Guest blogger Bart Weiss is the director of the Video Association of Dallas. He’ll be checking in from Pakistan, where he’s participating in the American Documentary Showcase.

Most of my adult life,  I have been talking about the power of media – particularly film and video – and how it can be a force for good in the world.  We spend so much time with media that is not enriching, yet there are other choices out there to see. This is why I do the video festival and Frame of Mind on KERA, and it’s why I teach filmmaking.  I believe documentary leads to empathy for people we have been taught to hate , or told are inferior  or are the cause of our problem situations.

When you see people doing good things, it is hard to call a jihad on them. After 9-11, I believed that showing indy docs abroad could really make a difference. Well, it’s taken too many years, but I am finally getting a chance to do just that. I’m participating in a program called the American Documentary Showcase, a joint program of the University Film and Video Association (a bunch of film teachers ), the International Documentary Association
and the U.S. State Department.

I am going to Pakistan with Tricia Regan, who made the doc Autism the Musical.
We will go to all kinds of groups to show the film, answer questions , and give workshops on how to make documentaries to students, citizen journalists and others.
It is very exciting.
As I travel, I will be sending text, stills and video to Art&Seek.
I leave tonight and get into Karachi Saturday morning. For one leg of my flight, I will be on this amazingly large Emirates airplane so the first blogs will be more about travel that film
I hope to get something in each night

So as they used to say

Stay tuned
Bart