Workshop takes students to Little Switzerland

Daniel Sircar didn’t plan to start his summer by calling a nun and telling her he wanted to film her.

“I called and said, ‘You don’t know me, but I want to be in your life for a week with a camera,” said Sircar, a junior.

As part of the Carolina Photojournalism Workshop in May, Sircar and 18 other UNC multimedia students spent 10 days in Little Switzerland, N.C., filming residents and telling their stories.

The workshop, founded in 2004 by UNC professor Patrick Davison, is designed to teach students how to produce documentary-style stories in a short period of time.

“The stories reflect people in general, whether it’s through religion, geography or recreation,” said project manager Catherine Orr, a graduate student and workshop participant.

The website collecting the participant’s pieces officially launched in early September.

“The goal is to take a snapshot of a town through its people,” Orr said.

Each year, the workshop’s leaders research a different region of North Carolina to document. In the past, participants have explored cities like Asheville and Cape Fear.

“You basically have to call one person who knows everything about the town and then they’ll give you names of all the interesting people,” Orr said.

From a couple who decided to leave “mainstream society” to start an organic lavender and goat farm, to a Latina immigrant raising a son with a genetic disorder, the subjects of the documentaries showed real life in Little Switzerland.

“We’re giving this place a spirit,” Orr said.

Some students, like Sircar and senior Alyssa Champion, went into the community and found their own stories when intended subjects fell through.

Champion said she talked to people around town and found a family with a talent for glassmaking.

After filming, students had 10 days to edit their material, a process which usually takes weeks, Orr said.

“You get up before the sun rises to continue filming or editing, and sometimes you don’t even go to bed,” said Audrey Whitmeyer-Weathers, a senior. “It took a lot of coffee.”

On the last day, the group screened its films for the film’s stars.

“It was nerve-wracking watching them watch my piece, but I was so thankful when I saw the joy they got out of it,” Champion said.

Eventually, Davison wants the workshops to cover all regions of North Carolina.

“We thought people in North Carolina needed a resource to teach them about the different areas of the state,” he said.

For Sircar, the program helped him learn to treat all people with dignity, no matter their story.

“I feel like there’s a gap between journalists and the general public, because a lot of people don’t trust the media,” Sircar said.

“This reinforced to everybody that we actually cared about their stories and thought they were worth sharing.”

Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.