Former candidate Katz making Philly history on web

    What promises eventually to be a long documentary film about Philadelphia is beginning life as a series of short videos posted on the Web. It’s giving Philadelphians a chance to shape how the story of their city is told.

    What promises eventually to be a long documentary film about Philadelphia is beginning life as a series of short videos posted on the Web. It’s giving Philadelphians a chance to shape how the story of their city is told.

    Listen:
    [audio: 090421pcweb.mp3]

    The first online video spotlights the passage of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train through Philadelphia on April 22, 1865, and the huge crowds that came to pay their respects to the slain president.

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    Clip audio: …as Lincoln’s body lay in state, all you could hear throughout the city was the tolling of the bells…

    That video supplements an eight-hour-long documentary scheduled to be done in 2011. The filmmakers are soliciting responses from the public to their online featurettes as they research and produce the longer film. Producer Sam Katz says it is one way to gather stories and participants to the project.

    Katz: We’re talking with lots of people about topics of interest to them. Webisodes are intended to provide multiple means for people to access this project in creative as well as participatory ways.

    Katz says the completed documentary may include stories that people have contributed to the website.

    More information:
    The first short video from the producers of that Philadelphia history documentary can be seen at HistoryOfPhilly.com.

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