2012 ShortDocs: Neighbor Stories

Series produced by Third Coast International Audio Festival

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The 2012 Third Coast ShortDocs each feature at least two neighbors, include both a color in the title and three consecutive seconds of "narrative silence," and last about three minutes.

For the 2012 ShortDocs Challenge, the Third Coast Festival joined forces with EveryBlock.com, an online forum for neighborly solidarity. With EveryBlock's help we came up with a set of rules, and invited anyone and everyone to produce short audio stories that followed these rules:

- Each story had to feature at least two neighbors
- Each story had to include a color in the title
- Each story had to include three consecutive seconds of " narrative silence."

In the end, ~180 stories were submitted from 21 (!) different countries. Four were chosen as the official 2012 ShortDocs, and will be presented, with producers on-hand, at the opening session of the 2012 Third Coast Conference. Listen to all (!) 2012 ShortDocs here: http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/competitions/shortdocs/2012


27 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First

  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 02:59
  • Purchases: 2
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A simple scene of sharing language, laughter, songs and daily chores with my neighbours in Kigali, Rwanda.

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis, KCUR, KUT, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 4
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On one block in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, an unnamed baker whips up artisan sourdoughs to sell to his neighbors.

Bought by KUT and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 2
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Rudy has lived on this bizarre little block since 1953, before a dozen railroad tracks and nearly as many highway lanes separated it from other res...

Bought by The Story, KUT, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 02:55
  • Purchases: 3
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Virginia Miller and her husband Tim recount the night a tornado hit Apison, Tenn., and how it changed their relationship with their neighbors.

Bought by The Story, KUOW, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 02:14
  • Purchases: 3
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In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, gentrification advances with a cautionary yellow light as a local property manger paints the town his own special hue.

Bought by KUT and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 02:59
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
Through their journey down Letaba road, Brandon, Keith, and Jameel quickly realise that appearances may not be the entire story and that there is m...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 03:01
  • Purchases: 1
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A portrait of Anna, who lives one floor below me, and her hamster.

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass. and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 2

  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 2
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Neighbors of the Murrah Federal building recall the 1995 bombing that altered the life and culture of Oklahoma City.

Bought by KUT and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 02:54
  • Purchases: 2
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He's not just the Santa Claus-looking guy who walks his dog every day on my street--he's Larry Bauer: carpenter, man-of-letters.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
Residents of a quiet Santa Monica apartment building remember their neighbor, Charlie -- also known as notorious Boston crime boss James "Whitey" B...

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis, The Story, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 02:54
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
A story about a neighbour, which turns out also to be a story about another neighbour – and when all comes to all: about the narrator herself.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 02:59
  • Purchases: 1
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A man with a microphone meets a small town neighbor on a mission.

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 2
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I live next to the Westwood Cemetery in Carrboro, North Carolina and my neighbors are the ghosts who reside there.

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
Who knew a hit and run could end in friendship?

Bought by KUT and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 2
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Sometimes it's a blessing to have noisy neighbours.

Bought by KALW, KUT, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 02:58
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
Under Ernie’s Free Tree neighbors and passersby pick from the free pile, the last of Ernie Winger’s possessions—recycling, laughing, crying, rememb...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 02:59
  • Purchases: 1
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Hello neighbor the weather is fine outside and my old stuff is all yours all free, well, kind of.

Bought by The Story and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 2
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The story of how I helped a neighbour move thousands of his tiny friends to a new home

Bought by The Story, New Hampshire Public Radio, KUOW, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 24, 2012
  • Length: 02:59
  • Purchases: 4