Description
At the San Francisco District’s 1998 Convocation of De La Salle Christian Brothers and their Lasallian Partners, Scott Gibbs first became acquainted with Lasallian education. Six hundred Brothers, faculty, administrators, Board members, students and others involved in various schools and educational projects gathered to reflect on what they were about and how they could move forward. As part of that Convocation, a professional video producer spent two months traveling to the many places throughout the District and around the world where the Lasallian mission was being accomplished and where the District had been able to make a contribution of personnel or finances. Many hours of film were edited down to a few short five or six-minute video segments that poignantly expressed the common experience—the common mission—among Lasallian institutions on the West Coast and in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and Kenya. This video professional, who had produced videos for national network programs and multi-national corporations, asked if he could say something at the Convocation where the videos would be shown. Although not a public speaker, he felt compelled to stand up and address the six hundred representatives of the District-wide Lasallian educational community.
“I want to start by saying thank you; and I really mean that. This was an enormous undertaking for us and a large number of people helped make it come to pass at every institution around, it seemed, half the planet that my sound man and I ended up getting to. Last June I got a phone call, and a couple of weeks later, I was standing on a dusty street in Pakistan, looking around, saying, “What happened? How did I end up here? How did we end up here?” 52 shooting days . . . 50,000 miles . . . 7 countries . . . 56 hours of videotape . . . over a thousand still photographs . . . in places that look wildly different from each other; different colors of people, different faces, different costumes and dress, different languages. We have heard “Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God” in seven different languages in the course of this trip. But in that difference, there was a sameness everywhere… absolutely everywhere. It is remarkable to see how much every image that you see on this screen looked like you. These people who look so different are doing exactly the same work… everywhere. It is remarkable to see how similar it is and how powerful and wonderful it was for someone who knew nothing of this, to watch this process happening here and in all of those other countries. Absolutely inspiring… touching… moving, powerful stuff, absolutely wonderful – and as a cameraman, what fun to shoot… those faces, those kids. Absolutely spectacular… just – simply – wonderful. Every face you see here has been you… every single one. It’s you doing that work there as well as here. All over the place. You should be very proud of what you do. It is wonderful work. It is absolutely wonderful work. You are, of course, educators, Lasallian educators, and you certainly educated my sound man and me in the course of this project.”
Scott also created a series of videos about Saint Mary’s College of California. They are located HERE.
