Photograph courtesy of Facebook
On Nov. 9, a free screening of the documentary “FRAME by FRAME” will be held by one of the filmmakers, Mo Scarpelli, at 7 p.m. in the Culp Auditorium.
The film is presented by the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts, in partnership with the division of Radio/Television/Film. There will be a Q&A held after the film, which will also be followed by a reception.
According to Scarpelli, Alexandria Bombach, another director and filmmaker, saw footage of everyday life in Afghanistan, which led to her interest of creating a documentary following their own viewpoint.
“We usually see a lot of headlines about suicide attacks and war, for the most part from foreign journalists,” Scarpelli said. “She was just curious about what a more local story would look like.”
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan, and as they looked into it, they found out that taking a photo was a crime from 1996-2001. In 2001, free press emerged and a huge media revolution was born.
“We decided to go and seek the stories of those who had been on the forefront of this media revolution and that’s where we came across the four photographers and we just started shooting with them,” Scarpelli said.
Scarpelli said that they leave a lot to be determined by the audience, but they especially hope people see a new side of Afghanistan that they haven’t seen before.
“Also, more of nuanced side of what it’s like to be a storyteller there, and also a more beautiful type,” Scarpelli said. “We spent a lot of time shooting the film very cinematically in which you kind of get a sense of Afghanistan as a place; it’s a very richly textured beautiful country.”
When Scarpelli was at the University of Missouri in journalism school, she started making short films.
“During that time, kind of on accident, I wanted to be a photojournalist, and I was doing that but then I kind of stumbled across using video in a way that was not TV News,” she said.
One of her favorite parts of being a director and filmmaker is the element of surprise. Starting this month, Scarpelli plans to go to Ethiopia to follow some education programs, as well as shoot some stuff about migration.
“Every single day is just like I turn to the person next to me and say, ‘you can’t write this,’ It’s just way more strange and interesting than anything I could ever make up,” Scarpelli said. “What happens on camera when you just wait and you’re patient and seek out a story and just kind of wait for things to happen, and it’s really interesting just to see the world.”
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