Sunday, July 12, 2015

Behind the scenes: IVDM YouTube series

In December, we were awarded a Cal Humanities: Community Stories grant to integrate video into our permanent exhibit.  The grant has made it possible to include unseen interview footage from the over 70 hours of raw footage for the award-winning, Emmy-nominated documentary First People-Kumeyaay into our work.  Eventually some of these videos will be projected into the Lake Cahuilla Object Theater diorama in the Museum's new exhibit.  Hopefully, future grants will allow us to install projectors and computer equipment to even more seamlessly integrate the stories within the physical exhibit.

One of the main parts of the grant was that we would have 20 videos available to the public through YouTube, hosted on the Museum's website, so that even people who can't drive out to the museum can see and experience them.  We believe the videos will succeed in reaching younger audiences in particular, and teachers will be able to show the videos in their classrooms- hopefully encouraging an increased understanding, appreciation, and awareness by the students not only of Kumeyaay culture, but also the uniqueness of the Imperial Valley.

A new part of our website Kumeyaay Nation Stories of Change will not only host the videos but also provide background information on the project and, eventually, teacher resources for classrooms use.  The website will grow over the next several weeks as additional videos are posted.  But today marks the first video to go live and the official beginning of the online project.  We hope everyone gets the chance to explore this exciting and unusual series as it goes live and as new features are added over the next several weeks and months.

Click here to go straight to our YouTube channel and the first of the Kumeyaay Nation Stories of Change videos!