Music meets images in ‘Witness’

He grew up outdoors Washington, D.C., in Maryland, the son of a CNN cameraman. As a baby, he remembers watching the nightly information and seeing President Bill Clinton talking into his father’s digital camera.

“I couldn’t even believe it — that he was that close to history,” Kalifa stated.

That proximity drew him towards journalism. After learning on the University of Texas and spending a 12 months in a movie program in Prague, Kalifa initially imagined a profession in cinematography. Working for UT’s “Daily Texan” modified his profession trajectory.

“I just realized that there are so many extraordinary true stories around me that I wanted to be the conduit for those stories,” he stated.

Music was all the time there as nicely.

Kalifa grew up enjoying clarinet in elementary college, saxophone in center college and piano in highschool. He settled on guitar and has been enjoying music for the final 15 years within the Austin orchestral indie-rock ensemble Mother Falcon and has used songwriting privately to course of a few of what he encountered as a journalist.

“Music has been a constant in my life and has been among the most grounding forces in my life, helping me not only process what it is I’ve experienced personally and professionally,” he stated.

In “Witness,” Kalifa brings images and music collectively.

“The combination of music and storytelling and the photographs, I hope, creates a dynamic experience that can elevate the impact that these photographs and stories can have,” he stated. “It’s a way of honoring the trust that was given to me by the people who shared their stories with me.”

Kalifa hopes individuals go away “Witness” with a deeper sense of their very own humanity and with the humanity of these round them.

“Photography creates an opportunity for viewers and the public to recognize a part of themselves in the lives of the people depicted,” he stated. “I hope the show inspires people to engage and think more deeply about what our responsibilities are not only to ourselves, but to the people around us and to our community and also to our nation and to the world. I hope that this inspires the empathy and the care and the compassion that I think is so important in a moment like the one that we’re living in.”

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