Documentary multimedia

French journalists document quirky Parisians in “The Everyday Walk of Fame”

This post is also available in Spanish

I recently got an email pointing me to “The Everyday Walk of Fame,” a site produced by French journalists Olivier Lambert and Thomas Salva who are documenting extraordinary stories about ordinary people in Paris. I am happy to see this initiative, and I hope you take a minute to check out their work and provide helpful feedback. They mentioned the need for all types of support – moral, technical, and financial – and I think we should all be willing to help those who are willing to go out on their own and continue to tell stories and produce compelling multimedia despite what may be going on in their professional careers.

According to their site, “The Everyday Walk of Fame wants to make the invisible visible through a multimedia platform utilizing audio, video and still photography.” The real people are telling their own, very real stories through compelling, intimate multimedia reports. “These narratives speak to the heart of the human condition and give a reflection of our own society.”

I particularly liked their video feature of Elie, a 73-year-old widow who debated between committing suicide and dancing as a way to grieve. This story personally effected me because a dear friend of mine committed suicide five years ago.

Elie’s story is a difficult one: he experienced racism as a Jewish boy at the end of World War 2, he dealt with parental abuse from his father while growing up, and he went bankrupt caring for his blind wife before she died. He is an exceptional story subject and his honest commentary and quirky dancing gives the viewer an intimate portrayal of his life.

After watching this video, I realized that I wanted to see more of him dancing in the streets with the music. I think they could have used more of this footage rather than the numerous stills used to recreate events from the past. Also, I might have edited the script a little bit more tightly to reduce the story from nine minutes to roughly four to five.

I would also encourage them to get some help and advice from web designers and developers to work on their website. As their content grows, it will be increasingly more important that they work on the site’s information architecture and user interface. But, they did mention that they are in the “very first steps of this project,” so I hope they will collaborate with others to turn this side project into a notable multimedia venture!

If you liked what you saw here, you can fan their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter, and watch some of their other video stories on Vimeo.

Other posts that might interest you:

• University of Miami students personify United Nations Millennium Development Goals in documentary project “My Story, My Goal”
• Carolina Photojournalism Workshop launches 2010 site documenting life in Little Switzerland, NC
• Phil Daquila produces thesis, “The Improvisers”

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