Velo-city: the two wheel revolution!

 

 

It has been said that Vancouver is a town where bicycles are slowly taking over as the predominant cultural and fashionable mode of transportation. Today, the Burrard bridge open a project in which one of its car lanes became exclusively a lane for bicycles. With media ranging from the local news, CBC and Alternative Media, the coverage on the firs official day of the bridge became a success as many groups of commuters got together and decided to ride their bikes the long way to work through the bridge. Momentum 40 ”the magazine for self-propelled people” promoted a launch party and a picnick at a Vernier park, which the turned out was quite impressive. The Vancouver Museum launched the movie triplets of Belleville…

and the Vancouver Area Biking Coalition provided flyers and cake for everyone to enjoy. Being a new come to Vancouver, i still a little overwhelmed by the amount of passion, movement and energy that has been put into this progressive movement towards a Velo-City. As i follow all the interesting moves arround this city and its passionate bicycling culture, i learn about myself, the community, bicycles and film.

This is a piece for my new short film on bicycling culture… it was amazing seeing 2000+ people taking over the main streets of Vancouver downtown. It was interesting seeing the passion and the “riot”. It happens every last friday of the month, a critical mass which never surpassed 100 in my university town in Ontario, here goes by the thousands, painted bodies, music, velo-mutations and more. I am happy to be here. Also, the museum of Vancouver is still presenting Velo-City, featuring films of Vancouver bicycling culture as well as the movements and gadgets, all from the local scene. The activism, the culture, the sport, the lifestyle and its revolution. Time to consider more strongly grabbing a bicycle and leaving that nasty environmental unfriendly car.

Brocha II: Liking the edits… go Green!

I actually like this edit better, i think it is quite interesting how music can be mixed with some film cuts (need to get my own music). It is an interesting way to put together an easy piece to feel quite relaxed to. As i said before, painting “stuff” green just seems right, it is a color of paint we are much needing in the world. More interesting stuff coming up soon… I just learned how to post properly on youtube, it took some reading and getting use to Compressor software. Go Green!!!

Brocha I: learning the edits

I love the art of painting. Although i have painted few times in my life, there is something almost metaphysical about splashing color into a surface which will never be the same. Painting to music is even better, painting with a loved one on a canvas after while disinhibiting each other in the process of creation, is the most meaningful experience one could share with a paintbrush. This is my second filming and editting exercise, i have enjoyed its filming as much as I enjoyed the editting and i have done two versions of the editting with different music in the background. Although the music may be too much for some people as it is too good for the clip’s theme, i enjoy watching the brush everytime under that tune, and I still think is proper… at least for me (smiles).

Imagine: The Weather Underground

imagine for a second that you are in the sixties,

imagine that the Vietnam War is happening and the world is going into Chaos,

that people are being killed in a foreign country and soldiers are being shipped in caskets,

imagine the Cold War, Communism, Cuba and nuclear missils in the verge of a holocaust

imagine the Civil Rights movement, the Feminist Movemement, the GLTBQ liberation front,

the re-awekening of first nations… imagine

What would you have done being young and smart as you are?

imagine all this… and then you realize you dont have to imagine it,

it is still happening, today, as we speak,

and it will probably get worse…

you must do something about it.

This film i find very relevant to the process of understanding the potential of human beings as these young idealists did unthinkable radical actions in the U.S. and made an important breakthrough in my mind, after watching this film. They did the unthinkable in an unthinkable place, during rough times. Imagine… what we could do today, in these unthinkable places, during these really rough times… it is amazing.

Documentary Film, Sharks and Dolphins… Action!

Two recent documentary films show how the current times demand action from the media and the general public to change the situation some species are facing. These are films one must see and consider seriously when it comes in how media can become a very powerful resource for change.

THE COVE

SHARKWATER