“The notion of a collective death or rapture can be very attractive to those who live a very solitary life. The protagonist of my film lives by herself, she has alienated her family, and she keeps her neighbors out by triple bolting her door. She is able to find solace through her church where her Pastor preaches that those who love God will be raptured collectively. The predicted day is December 12th, 2012 at noon (12.12.12.12). The protagonist has a dream the day of the expected apocalypse and is certain the Pastor’s prediction is correct. However, when she calls the Pastor in preparation to come to the church, he unexpectedly insists on the solitude of the rapture for unexplained reasons. This film shows the behavior of the protagonist in her inner fight between certainty and doubt.”
The above quotation is by student Colby Minifie, introducing her creative film project, “A Solitary Apocalypse,” for the cross-campus seminar Apocalypse: Before and After, taught by Professor Lee Quinby with me as the instructional technology fellow. The course follows a similar format to other courses that Dr. Quinby has taught, relying heavily on weekly blog posts by students to reflect the readings that address Apocalyptic narratives from a critical and creative standpoint. The sophistication of students’ written analyses and the level of their discussions in class rivals any graduate course. Although I’m not normally inclined to highlight one particular student’s project, I was astounded by the work that she did on this film. Although it was shot on a high-quality camera, the movie itself was edited in iMovie. I believe this is one of the best examples of what students are able to accomplish when given support by the university in the form of instructional technologists (whose job it is to conceive of projects that support faculty learning goals and help students as they execute them) and the equipment (video cameras, computers to accomplish these projects). Macaulay’s unique approach to instructional tech increases the digital literacies of its students at the same time excellent professors increase traditional literacies of reading and writing.
I do urge you to take a look at Colby’s film, as well as peruse the other projects and blog posts that were created by this exceptional group of students.
A Solitary Apocalypse from Colby Minifie on Vimeo.
