From the USHR-Network Conference in Chicago, Day 3

When I thought I had experienced every form of media convergence, today taught me how some advocates are really thinking out of the box (a box that measures 32X8X). Cut Off is a challenging documentary on the housing crisis in the years following Katrina. It wrestles with the destruction of affordable housing, in the name of progress, or at least redevelopment, and looks at how the voices most impacted have been silenced and ignored.

The other week, while engaged in a conversation with an editor and another writer, the editor mentioned to us that publishers are steering away from Katrina books over the past year. I would imagine the same is true amongst documentary producers. However, seeing how charged and engaged the audience was at today's screening, it's clear that both the need and the audience still exist. The mood in the room was charged. and hearing audience members recite the number of days since Katrina (561), my own feelings of injustice swelled.

what was most interesting was the way in which one New Orleans resident had pushed for a form of marketing I had yet heard. A group had brought up a F.E.M.A. trailer, and someone had suggested to show the documentary on the side of the long white box trailers that have become icons amongst New Orleans residents and advocates. The trailers are an interactive multi-media platform, in that

They are open to the public and can travel with some ease, as much as one can easily get around while pulling 32 feet of F.E.M.A. fine living.