About Backpack Journalism

Backpack Journalism at Creighton University is a collaboration between the Theology Department and the Journalism, Media, & Computing Department. It came about because of a theologian interested in social justice and filmmaking and a journalist and an artist interested in filmmaking and social justice.

Every other summer, a small group of students travels to a community in search of a story. Led by professors Dr. John O’Keefe, Tim Guthrie, and Carol Zuegner, the students immerse themselves in the communities, interviewing, filming, recording, and writing. When they return to Creighton, they take the stories they have collected and develop them into a short documentary film. The Backpack Journalism documentaries have been accepted at several film festivals across the United States. The class has traveled to such far-flung places as the Dominican Republic and Uganda, Bethel Alaska and Nogales Arizona/Sonora.

The next project is scheduled for the summer of 2020 and will focus on deforestation in Eastern Africa.

Tag Archives: Newtok

I would never shower like before…

June 21, 20142014 AlaskaAlaska, Bethel, climate change, CUbackpack, Newtok, povertyTony Homsy S.J.

Showering was a funny conversation the last two weeks among the members of our group,

Newtak, Alaska, 2014, by Tony Homsy S.J — Newtok, Alaska, 2014, by Tony Homsy S.J

we had limited resource of water in Bethel, (it coasts approximately 350$ per week to fill your tank). With kind of respectful and mindful attitude, we economize the using of water in good way. We weren’t neither anxious nor careless, and the whole group has a kind of agreement that it is more authentically of we do that, since our documentary has being oriented more and more toward environment and global warming issues…

Continue reading I would never shower like before… →

Newtok … New-talk

June 21, 20142014 AlaskaAlaska, backpack journalism, climate change, NewtokTony Homsy S.J.

Couple days ago, me and Tim (my videography teacher) went to Newtok, a tiny village at

Tony Homsy S.J., Alaska, 2014 — Tony Homsy S.J., Newtok, Alaska, 2014

the Bering sea, Tim wrote on his blog about the purpose of this special adventure, here.

What we had seen in Newtok was kind of severe poverty, no trucks or cars, it is almost an isolated island, the only way to go there is by airplane, and it is expensive. Cold weather makes everything look poor, and life style is very demanding, imagine that you are obliged to use heating systems to survive, even in June! People there showed me the extreme different life of what we have in our ordinary one. Continue reading Newtok … New-talk →