by Michael LelloWeekender Editor
It’s easy to underestimate the seriousness and dedication of some college students. Many people subscribe to the perception of lazy, over-privileged, irresponsible young adults, only concerned with finding the next party or cheap happy hour.
Viewers of “Plating Seeds of Change,” however, will likely have that perception shattered. The documentary film by Misericordia University Assistant Professor of Communications Dan Kimbrough chronicles 19 Misericordia students’ work in post-Hurricane Katrina Louisiana in the spring of 2009 as part of the Misericordia Campus Ministry’s theology of the church course. The 26-minute film, which earned Kimbrough an Award of Distinction from The Videographer Awards recently, will air on WVIA on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 9:30 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 7 at 11:30 p.m.
“I’m happy with the award, but I’m really happy for the students,” Kimbrough said. “I think it’s rare that we see college students portrayed in a positive way. That’s the overriding joy in it for me — people 19, 20, 21 years old that do care and who are interest in doing service and helping others.”
Kimbrough was also a volunteer worker on the visit, which had the crew helping build 12 houses with Habitat for Humanity. Being part of the story he was trying to tell could’ve presented a conflict of interest for him, but in the long run, his direct participation in the volunteer work made his job as a filmmaker easier.
“It kind of helped that I was volunteering and not just shooting,” he said. “The students kind of let their guard down around me. One of the students wanted to point out that we have 19 girls here, and you’ve been pointing a camera at us all week when we don’t look our best. It actually helped us keep the objectivity.
“Yes, I’m part of the group, and I’m working with them, but I want to know what they’re getting out of this.”
Alyson Neely, a 2009 Misericordia graduate from Plymouth, was a volunteer on the trip and said having Kimbrough filming the students “was definitely something I needed to get used to.”
“It was strange at first, but we just got used to it and had a good time,” said Neely. “It’s very strange to watch, because I think it’s always weird to watch myself on TV or whatever, but I think it’s very rewarding because we actually got to see the work that we did.
Kimbrough thought footage of the students’ physical work would provide the film’s primary narrative, but he said the interviews he conducted with them proved to be revealing and very important to the story.
“You really saw that this wasn’t one of those things of, ‘Yeah, I did my service,’” he said. “These people were actually touched by the types of service they were doing. When we were editing, I said, ‘There’s a different story here.’”
Two students that did not accompany Kimbrough and the volunteer group to Louisiana, George Pierce and John Peruso, also had an opportunity to learn from the filmmaking process as editors.
“They transcribed it and did editing; they did it as an independent study,” Kimbrough said. “They are now listed as award-winning assistant editors and have an IMDB listing. They got to see what it takes. There were only five or six hours of footage, and it took us four months to get 26 minutes done.”
The results, though —in the film and in the work done by the 19 volunteer students — were worth the effort.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Neely said of the film, “and I think it’s wonderful that they’re going to show it on TV, because a lot of people do think of college students negatively, and I think it will also encourage college students to explore their options.”
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‘Planting Seeds of Change,’ Thursday, Nov. 5, 9:30 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 7, 11:30 p.m., WVIA
