A friend of mine is making a short documentary on the 2011 Vancouver Riots. Check out the amazing footage he took!
Posted Apr 10, 2012, 5:08 AM UTC
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Well it didn't happen so let us enjoy this footage!
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I had to ask myself this question while I was out, because it became clear that the people with cameras were making up most of the crowds. Should I just leave?
The reason I didn't was because I felt it was important to capture this stuff, to learn from it, to share it, and to put a lot of focus and effort into it - which wasn't easy in that environment. I wasn't there for facebook photo-ops like most of the crowd.
If there was another riot in this city, for any reason, I think I'd take to the sidelines and get images from a distance rather than from the inside. One riot is enough for me. But it still depends on circumstances. I take my camera out with me everywhere. I'm constantly pointing it around. Being in the middle of a major news-worthy event, you can bet I'm going to keep doing what I always do.
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What the fuck - just after the riots reddit takes note that the biggest problem during the riot was all the idiot people standing around and filming each other. Skip ahead today and everyone is encouraging footage?
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I'm the filmmaker working on this doc. Reddit was right to take note that people with cameras were a big problem. But I do want to take note that calling every person with a camera on that day an "idiot" is being more than a little judgmental. For starters, I'm not one.
I had been out covering the playoffs with my camera, and it was a fluctuation of joyful celebration and angst. Any game we lost, there was pretty much a guarantee that a fight would break out on Granville somewhere, and usually several times. I got a good sense of the rising tension and mood as we approached the cup. When I went out the day of the riot, I was prepared for it and for my own sociological curiosity, and my own passion for capturing events with my camera, I had to be there to watch.
I had the idea that I'd be invisible, that I'd stay out of the way in the sidelines, that I would have no part in the thing, that I'd sneak my footage and get out.
It didn't happen that way.
This wasn't something I quite saw coming, but there were far more cameras than there were rioters. I realized midway through that just by being there and pointing my camera I was creating the stage, I had fooled myself into becoming complicit in the thing. Actually, quite a lot of the footage I have is just shots of cameras and cell phones floating around and pointing at the carnage. I fully intend to cover this aspect in the documentary. Most of the cameras out were snapping photos for facebook - "I was there!" shots. I considered my own part a sort of journalism role. Go in and report back. I learned a lot, and I don't want to waste what I learned.
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It would be worthwhile to include this point of view in your documentary - the challenge of capturing the moment, at the risk of creating the stage for the rioters.
Either way, great footage. It definitely has more value than the phone camera crowd, so it's not fair to lump everyone in the same category. Good luck!
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Oh, absolutely - I intend to do a whole segment on this, as it stood out to me a great deal while i was out. A ton of my footage is just people with cameras - some chaos and burning is happening in the background, but I'm just watching the people watching.
And then I realized how ridiculous I was and I turned the camera on myself to make sure I at least had the option of saying: "Okay. Yeah, me too. I'm complicit. I'm enabling the whole thing." It wouldn't be an honest documentary if I didn't call myself out.
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There's not much that a handful of people with cameras can do to quell a full-scale riot and don't forget that their photographic evidence also helped capture many of the rioters, as well.
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The riot act was read pretty late in the game, at least in the area I was in. By the time I heard it on the megaphones, crowds had thinned and the riot was dying down anyway. I moved out when it was time to move out while still capturing what I could with the camera.
But yes, the sheer number of cameras out that night was a big problem. MOST of the cameras were in the hands of smiling celebrating people. I only saw one or two others that looked as queasy as I felt.
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That's great footage and editing, but makes me incredibly sad and disappointed.
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Cool footage, but the voiced reflection at the end is just cheesy =/
edit: smilie slash
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Awesome.
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Cool footage, I'd love to check out the full deal.
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Maybe the creator didn't put that much time into the trailer, but I thought it was poorly paced. The beginning just.. starts, the camerawork is confusing at times, and the voice-over at the end totally misses the mark.
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Holy shit I can't wait to see this. That was an unforgettable night.
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Am I the only person who legitimately feels sick watching any sort of riot footage?
If it makes you feel better, speed it up and play yakkity sax...always helps :)
I had this same thought actually, especially considering the ridiculousness of destroying your own city because your team didn't win the big game.
I have a friend who told me about this art project a buddy of his in Sweden did. He was at the riots in Sweden with his camera, and he projected the images in 360 degrees in the interior of a shipping container with eardrum-pounding volume. I think it's brilliant actually. Being in the middle of it is overwhelming to the senses. The mind reels, it says, "no" and seems to want to shut down. I think a big part of mob mentality comes from the effects of sensory overload on the brain.