Ahead of the inaugural Melbourne Web Series Festival on 20 July, we’re profiling all 30 series that made the Official Selection list. Next up is Hungry in the West End, by John Martin.
Funded by AARP Foundation , Hungry in the West End is an up-close look at seniors struggling with food insecurity, the challenges and obstacles they face and the dwindling resources available to supplement their nutritional needs. It also highlights the role of food banks and pantries, and the vital contribution of community volunteers.
What inspired your series?
The realisation that an enormous portion of the senior population struggles to feed itself. More importantly, this is not simply a poverty issue. It is an aging issue many of us will eventually face.
Why should people watch your series?
Because chances are you have a parent, grandparent, neighbour or know someone else who needs help. The good news, however, is that anyone can be a part of the senior hunger solution.
What do you want people to take away from your series?
Senior hunger is an enormous global problem, as reflected in our story of one small community. To some extent, it is invisible. Government is only a partial solution. After watching this, we hope people will face their individual responsibility to watch out for a senior who goes hungry.
How do you reach your audience?
We have been very fortunate to have leveraged a diverse following on social media. We find that not only hunger advocates were interested in spreading the word. We get help from caregivers, advocates for the disabled, Hispanic leadership organizations, food bloggers and others. We also are part of a large national organization (AARP) that, among other things, fights hunger in America. So there is a sizable organizational infrastructure backing our project.
Why make a web series?
It was not our initial plan. But we got good advice to roll our story out in a series of reports rather than in long form. It automatically made sense. I think originally I thought of this as a report in installments. But about this time two years ago I discovered the fascinating work in the Web series world. The bulk of it seemed to be in comedy and drama. I saw a chance to be a Web documentary series pioneer, of sorts.
Hungry in the West End on the web:
Hungry in the West End Home: http://states.aarp.org/watch-hungry-in-the-west-end/
AARP Rhode Island on Facebook: http://www.aarp.org/aarpri
AARP Rhode Island on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/aarpri
Twitter Handle: @aarpri
Melbourne WebFest is on July 20, and tickets are on sale now. Keep up to date with the festival on Twitter: @MelbWebFest
La Trobe University is an official partner of Melbourne WebFest
