Join Minda Martin for a post-screening “The City as Character V.2 Screening Discussion” at 5:45pm! Registrants will receive the link to join in their email confirmation from Brown paper Tickets.

When you think of Seattle, what comes to mind? The media we encounter that represents the city often shapes our impressions, which can affect how we interact with the built environment and other people. A collaboration between Minda Martin, Seattle Municipal Archives (SMA), and University of Washington Bothell, this screening will showcase pieces created/compiled by students and archivists using archival audiovisual materials.

Documentary shorts were curated from the following two sources:

City as Character: In a filmmaking class taught by Minda Martin at the University of Washington, her students interrogate how representations of the city communicate. Students engage in original archival research to examine how politics, industry, infrastructure, commerce, community and the environment shape cities, and produce their own media to study how media representations produce particular meanings about them. In the course, students have access to a tremendous archive of existing documentary materials that includes photos, audio, video, maps, newspapers, and more to use for their creative nonfiction short videos about a specific neighborhood that is going through land-use changes via natural and/or unnatural reasons.

Seattle Voices: SMA’s online exhibit featuring archival audio to highlight select historical events. The Seattle City Council has been making audio recordings of its proceedings, including committee meetings and public hearings, since 1955. Audio holdings at the Seattle Municipal Archives are primarily of City Council Committee and Full Council meetings and provide a different perspective on the legislative process than can be gained from textual records alone. Audio recordings give the voices personalities and allow individuals not documented elsewhere to come to life.