Nearly 25 Elon students are giving up part of their spring break to help produce a multimedia CD, DVD and VHS tape featuring Kevin Bales, a leading authority on world slavery. Details...
Production work began Thursday, March 27 in studio B in McEwen building. The CD, titled “Throwaway People: The Global Economy’s Dirty Secret,” will incorporate ideas from some of Bales’ previous lectures, speeches and documentary films on slavery. Bales says he’s excited about the production work, which is part of a Project Pericles grant. Elon is one of 10 colleges and universities taking part in the program, which provides funding to faculty to help instill a sense of civic responsibility in students.
“I love it,” says Bales, the author of “Disposable People,” which chronicles the slavery of people around the world. “I’m so impressed; the students are here early, staying late, working hard and we’re all learning like crazy.”
Students from a variety of majors volunteered to return to campus Wednesday evening for the opening crew call, cutting short their spring break to act as editors, producers, camera operators and technicians on the set. Sophomore Katie Rosenthal, an international studies major from Lawrenceville, NJ, said the sacrifice of vacation time was well worth it to draw attention to a little-known problem.
“It’s a humanitarian thing, helping people to get their freedom,” said Rosenthal, who is serving as associate producer. “Hopefully, we can raise awareness that (slavery) is an issue, as much as people would like to think it’s over.”
Bales says 27 million people worldwide live under slavery, which he defines as anyone who is completely controlled by violence, forced to work for no compensation and economically exploited. “Slavery predates law,” says Bales, who serves on the board of directors of Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest human rights organization.
Working under the direction of Peggy Callahan, a producer with Tidewater Productions in Los Angeles, Bales and the Elon students will work through the weekend to finish the CD and DVD. Tom Arcaro, director of Project Pericles on campus, says the DVD version will be offered in four languages—English, French, Spanish and Chinese.
“The English version will also have subtitles for the hearing-impaired,” Arcaro said, while French and Spanish translations of the script are being completed by Remi Lanzoni and Ernie Lunsford, faculty members in the foreign languages department.
Laith Majali, a junior from Amman, Jordan, is the project’s chief editor. While the work helps to hone his skills as a broadcast communications major, he sees a larger purpose in the project. “We’re working for a good cause, and even though it’s a small group, we can have a big effect. And it has been great experience for us as students, seeing how the real world works under deadlines. The work is very demanding, and very professional.”
Bales, an Oklahoma native who spent nearly 20 years in England attending college and teaching before returning to the United States in 2001, says the Project Pericles initiative is something he’s glad to see as an educator. “I’m excited about the Pericles program. This is something special. It’s a testimony to what a thoughtful institution Elon is.” He will remain on campus through April 4 as the first Periclean-in-Residence.