Two Wright State Filmmakers Reinvent Their Approach for “Reinvention Stories,” a Web Documentary

((Excerpt))

Filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar (Personal Belongings, POV 1996) documented the effects of the recession in Ohio in their Oscar-nominated 2009 film, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, but Reinvention Stories is new to their body of work. It’s an online documentary, a collaboration with the team from Zeega, the interactive storytelling platform– with elements of film, radio, social media, photography and almost every other form of multimedia out there — that encourages visitors to follow the lives of seven Dayton residents who found themselves at a cross roads when the city was hit hard by the recession, and chose to take a new path in their lives.

In May 2012, Reichert and Bognar gathered with radio and film producers at their local public radio station, a partnership fostered by AIR Media’s Localore initiative, and prepared to hit the streets. Throughout the summer, they trekked through Dayton neighborhoods on foot, approaching folks sitting on their porches, pushing their kids on swings in parks, unloading groceries from cars or walking their dogs and asked them, “Who were you before the bottom fell out? What happened that changed your life? Who are you becoming, or trying to become?”

Read more at www.pbs.org