A Tale of Oil, Corruption and Death

Please give your attention to an investigative piece New York Times reporter/video journalist Brent McDonald produced and reported (with Deborah Sontag). The 17(ish)-minute documentary piece accompanies an in-depth story, currently on the home page of nytimes.com. The piece tells the story of the chairman of the tribes on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, who has profited from the oil boom that has taken North Dakota by storm. But the chairman had some business dealings that led to charges of corruption, and the murder of two men.

Brent reported and shot the story over several months. With a deadline moved up, Brent had only a week or so to make a film from the many hours of footage he had gathered. To help him meet the deadline, I spent a few days with Brent to help move the editing process along. I’m pleased to see how the documentary came out. It’s solid reporting, told well.

 

Ricochet Part Six debuts on MSNBC.com: Not Standing for Silence

When Stephen Franklin and I were working on the series that came to be called Ricochet for MSNBC Originals, he would tell people we were interviewing that it was a six-part series. I told people it was a five-part series, because that was what it was meant to be originally. But part of one of the segments made more sense to be a separate piece, so we created it as a standalone story. Because I hate to admit I was wrong, here is part six of the five part series.

Artist Jeff Abbey Maldonado supervises teen artists as they complete work on a mural in the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago.

Kidding aside, this is released to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School murders in Newtown, Connecticut, when the parents of 20 children — and six staffers — had their normal changed forever.

In reporting this series we met many families who are determined to turn their grief over a child lost to gun violence into a positive force. They are, as one parent said, part of an “unfortunate club.” In this story, we meet Jeff Maldonado, a father and artist who is using his creativity to build community in Pilsen in Chicago. And Rep. Robin Kelly meets with parents, and explains why she no longer stands when Congress holds moments of silence for the victims of mass shootings.

MSNBC series Ricochet screens at well-attended event

Photos courtesy the Illinois Humanities Council

The six-part video-documentary series Ricochet: Life in a City Under Siege from Guns, played to a large audience as part of an event called Reporting Back, the first of several events in a new initiative by the Illinois Humanities Council and the Community Media Workshop. It screened in the cinema at Columbia College, with an incredible projection system. Stephen Franklin, my partner on the project, and I introduced the piece, and a lively discussion followed with key figures in media, law enforcement, the city and social services.

Reporting Back: Perspectives on Violence in Chicago Communities

Please join me, the Illinois Humanities Council and the Community Media Workshop for a screening of our MSNBC series followed by a discussion on covering violence in Chicago, featuring key figures in Windy City media.

How can community issues be fairly represented in the media? What does the media do well when reporting on gun violence in Chicago, and what stories still need to be told? What roles should the media play in developing solutions to gun violence and other pressing issues facing Chicago communities? The IHC and the Community Media Workshop invite you to a conversation with top media leaders and stakeholders December 10, following a screening of “Ricochet,”the MSNBC miniseries on gun violence in Chicago directed by journalist Stephen Franklin and Medill School of Journalism Professor Craig Duff.

Panelists at the Columbia College event include Jim Kirk, Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief of Chicago Sun-Times; Alison Scholly, COO of Chicago Public Media; Janey Rountree, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s deputy chief of staff for public safety, Elena Quintana, Ph.D. is Executive Director of the Institute on Public Safety & Social Justice at the Adler School of Professional Psychology and Susy Schultz, president and executive director of CMW. The evening kicks off a three-month reporting project partnering journalists with community residents to produce multimedia stories on key community issues in Chicago.

See more

When:

12/10/2014
6:00pm – 8:00pm

Where:

Columbia College Chicago, Film Row Cinema

1104 South Wabash Avenue

Chicago, IL, 60605

Free, open to the public.

Registration is required