Tagged: Turnstyle News

What does the phrase “emotional science” mean to you? For some, it implies psychology. For Greg Niemeyer, a tenured associate professor in UC Berkeley’s department in New Media, “emotional science” means science that stimulates and engages. Niemeyer is also the director of the Data and Democracy Initiative at CITRIS, The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, which looks to utilize technology and science to help individuals makes democratic and conscious decisions about the world around them.

Last week BreakOut!, a New Orleans based LGBTQ organization that focuses specifically on youth impacted by the juvenile justice system, began the first of their anti-discrimination training seminars for the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). The training comes as a result of an investigation and subsequent consent decree by the United States Department of Justice mandating sweeping reforms and trainings throughout NOPD.

We made our way to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival this past week in Park City, Utah to get a sense of where the state of independent cinema is going this year. What films we will be talking about? What issues are on the forefront of documentarians’ minds?

What follows are five lessons we learned while slogging through snow, striking up conversations with strangers on the shuttle busses, talking with filmmakers and seeing every film they’d let us.

The State of Independent Cinema is Strong