Second day of class, Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Today's Navajo Oral History project class time was spent getting ready for the first interviews with the Navajo elders, which happen on Wednesday.

As you can imagine, the students are nervous.  The stakes are high.  They're going to be interviewing Navajo elders and trying to faithfully relate their life stories via documentary films.

The class today focused on interviewing techniques, plus many good ideas about how to operate video cameras, capture clean audio, control light, edit audio and photos, etc.

Later in the morning session, Alex Mitchell, one of the leaders of the Ned Hatathli Museum at Diné College led a tour of the museum including its large murals of the Navajo Creation Story and history of the region, the importance of the Hogan as a central place in Navajo life, Navajo sand paintings collection and traditional pottery exhibit.




Alex Mitchell leads the Museum tour. (above three photos by Shannon Bolte)


(photo by Kelly Kusilek)

In the afternoon, the group enjoyed a presentation on Navajo Culture basics by Dr. Henry Fowler and professor at Diné College.

The evening was spent double-checking equipment, running mock interviews, charging batteries, and fine-tuning interview questions.

These young journalists are ready!