10 Dec ODL Fellow Tamara Shogaolu Wins IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling
Headshot of Tamara Shogaolu
Cambridge, Mass. (December 10, 2021) — Un(re)solved, an interactive documentary project directed by MIT Open Documentary Lab Fellow Tamara Shogaolu as part of an initiative by FRONTLINE, won the IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling at the 2021 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Un(re)solved examines a federal effort to investigate more than 150 cold cases that date back to the civil rights era. The interactive documentary takes the viewer through “a forest of quilted memories to learn about four people whose untimely deaths are being re-examined as part of a federal effort to grapple with America’s legacy of racist killings through the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act,” says the project page on FRONTLINE’s website.
“Offering a fluid navigation through an immense history of social (in)justice, this project builds a database on systemic violence. Being asked to “say his/her name” out loud, as during the Black Lives Matter protests, becomes the interactive means to navigate the stories, with each name unfolding a new chapter. A thoughtful and thought-provoking experience, at the end of which you can feel how vast and urgent the work is that is still in front of us. The urgency and clarity of the message makes Un(re)solved by Tamara Shogaolu the winner of the main prize, the IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling, and a remarkably relevant work,” stated The IDFA Jury Report.
“I wanted to allow audiences to participate in the memorializing of these individuals who lost their lives tragically. By exploring the different chapters and the stories of these individuals, the audience member actually literally acts like a source of light to the experience,” said Shogaolu.
Image from Un(re)solved
In addition to being an MIT Open Documentary Lab (ODL) Fellow, Tamara Shogaolu is the founder and creative director of Ado Ato Pictures. She is an international director and new media artist who strives to share stories across mediums, platforms, and virtual and physical spaces in order to promote cross-cultural understanding and challenge preconceptions. With a track record in featuring her work at film festivals, galleries, and museums worldwide, such as the Tribeca Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Gallery of Indonesia, her innovative approach to storytelling has led to sources like The Guardian, Forbes Magazine and Vogue naming her as a leader in the field of new and immersive media. At ODL, she is continuing her exploration of quilting as a storytelling platform and combining it with technology to create physical manifestations and meditations of intergenerational provocations.
Un(re)solved is also a major initiative of PBS’ Frontline, executive-produced by former MIT Open Documentary Lab Fellow Raney Aronson-Rath. The initiative draws upon more than two years of reporting, thousands of documents and dozens of first-hand interviews, and the story takes many shapes, including this web-based interactive experience, a serialized podcast, an augmented-reality installation, and a documentary. FRONTLINE partnered with Shogaolu’s studio Ado Ato Pictures to lead the creative vision for the installation and interactive documentary, which is available to experience online here.