<nettime> Haiti earthquake: video uncut footage & support beyond the needed disaster industry

[Tjebbe van Tijen <tjebbe@imaginarymuseum.org>]

Haiti earthquake: video uncut footage from the Vimeo channel

On the Limping Messenger

http://limpingmessenger.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/haiti-earthquake- 
video-footage-from-the-viemo-channel/

January 16, 2010 by Tjebbe van Tijen
Did choose these two examples of raw video footage from Haiti because  
there is no voice over, no music, no appeal… just an eye witness with  
a camera that registers. This kind of untouched documents are rare.  
Everybody is mimicking at the moment the disaster relief propaganda  
style appeals with heart breaking music, voice-overs, mixing often  
the same images, the same footage.

How to help en who to help is still a big question for us outsiders,  
but one need not to be in a hurry…. there is always the long dreadful  
aftermath with its many needs and support structures that will be  
more clearly defined and adapted to individual financial help. I am  
in a process to try and find out which organizations have a long and  
positive record of activity in Haiti (the Dutch NGO database of CIDIN/ 
University of Nijmegen may be a source). More structural structures  
are needed for individual disaster support and the means to do so are  
there with the internet tools we have now. The disaster industry is  
needed of course, big scale operations first, however questionable  
the mechanism may be. There should be also a second line of help that  
allows for small initiatives, grass root support.

Now just the two high resolution video examples the only ones in a  
set of 80 videos at the Vimeo web site that let us into the harsh  
reality without a filter.

The Reformed Church in America’s General Synod President, James  
Seawood, and an RCA delegation were in Port-au-Prince when the  
earthquake struck. This is footage taken by Rev. Seawood in the  
moments just after …. by clicking the  full screen icon at the right  
in the bottom bar of the video you can see the high resolution full  
screen version…


[embedded video]

The above video has been taken by James Seawood of The Reformed  
Church in America’s General Synod, he and  a RCA delegation were in  
Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck. The footage  shows a 9  
minute uninterrupted (non-montaged) video take while mr. Seawood and  
his company walk down from a somehow untouched area with buildings  
still standing into what looks from afar as a cloud of dust…. The  
crowd in the street shows a mixed behavior from very contained to  
horrified outbursts.

This video is taken in the south of Haiti by a staff member of the  
Global Orphan Project…


[embedded video]

and has the following caption: “1/12/2010 Haiti was hit by a massive  
7.3 magnitude earthquake, here is some footage from one of our field  
partners on the ground in the south of Haiti.”


Tjebbe van Tijen
Imaginary Museum Projects
Dramatizing Historical Information
http://imaginarymuseum.org
web-blog: The Limping Messenger
http://limpingmessenger.wordpress.com/






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