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Storytelling 2.0By the last day, everyone is excited. The difficult part of sharing their memories with strangers for the first time is over. During lunch, we sit on the front steps of the Workmen’s Hall, basking in a rare bit of sunshine. Up the street, for some strange reason, an instructor is photographing Mary in a long black dress in the doorway of one of the village houses. Everyone spends the rest of the afternoon toiling away on their projects, each oblivious to what the others are doing. At 4 p.m., we gather in front of a projection screen. Someone hands out paper cups filled with popcorn and turns off the lights. Everyone’s story is interesting; their singsong Welsh voices are hypnotic. By creating these visual diary entries, they’ve joined a storytelling tradition that goes way back before the Digital Age. But one stands out. Mary tells the story of her grandmother, the screen panning across a black-and-white photo of an old woman leaning in a stone doorway. Then the video zooms out, and the woman in the picture morphs into a sepia-toned picture of 70-something Mary leaning in a doorway. Everyone gasps. We see Mary’s grandmother, brought to life. Write to us: letters@enroutemag.net |
