60 sec video diary Kitty Dorje ( Cape Town)

day 1. Two facilitators for the Netherlands introduced themselves and told us a bit about what the One Minutes. It is their mission to go through the world and hold weeklong video workshops. They recently flew in from Maputo, Mozambique where they just completed a videart workshop. It all sounds very glamorous and exciting. Introduced ourselves to other participants- there is quiet a mix of skills from the film industry, script writers, fashion designers, graphic designers and visual artists. Spent the afternoon story boarding…looks like the pace o f the workshop is going to be pretty steady…bounced off ideas with other people in my group. All sorts of images flashing through my head-birds flying from a cage, burglar bars…alarm systems. We start chatting about a subtle incident of racism an American participant noticed at KFC…the conversation meanders into fashion, talk about shoes and our different places of reference...oh no there is not much time to fix all the ideas into a story board, but we had to present them anyway….

day 2. First thing in the morning I put together a storyboard. Just as well because when I get to the studios at 10 am people were already being sent out to shoot videos. Wow, this is all moving quiet fast. I am working in a group with Caleb (USA), Tshepo (Botswana), Karla (USA) and Nelson (Zambian). Next thing I knew we were zooming of f to an apartment in Claremont to fetch a pair of glamorous red stilettos and find a location on a street …

day 3.Today I swapped roles from director to actor. We were shooting in a lifts I was the white racist . I’ not too sure how comfortable I am about being stereotyped in this way … but hey all in the name of art! Got back to the studios and Caleb the local facilitator helped to edit my 60 sec movie. I am impressed that with just three Apple Mac lap tops and four cameras so much can be done. Given the time constraints of the workshop it was very important to have someone with technical experience doing the editing…

day 5. We all met up at Obz café for the screening of the 15 short movies .It was the end of a very intense and productive week and I was beginning to get an insight into how much work goes into making a meaningful videoart piece…