopped to listen until now. This is my street.
-
Whitey's Rules
2012 / 02:54
Residents of a quiet Santa Monica apartment building remember their neighbor, Charlie -- also known as notorious Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger -- in this darkly comic piece.
-
Glass, Not Glitter
2012 / 02:54
2012 ShortDocs Winner! Neighbors of the Murrah Federal building recall the 1995 bombing that altered the life and culture of Oklahoma City.
-
The Green Tree Dervish
2012 / 03:00
Photographer Gaylord Herron has traveled all over the world photographing different cultures, but he's also found fulfillment in his own backyard.
-
-
-
Mother Nature's Blues
2012 / 01:58
We posed the question "What would you do if you were mother nature?" to our teenage neighbors and our piece features a compilation of the diverse answers we received.
-
Green Pilings
2012 / 03:00
Hell and high water came, but Hurricane Katrina couldn't knock out one strong-willed Mississippi family.
-
Sepia Elsie
2012 / 03:01
90 year old Elsie remembers her dancing days before she met her husband 63 years ago.
-
Black Cat in the Room
2012 / 03:00
Moving in with strangers in a new city can be difficult but building a relationship with their pets can be an experience in itself, even if that pet is named after a famous actor.
-
-
Coloring In the Great White North
2012 / 02:58
Three neighbors in Fargo, ND, talk about the rapid coloring in of a town in the Great White North.
-
Meeting in a White Stairs
2012 / 02:59
Just a little of my world in encounters with neighbors on the white stairs of my building that has no elevator!
-
Neighborhood Crimes: When Black and White is Grey
2012 / 02:49
Now living in a comparatively peaceful community in Fargo, ND, Ermina Jelovac from Bosnia exposes the almost overnight change in her neighbors during the war.
-
Green Convenience Store
2012 / 02:54
How one convenience store and its singing proprietor can change the atmosphere of a street.
-
Ray, White, and Blue
2012 / 03:02
Over ten years ago, two strangers were drawn together by a neighborhood handball court in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
-
-
Past the Brown Rice on Aisle 6
2012 / 02:00
While at my nearby Key Foods gathering ambient sound, I happened upon this neighbor family drama set to the grocery store's soundtrack.
-
-
Battleship Grey
2012 / 03:00
This is the story of why you should never, ever, ever paint your balcony battleship grey.
-
-
-
Purple Purpose
2012 / 02:21
FNSS (Friendly Neighborhood Surveillance System) delivers a report to Charles on Mrs. Smotherson, Mr. Eggerly, and Bruce & Denny.
-
Through the Brownstone Walls
2012 / 0
A story about the strange things we overhear from our neighbors.
-
We Do Know There's a Red Shelf in Their Living Room
2012 / 02:22
How little we know of the people who share our roof.
-
The Gray Wisteria of Gilman Terrace
2012 / 02:59
When we bought our dream fixer-up home on Gilman Terrace, my husband and I knew that it came with sad past--but we weren't prepared, when we unlocked the door, to find a house full of someone else's life.
-
White Gold--Fridge Politics of a Student House
2012 / 03:00
A look at what happens when nine individuals have to share one small fridge, and the challenges and issues that come up as a result.
-
Black Coffee
2012 / 02:05
A personal musing about estrangement and its effects on language, cultural identity, and the meaning of home.
-
-
A Dash of Eastern Grey
2012 / 02:59
A discussion amongst neighbors one late night at the non-stop market on the corner street.
-
Out of the Blue
2012 / 02:55
A college student describes the two sides of herself in her struggle with bipolar disorder.
-
Red, White, and Black With Little Bit of Gold
2012 / 02:21
The nature of the current relationships between neighbors in Egypt and how it changed from how it used to be in the past.
-
-
Gray Day Gin and Juice
2012 / 02:59
A former suburbanite shares a pint of gin and juice on her front porch with her new neighbor in the city.
-
Murder at the Abandoned Red Paint Factory
2012 / 03:00
A neighbor is murdered, but the other neighbors can't figure out who he was.
-
-
Threat Level: Red Light
2012 / 03:00
Looking down the block on a street in east Africa, one can see much farther than one might expect.
-
-
-
Eight Beige Floors
2012 / 03:00
A brief look at a neighborhood many have lived in, but no one stays in for long.
-
Green Slime to Dark Days: Neighbors in 4D
2012 / 03:00
I take one place, look at what or who lived there over a very very long period of time, and give you the edited highlights.
-
Peacock Blues
2012 / 02:58
Warfare breaks out between neighbors when a burgeoning battalion of peacocks ravish the countryside.
-
Crimson Cries, Blue Echoes
2012 / 03:00
A neighborhood rooster searches for his lost mate and awakens fresh grief.
-
The Red, White, and Blue Bus
2012 / 03:00
2012 ShortDocs Winner! The familiar faces of the red, white and blue bus, whose lives I will never know.
-
-
Black and Blue, Not Pink
2012 / 02:55
Every week, my roommate Olivia goes to the gym down the street to punch people and while she may be like one of the guys when she's in the ring, friends and family don't quite understand.
-
Aphrodite's Black and Blues
2012 / 03:00
Try to understand where people are coming from before you decide about them.
-
The Tyranny of the Orange Ticket
2012 / 02:41
Twice a week, New York City car owners participate in a bizarre ritual that pits neighbor against neighbor in a competitive fight for parking spaces.
-
A Silent Tornado. A Long, Black Night.
2012 / 02:14
Virginia Miller and her husband Tim recount the night a tornado hit Apison, Tenn., and how it changed their relationship with their neighbors.
-
Her Beautiful Brown Burden
2012 / 03:01
Little did I know that my neighbor has a special gift, which I'd like to call a beautiful brown burden.
-
Shades of Blue
2012 / 03:00
Martha White interviewed her friend Jessica Chapin at Santa Monica's Step Up on Second, a psychosocial rehabilitation and support program for people affected by severe and persistent mental illness.
-
Red Van Refuge
2012 / 03:00
Teri La Roca looks out for the peeps in our hood, especially our neighbors that some disregard and would rather forget.
-
How Chicago Hip Hop Went Platinum
2012 / 03:02
The unlikely story of one man's role in the rise of Chicago hip hop.
-
Coffee and Cream
2012 / 03:01
A Nigerian woman discusses how science and coffee have provided stability amidst all her struggles.
-
Missing White Cat
2012 / 03:00
When our cat, Cake, went missing, we immediately suspected our elderly neighbor, Mary.
-
Control the Blue
2012 / 02:58
I visited my old elementary school and went to an art class full of second graders .
-
-
The Purple and the White: What's up with Talley's Alley?
2012 / 02:59
The first in an occasional audio documentary series exploring the history, people, places and traditions of North Shore Country Day School (NSCDS) in Winnetka, IL.
-
-
Rear Window, Black & White, 1954
2012 / 02:52
Hitchcock's Rear Window revisited through my own rear window.
-
-
Look Toward the Blue
2012 / 03:00
As a new resident of one of the oldest neighborhoods in Portland, Maine, I set out one day armed with a recorder and mic in hopes of meeting some of my new neighbors.
-
Shadows of Grey in the Corner of Your Eye: Your Universe is Not My Universe
2012 / 03:01
Cities are crowded, busy places, so crowded and so busy that parallel universes can occupy the same spaces, and when they overlap, it can be problematic, or even catastrophic.
-
Revived Ivory: A Musical Instrument Lending Library
2012 / 03:00
Sometimes, the greatest musical treasures are in our own backyard.
-
-
The Invisible Neighborhood - The Making and Unmaking of Home
2012 / 03:01
A voice collage with the words and ideas of three of my neighbors currently living near a peninsula that is about to be developed for a new minor league basketball arena, hotel, parking garage, and possibly even a nature trail in Portland, Maine.
-
-
Yellow Beaks, Black Feathers, Red Blood
2012 / 02:39
It's bloody, it's loud, and it smells like manure — Madani Halal is an unlikely gathering place, yet dozens of New Yorkers flock to the Queens business daily
-
Paint The Amish Horse Black and White
2012 / 03:00
Much more than black or white, the story of a painted horse told around an Amish table.
-
How to Realize that Far-off, Poverty-stricken, Deathly Ill, Brown People Are Your Neighbors, too
2012 / 03:00
From visceral empathy to intellectual understanding to emotional compassion, find out how you can realize that far-off, poverty-stricken, deathly ill, brown people are your neighbors, too.
-
The Red Cardigan
2012 / 02:59
The legendary Mr. Rogers was everybody's favorite neighbor... except for maybe my friend Sarah.
-
Duck. Duck? (Black) Goose!
2012 / 02:56
A morning walk leads to neighbours never thought of in a neighbourhood much bigger than it seems.
-
Blue Skies, Black Fences
2012 / 02:55
What does it mean to be a good neighbor? And do we actually know the people living around us?
-
Rudy's Gray Area
2012 / 02:55
Rudy has lived on this bizarre little block since 1953, before a dozen railroad tracks and nearly as many highway lanes separated it from other residential neighborhoods.
-
Black and White and Read All Over
2012 / 03:01
Cub reporter Leila is keeping a keen eye on Drake Avenue, especially one particular family.
-
Orange Blossom and the Continuous Cut
2012 / 00
From Lake Shore Drive to Tokyo... surviving the Continuous Cut.
-
-
Who's Sleeping on the Green Couch Tonight?
2012 / 02:49
I currently live in a studio apartment (see photo) with two of my closest girlfriends--Jenni Fenton and Nikki Jolin, and this is what our humble home sounds like.
-
(Blue) Locker Partners
2012 / 02:59
What it's like to be neighbors in a space that's nine inches wide.
-
-
-
Orange Pigeons at the Legion Post
2012 / 02:59
For the first time, I visit the neighborhood skeet shoot at the American Legion Post across the road.
-
Behind Black Bars
2012 / 03:00
Neighbors discuss the safety of where they live in Pavas, San José, Costa Rica.
-
Behind Pink Walls: In Search of a Sound
2012 / 02:58
Neighbors on a New Orleans street corner investigate a peculiar noise that everyone hears, but no one can find it.