Credit: Spencer Platt/gettyimages
Last week sucked. Many of us woke up to the news on Sunday, June 12th that a terrorist took the lives of 49 individuals in an Orlando Gay Night Club named Pulse Nightclub. Ben and I were shocked. This was pretty close to home for us, with family in Orlando and us both growing up in Miami and Central Florida.
Our mind couldn’t catch up to the reality that was taking place with every breaking news update. We were heartbroken. The social media posts started. Victims started having names and faces. Details of the horror surfaced. Vigils were scheduled. Funerals arranged. Legislation was attempted. And the world kept moving.
This isn’t the first tragedy to take place in the modern age, but I’d argue it’s the first that gave us an entire picture of the tragedy because of digital media. Aside from politically and emotionally charged social media posts, photo images of the victims were found on virtually every Facebook feed.
Then the videos began to emerge. We witnessed a victim share her last few minutes in this world on SnapChat before the shots started firing. Video released showed thousands gathering to watch as Disney mourned the lives lost.
Talk show hosts shared their grief, opinion, and horror with their national audiences through the camera.
A son said goodbye to his mother who died protecting him.
A Broadway community took action and raised funds through song and film.
Our world has changed after June 12th. It’s a frightening blessing that we experienced the stages of grief with each other because of video.
As a video production studio, we want to leverage the video medium to bring people together. To tell their stories of courage, loss, anger, fear and hope. To move forward together as one people. We shared the following videos respectfully, with the hope that these videos unite us and stir us towards action.
We hope a video shared in light of this tragedy stirred action in you. The following are links to organizations that you can give to in order to support the friends and family of those whose lives were taken too soon.
Link to download Broadway for Orlando: What The World Needs Now; all proceeds go to GBLT Community Center of Central Florida.
CNN Article: How to Help Orlando Victims links you to several campaigns with a video featuring a GofundMe Campaign that broke records.
Link to Equality Florida’s Go Fund Me Page
Edi Wade, Producer