Student Documentarians Detail Challenges Facing Small Businesses
by SCOTT McCAFFREY, Staff Writer for the Sun Gazette
A team of student documentarians put Arlington’s small-business community under the microscope during the summer, and came away impressed with the sector’s resilience
“They’re hanging in there,” said Ryan Scott, a Yorktown High School student who was one of five participants in the annual “Document Arlington” video-documentary project, sponsored by Arlington Independent Media (AIM) in conjunction with the Humanities Project and the county school system.
Scott and four other local students - Tonie Spence, Molly Adair, Patrick Dwyer and Caitlin Wiederkehr - interviewed small-business owners, including those at the helm of restaurants that included Java Shack, Earl’s Sandwiches and Linda’s Cafe.
Businesses were “extremely welcoming - very accepting of having people come in and talk to them,” said Adair, a Yorktown student.
Also interviewed were leaders of the local business community, including Chamber of Commerce president Rich Doud, Clarendon Alliance executive director Susan Anderson and Tara Miles of Arlington Economic Development.
“Small businesses are the backbone of any community,” said Miles. Their success “helps pull communities out of tough economic times.”
The five students were selected earlier this year from a larger pool of applicants, and spent most of their summer “learning story-telling and learning about Arlington,” said AIM’s Jackie Steven.
“They are an incredible group of young people. They did a fabulous, fabulous job,” she said.
The 13-minute documentary, along with another effort looking at homelessness across the county, debuted at a screening Oct. 9 at Arlington Independent Media’s refurbished studio facilities in Clarendon.
For some of the participants, the filmmaking projects were a summer fancy, a way to make money and be creative at the same time. For others, though, they may be the gateway to a career.
“I liked [video production] before, but I like it even better now,” said Wiederkehr, another Yorktown student. (Dwyer also attends Yorktown; Spence is a Wakefield High School graduate now away at college.)
It was the participants themselves who came up with the topics, said Allison Gilbert, coordinator of the Humanities Project.
There was no shortage of topics to consider. “We had so many ideas,” Adair said.
In selecting the students, organizers were looking for “someone who is interested in telling a story,” rather than one having a background in media production, Gilbert said as she headed in to a standing-room-only screening.
Throughout the project, students were mentored by Becky Varni of Arlington Independent Media.
“It’s pretty intimidating at first,” Scott said of the production process, which included such non-sexy tasks as lugging camera equipment across the county, setting up appointments with county and business leaders, and logging in hours and hours of interviews.
That’s all part of the learning process, Steven said.
“They did every aspect of these videos - we didn’t scare ’em off,” she said with a chuckle.
The videos will air sporadically on AIM, which is found on Channel 69 on the Comcast cable system and Channel 38 on the Verizon system.
