Film
Local government meeting, Nancy McGraw.
Between the fall of 2012 and the spring of 2015, I filmed 263 local government meetings in Sullivan County. I filmed these meetings closely, following people's faces as they discussed and deliberated, in order to create a window for residents and neighbors to watch the complexity and humanity of our local democratic process. This public access government archive was also used by high school social studies teacher, John Ogozalek, to bring students into the experience of our regional government process. At the time, controversy around fracking had polarized neighbors, and many residents attended Town Hall Public Hearings to voice their concerns. This archive preserves the range of their voices, and the power of their conviction.
I remember one meeting in particular, a Town of Delaware Board Meeting, on February 20th in 2013. Councilman Alfredfred Steppich said, pointing directly at the camera I was filming him with, "I'd like to see a proposal to treat the first amendment like we treat the second amendment." What Steppich was highlighting was the power of free speech, particularly the power and influence of the media and the dangers of an unethical reporter. He suggested that all journalists and filmmakers be required to go through an ethics course and appear before a judge to get a license. Conversation ensued between elected representatives and the public, raising questions about the different kinds of power that weapons have and that words have, and the ways people engage with eachways people engage with eachnecessities of each in the face of tyranny. The conversation highlighted cultural and political differences between the people in the room, and no common ground was found.
After the meeting, feeling like I was coming from a different perspective thancoming from a different perspective than on the other side of AlfredAlfred Steppich, I wanted to connect with him. We had never spoken face to face, but I had already been filming him for months. Surprisingly, he immediately invited me to a shooting range up the hill, where adults were teaching students how to properly handle and shoot guns. I had never shot a gun before, but I engaged in the experience and learned something new that evening, and also built some trust with Alfred. I continued to film him until 2015, and 10 years later he's still serving on the Town of Delaware Town Board.
Alfred Steppich
I don't think that free speech should be treated the same way that guns are treated, but when I think about the vast reach of social media, the possibilities of artificial intelligence, the harmful ways in which lies and unsubstantiated facts can alter our perceptions, distort our understanding of the truth, and disconnect us from each other, and from injustices that are being committed around the world, as a filmmaker I have learned to consider the responsibilities involved in making images for public consumption.
I have also decided that I want to make images from a place of care and connection, and not from a place of fear and disconnection. That is why I reached out to connect with Alfred Steppich that evening. I wanted to create opportunitiesopportunities an opportunity for us to get to know one another, . I eventually stopped filming local government meetings when I decided to get involved and run for a seat on the Sullivan County Legislature, and I have since moved on to develop new kinds of archives, one in particular with a public housing community in Newark, NJ and another with the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania. I'll share more about these projects in future newsletters, but until then I invite you to explore the archive of local government meetings in Sullivan County from 2012-2015. I think archives can be truly powerful places for learning and for self-reflection, especially as a community. So I'd love to hear what you see, hear, and learn from any of the meetings. They're a record of this place where we live and our relationship with the democratic process. WhetherWhether, whether you think it's been successful or not, I'd like to hear what you think.
Here's a link to the meeting I was talking about with Alfredfred Steppich. You can hear Alfredfred toward the end of the meeting at around 1 hour and 19 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh6DU4fiDd4
And here's a link to the entire archive.