My Digital Story Top Picks

This Digital Story was made by a collaboration between Alzheimer's Australia and the Australian Center for the Moving Image, the latter of which provided all the technical expertise for the participants Alzheimer's Australia brought in. Max and Noel Oliver's Story was a retelling of their lives to their grandchildren. The story is told primarily by Max, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and quickly losing his lucidity, and his wife Noel with the hope that once their grandchildren are old enough to understand the story they can hear it directly from Max and Noel. The back and forth of Max and Noel's narration of their life together, along with the deeply personal addresses to their granddaughters, really made the piece feel as if they were having a conversation with their audience. While at times the audio had volume issues the overall technical quality did not diminish the story Max and Noel told and the use of text to bridge the gaps in time allowed for a fluid movement of the story. The use of the fading in and out of the still images added to the emotion of the narration. The background music fit the story and provided an emotional atmosphere that spoke of both loss and love. I think it was a really good choice to leave in the laughter of Noel when Max cracked the joke about never getting lost showing the humor they both seem to have about their situation and adding to the story. I think this use of digital storytelling is a brilliant and deeply personal way for those who struggle with Alzheimer's and Dementia to document their lives for their loved ones.

This Digital Story was made by an Australian lesbian mother who was inspired to do so by one of her friends whom was a Digital Storyteller. The story was made in order to show her and her family's side of a gay marriage protest where a group of anti-homosexual Christians began to yell out homophobic slurs and urges for repentance. During this protest the mother's two children had to witness the hatred the group of Christians had towards their family and the story shows the oldest daughter's reaction to the conflict. The story does a very good job of striking an emotional chord through the daughter's speech and textual emphasis of key wordings. All of the still images match the narration giving the story a fluid motion and the video clips are linked into the narration very smoothly. While the quality of the daughter's speech is not very good, most likely due to the fact that this was done by the mother with help from a friend and not a professional group or workshop, the importance of the speech was very clear thanks to the textual representations. I think the choice of providing a motivating backing soundtrack during the still images and then fading it out during the video clips made the overall quality of the piece seem more professional and allowed for the clips to be viewed with no distraction. The inclusion of the full news clip of the altercation with the anti-homosexual Christian group was a good choice as it shows the different take the media had on the same story she was sharing.