Aspiring Video Documentarians Get 2 Million Views on YouTube and Cash

WASHINGTON, D.C. On Sunday night at American University, YouTube recognized the five finalists and winner in the Project Report competition, a new journalism award for short video documentaries. Co-sponsored by the Pulitzer Center , the assignment was for "non-professional" video journalists to report on under reported communities. I had a chance on Monday to speak with the winner Arturo PerezJr, an aspiring filmmaker from San Francisco, and two finalists Sara Peach and Eileen Mignoni , both journalism students from the University of North Carolina. Perez won the $10,000 commission for new film. We are told that the submissions for the awards garnered more than 2 million views on YouTube. For reporting in the public interest and for the careers of these aspiring young video documentarians, this is a big deal. Congrats to all the filmmakers and to YouTube's Steve Grove and Olivia Ma for making this happen. -- Andy Plesser, Executive Producer P.S. Our little video of the winners was shot by me and brilliantly edited by our staff editor/producer David Kavanaugh. AP

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Blip | January 14, 2009

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