An unusual request

Postcard from the Critical Media Lab.

Hello!

I come bearing, not photos, but a sorry request for money.

Not money for me, but for McGill’s Critical Media Lab (CML), which is a new initiative connected to the Anthropology department. The CML empowers students to get experience in filmmaking and other mixed-media creative practices as they relate to Anthropology. As someone who studies Anthropology and also has a longstanding fascination with photography, the Critical Media Lab has been tremendously exciting for me; and through the Sensory Ethnography class they offered last semester, I was able to make my first film, An Urban Wild, which I have recently submitted to Montreal’s International Ethnographic Film Festival (FIFEQ).

Jumping from photography to filmmaking has been scary and exciting, and it wouldn’t be possible without the gear and resources provided by the Critical Media Lab. Many other exciting events and projects (film screenings, collective research initiatives, and a new undergrad Critical Media Club for students who want to get involved in ethnographic film earlier in their studies) are also turning into realities through the CML. (I wish the club had existed when I was an undergrad.) But as a center for multimedia creativity in a university without any Fine Arts program, the CML has to struggle to secure its own existence financially. To this end we have launched a crowdfunding campaign at the following link:

https://crowdfunding.mcgill.ca/ui/main/p/CriticalMediaLab

I know many of you have already given enough money to McGill. (Hi mom and dad.) For those who haven’t, perhaps consider donating! And today (March 15th) would be the perfect day to donate, because, just for today, through the McGill24 initiative, all donations will be matched 1:1.

Thanks for humoring me on this excursion into the exotic realms of ethnographic filmmaking and asking friends for money. Normal programming (small black and white photographs of people watching soccer) will resume shortly.

Leo