by Alissa Brooks

Post-production is in full swing here at the Foundation for Women offices in San Diego.  For the past ten hours our workshop participants have made storyboards, transcribed, selected quotes, edited audio … and the end is nowhere in sight.

“Film is a team effort, but when you’re a photographer it’s a solo effort,” explains Michele Zousmer, one member of Stirring the Fire’s social documentary workshop.  Teamwork is essential to pull all the pieces of media together to make a coherent, consistent, and concise documentary.

Michele resides in San Diego but has traveled around the world with her camera, including to China, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.  In the past week, she has traveled all around San Diego with her team documenting a Foundation for Women hero who is not only an entrepreneur, but a wife, mother, and singer.

Michele says, “Being a humanitarian photographer, I tell a story through visual imagery, which is a powerful tool to tell a story. Video makes even more of an impact.”  Before that impact can be felt, all the photos, audio, and video must be whittled down.  The editing process is just that, a process.  Yet, once every clip is set in place and every image perfectly selected, the magic of the story takes over.  All this work is worth it when another people can see our work and connect with another human being – someone they have never met before – and, even just for a few minutes, begin to understand.

Michele Zousmer, humanitarian photographer who plans to continue to learn about film making.