The the penultimate weekend before the fall semester final exams at UW-Madison and MATC is set to begin, and there's no doubt that the bars and house parties will be buzzing downtown. The culture of drinking is well-engrained in this college town, but the issue of alcohol abuse by college students has been a major focus among university administrators and public policymakers as of late.
Since launching in the mid-90s, the So Iordachescu stopped by State Street Brats a couple of Fridays ago and queried patrons on their thoughts about drinking culture in the city. The point, he explains, was to get viewers thinking about campus crime rates, drunk driving, and other alcohol-related issues relevant to college alcoholism. This short documentary follows. Iordachescu screened the documentary for his class last week. "They enjoyed the real life visuals, rather than pie charts, graphs, and boring Powerpoints filled with statistics and cartoon images," he says. "This was a real report, with real life problems, and it was filmed in the field instead of taking textbook information and translating it into my own version." Indeed, it is a first hand look at an ubiquitous reality on State Street. "I wanted other individuals to view the attitudes that intoxicated people exhibit," concludes Iordachescu, "not just to make the subjects in the video examples, but to hopefully further educate viewers and to show them how ridiculous you look while intoxicated at times." If you have a video about Madison or by Madisonians, please consider adding it to the Isthmus YouTube group or send a message.
