Exciting news! All the way from Beijing.
Our very own Tan Siok Siok (@sioksiok)—insightful, creative filmmaker and core member of GIT-China—has just flown from Beijing and will be driving cross-country from NYC to LA and back Oct 21-Nov 6.
The mission? To film Twittamentary, an innovative, crowd-sourced documentary about Twitter. The initiative officially launches TODAY, at the NYC 140 Conference meet up.
Twitta….what?
Twittamentary is more than just a documentary about Twitter. According to director Siok, “it’s about you and me and the unimaginable new ways we are communicating. We explore how, what, and why Twitter is affecting sea changes to society, media, business, economy, culture and our daily lives, all at the speed of light.”
People around the world have been talking about the Twitter revolution and how it has transformed our very identities and our collective subconscious. Twitter accelerates serendipity. Bonds are forged as a result of unexpected encounters between strangers as they share moments of their lives in real time. Twitter also attracts controversy. Cynics see the popular micro-blogging service as the breeding ground of ‘narcissists’ and ”micro celebrities” who are lured by the promise of instant fame. But why has this seemingly banal micro-blogging service captured the world’s imagination? In this documentary, Tan Siok Siok peels away the hype and explores the human dimensions of how lives connect, intersect, and are affected and changed as a result of encounters on Twitter. Twittamentary is crowd-sourced by social medians across the globe; it is all about stories of the people, and by the people.
So how exactly do you crowd-source a documentary?
What is unusual about this film is how it’s being made. Twittamentary is a path-breaking film project that is based on social media. They ask every Twitter user to tell them a great story that answers this question: What is the most interesting thing that happened to you because of Twitter? Participants are also encouraged to contribute videos and photos to the film to illustrate why theirs would make a great story for a documentary.
So far, the website has already attracted close to 100 submissions. Here are a few good examples from the entries:
The Red Shoes Project: http://www.twittamentary.com/stories/red-shoe-project
Super Teen Who Tweets http://www.twittamentary.com/stories/super-teen-who-tweets-gloson
Man Who Broke Sichuan Earthquake News http://www.twittamentary.com/stories/man-who-broke-sichuan-earthquake-news
Since Twittamentary is created in the open spirit of the web, the film will eventually be released online under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License.
Projected Duration: 70-80 minutes (theatrical/festival version) 50 minutes (TV broadcast version) 3-5 minutes (multiple segments on YouTube and iTunes)
Official Movie Website: http://www.twittamentary.com
What can YOU do to help?
There are a few ways you can play a key part in Twittamentary:
1) Submit your stories to: www.twittamentary.com - Contribute the stories and videos that you think should be a part of the documentary
2) House Siok Siok and Geo (Executive Producer)! - If you live in any of the following cities, and are willing to take in these innovative, ground-breaking artists, e-mail: jenny@theredconnect.com, subj: Twittamentary:
Oct 22 – Chicago
Oct 24 – Denver
Oct 25 – Las Vegas
Oct 26-28 – Los Angeles (#140 Conference)
Oct 29-30 – San Francisco
Nov 1-6 – Atlanta, D.C., New York City, Boston
3) Make a donation - Just as Twittamentary is a crowd-sourcing project, sustaining the project will depend on crowd-funding, “a model that follows a similar democratic impulse. Like the Statute of Liberty, Twittamentary will be crowd-funded by people worldwide.” Click on this link for more information: http://www.twittamentary.com/invite. All donations are tax deductible.
4) Help host Tweet-ups along the way - If you are a Twitter-fiend and want to help gather a group of like-minded folks in any of the cities mentioned in #2, e-mail jenny@theredconnect.com subj: Twittamentary Tweet-up.
5) Follow @Twittamentary - Follow, tweet and re-tweet @Twittamentary! The best press about Twitter is, well, on Twitter!
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Director/Producer Tan Siok Siok (also known as Siok Siok Tan) is a filmmaker and educator who has built a career as an executive producer of international documentaries, focusing on the greater China region.
Her executive producer credits include Discovery Channel’s China First Time Film Makers Initiative, Portraits Taiwan– a biography series of prominent Taiwanese as well as travel and lifestyle shows for Discovery Travel and Living. These shows have clinched more than a dozen awards and nominations at the Asian TV awards and the Golden Bell Awards, Taiwan’s equivalent of the Emmy Awards.
Siok has also been a visiting lecturer at the Beijing Film Academy, one of Asia’s preeminent film schools. As part of her lecturing stint, she directed a documentary about the Beijing Olympics with the assistance of her students. The film, Boomtown Beijing, has become one of the better-known films about the 2008 Olympics, scoring interviews on CNN, Phoenix TV, South China Morning Post , Brazil’s Globo TV and numerous blogs and magazines.
Siok holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (Honors) in Comparative Literature from Brown University, USA.
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