Our guest next week is...
The reason you see protest footage on your newsfeed.
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VFD #6 will be published on Tuesday, March 8, AEST. Our guest is Andrew Kimmel. Andrew is a pioneer of early online live-streaming, sending out video live from protests and social movements across the United States. #MeToo, George Floyd, Charlottesville, Portland… in a chaotic four years of American history, Andrew’s camera was front of the pack. It is almost guaranteed that you have seen his footage on your newsfeed and on your TV.
This was a really interesting interview. We cover a bunch of things, and it’s not all live-streaming.
Andrew is also a producer of reality television, and we discuss the obvious dichotomy he has experienced in working with constructed reality television and live-streamed, what-you-see-is-what-you-get broadcasting. We also discussed how Andrew’s openness about the death of his father spawned a viral Twitter thread, and how it feels when something so personal is so available to strangers. (TW: mental health, suicide). I’m not lying when I say I have thought about Andrew’s openness, that thread, and his thoughts on it, once a week since we talked.
There’s also the fact that he receives messages of hate from the far-right fringe that is equally balanced out by people who have genuinely used his footage to help them with the law, with police, and in court cases. Only a few minutes after we finished talking, Andrew sent me this screenshot of his Twitter DMs:
It is really a fascinating and absorbing conversation. I look forward to sending it out for you all. Please do email if you have any thoughts at all about the interviews that have already gone live. I may even throw a free paid membership your way ;).
Thank you – always – for your support.