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thedrifter
10-03-07, 08:53 AM
Film inspires PBS, kids to collect war stories
By Kate Naseef - USA Today
Posted : Wednesday Oct 3, 2007 7:31:38 EDT

A number of PBS affiliates across the U.S., inspired by the release of Ken Burns’ “The War,” are producing minidocumentaries about their own local war stories and encouraging high school and college students to collect oral histories.

The materials they gather are being sent to the Veterans History Project, which was launched in 2000 by the Library of Congress to collect oral histories and original wartime diaries, letters and photographs from U.S. veterans of all wars that are sent in by volunteers.

Collecting World War II stories is increasingly urgent. More than 1,000 of the war’s veterans die every day. In many cases, their stories die with them, which is why it is so important to record their memories now, said Bob Patrick, director of the Veterans History Project.

“This has turned into a social movement in a way,” said Kit Jensen, chief operating officer of WVIZ in Cleveland.

Patrick also said the outreach has been successful in encouraging people to find out more about the veterans they know.

“This Thanksgiving, this might be a topic around a lot of dinner tables,” he said.

Old Dominion University students are interviewing veterans and producing video vignettes to air on Norfolk, Va.’s WHRO.

WHYY in Philadelphia traveled to sites in its coverage area to videotape interviews with veterans and others affected by the war and worked with local newspapers to collect essays from those who could not be interviewed on film.

WVIA in Pittston, Pa., is sponsoring a digital archive project to encourage high school students to make “mini-Web sites” about a veteran. The station is holding a workshop with a representative from the Veterans History Project to teach people how to conduct interviews, and the student with the best project will win a trip to Washington, D.C., to tour the Library of Congress.

Together with Ken Burns and PBS, the project put together a field guide on how to conduct an interview to send to the Library of Congress. The guide includes sample questions, recommendations for background research and tips on audio and video techniques.

The guide is available on the PBS Web site and was sent out to all PBS affiliate stations and to every high school in the nation, Patrick said.

The Veterans History Project has hired more staff and set aside extra shelf space in anticipation of an increase in submissions in the coming months, thanks to the initiative, Patrick said.

The project gets about 200 offerings a week and now has 50,000 collections that cover World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the 1991 Persian Gulf War and today’s conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ellie