Documentaries －Co-creation Project

Documentaries From a Phone Call－Providence University, Department of Mass Communication-Documentary Co-creation Project

Six documentaries of rare patients’ life were published, showing its own style and shooting techniques. We could feel the details and struggles, hopes of the patients and their families. These documentaries recorded all the physical changes of the patients and the feeling of their siblings.

These all started from a phone call, numbers of mails connecting social welfare and education. The value of people was seen again.

How to record every moment in life is an important question for everyone. Many families of rare diseases wanted to sort out their films, but in vain. They didn’t have the profession nor experience. Luckily, we heard their needs. TFRD received the referral from Xi Hao, a teacher from Providence University, Department of Mass Communication. This started the group teaching consisting of ten students and seven families of rare diseases.

During the three months, seven families with five different kinds of rare diseases, including Marfan syndrome, Mitochondrial defect, Williams syndrome, chromosome disease, and multiple sclerosis, learned how to create documentary with students of mass communication department. The content covered taking photos, telling a story with images, and the way to plan and write scripts and edit films.

Students entered the rare world through their equipment, enlarging their view of life by lens. The patients and the families of rare diseases learned the way to take films and knew more about image creation. There are numerous of ways to help rare disease patients, and the students and teachers of Providence University have their own. They used their talents to record the rare life stories, which was a unique experience in life to everyone.

Translator: Newny Chiang (MS), Reviewer: Albert Kuo