Somewhere Groups of Friends are getting together to do neat work

Somewhere in Vancouver, Groups of Friends are Doing Something Special from Alejandro Zuluaga on Vimeo.

This is time for Christmas, sharing, helping out and getting involved in the community with friends and family. Telia, a co-worker from the Urban Native Youth Association, decides to gather some friends, fundraise some money and give socks away at the Carnagie Community Centre in the down town east side. Get together with your friends, have fun, get involved.

Farmer’s Market Nutrition Coupon Project

Creations from the community by the community & for the community.

Very neat short promotional film piece done by friend Adam Kebede and his small crew. I am excited where film is going in terms of Vancouver community Television and W2 Media Arts Centre. Community Television covering local projects, activist workshops, protests and events, celebrations and friendly gatherings, CO-OPS and collectives, and so much more. As corporate media grows weaker and weaker, these are times to create film and television. With the Olympics rampaging on board next year, alternative film makers must begin taking responsibility in creating alternative media educating and engaging the general public in where our cities are envisioned to go in the next 50 years. 

The International Climate Summit in Copenhagen is a reality which the world will have to face as countries walk out from it in the uncertainty of uncommitted governments, promising colossal environmental tasks without the support of the private powers. These are times to show people that community grass roots events are having an impact in our cities, creating and providing different ecologically sound alternatives to adopt and incorporate into our consumer habits.

This video makes me smile as it is made with no budget, by a set of friends whom i have worked with in many different projects.

Check it out!

Little video on Protest at Vancouver’s Art Gallery: Jim Prentice and Stephen Harper are “detained” for Criminal Negligence in Regards to Climate Change

Mock arrest of Jim Prentice and Stephen Harper at Vancouver’s Arts Gallery.

VANCOUVER CARES, OCTOBER 24TH AND COUNTDOWN TO COPENHAGEN

Following up with October 24th and now in the countdown to december 7th, multiple groups around Vancouver have been meeting to put pressure to the local and federal government to act appropriately on behalf of Canadians and the environment in the International Climate Summit coming up this December. This half hour video shows some of the events which happened in October 24th and shortly after and it tries to spread awareness about this crucial issue we need to take care-of now!!! The international climate summit has been called to be the most important meeting in history concerning the environment. Canada does not want to take leadership in this meetings and Mr Harper may not even show up due to the current governmental investment and partnership with multiple Oil giants in the Tar Sands. The Tar Sands is not the biggest environmental polluter in terms of CO2 Emissions, but it is also threatening the depletion of the Boreal Forest and the contamination with toxic chemicals of the Great Lakes putting at stake the main lungs of Canada and the greatest fresh water resource in the world.

Mythogyny, The live and times of women elders in B.C.

Sometimes, it is hard to hear the lives of women elders. They are often full of tragedy and unjustice which is hard to come to terms with, realizing that such realities were so extreme for women who wanted to be professionals, or who tried to go against the wishes of their parents or their husbands. Nevertheless, more often than not, the lives of these women are remarkable in one common way. They witnessed the begginings and ends of world wars, cold wars, Vietnam, the sixties, the women’s movement, the civil right’s movement, the sexual revolution, the gay liberation fronts, the birth of the internet, the evolution of globalization, the emancipation of the technological and information era…

This book organized by elder’s womens groups in Vancouver, covers the story of about 78 women’s elder living in British Columbia who have seen it all…

watch the clip

ANED MICRO-LEASING

This is the first video I edited. I just translated it today and I am kind of happy to see it.

Bolivia was an amazing experience from which it all began again. The questions and issues of international development, the problematics of economic intervention, sort of the world happens to be more complicated than I initially thought.

Glimpse of Hope in Blood Alley

Can a living wall or a community garden change something in Vancouver downtown east side?

Blood alley, syringes, needles, shakes, poverty, drug dealing, petty crimes, marginilized populations… unfortunately these are many of the stereotypes and ideas that come as one pronounces the words Vancouver Downtown Eastside, Hastings and Blood alley. Nevertheless, being in blood alley while doing some of the shootings for this film one has to accept that some of the stereotypes and ideas exist for a reason. Then I asked my self why? Being from Colombia i come to realize that some, if not most of these drugs, come probably from my home country. The same drugs used to disrupt a whole country into cocaine wars, violent guerrillas and corrupt governments, supported by drug money, are literally the same drugs used to fragment the Afro-American movement, the same drugs used to keep revolutionary artists and margnilized populations into check from ever disturbing the Status Quo. These are the same drugs, probably, that I have seen in my home country 10 years before when I was a young teenager looking for my place into this jungle like society, the same drugs so many young people got lost in the neighborhood I grew up, the same drugs and their effects i was seeing in the downtown east side.

Being a volunteer in the downtown east side in the creation of a living wall and a community garden has brought to my awareness how everything is connected in such stringent ways. It pains me to see how i am still unable to fully connect with these populations, how i have built stereotypes and ideas of themselves where i can interact with them freely and more humanely. It is all an interesting experience to be there trying to find out how to constructively contribute my 2cents. This film records some of that process, as I walk into the alley behind the camera & Roxana.

It is what it is, i suppose. It can be better. I was at the Vancouver Community Court on Wednesday as a guest with a conflict resolution class at SFU. The court house is specifically dedicated to work with what is called “prolific offenders”. Prolific offenders are people who continuously fall back into the legal system as they keep “breaking the law”. I was expecting to see hardcore drug dealers, gangsters and pimps but this was not the case. I saw the byproducts of a dysfunctional society, I saw drug addicts, people with mental health issues, poor people… someone stole a sandwich, the other a plant, the other one threw a napkin holder to a person… this was called an assault… the other was charged for possession of drugs. All of them living in the downtown east side or homeless, all of the with the meager look of utter poverty, some of them with the shakes and slow movement that follow years and years of abusing drugs. Is jail the answer for these individuals? The downtown community court intends to stand for more constructive alternatives to time in prison. But will community work help this individual, will being banned from Openheimer park or a certain place help this individual with being homeless or an addiction problem. Not really.

Maybe a community garden may offer more to this individual. A tomato, a potato, or a green onion may bring a different sort of mind rewiring where the individual may feel empower slowly to grow his/her own food, to protect the garden, the spend time doing activities which they can interact more constructively as a community, where they can put their hands in the dirt and see something beautiful grow our of it. I am not sure. Am a being naive? perhaps. But there is hope in thinking of a green, organic, colorful blood alley, it is not the solution, but it is definitely, in my opinion,  part of one.

Vancouver from the Bicycle… my bicycle

This is my bicycle manifesto, it is my statement a case for riding a bicycle instead of a car.

We live in an Era of machinistic dominance, times of utter industrial pollution, unsustainable city development, concrete and synthetic based metropolis. The bicycle stands as an icon to reclaim physical, mental and spiritual autonomy. It will get you out of the gas polluting vehicle, away from the couch and the stupifier tv, it will get your adrenaline pumping, your cardio working, your legs strenghtened and your weight on check. It will keep you away from smoking as you commute, it will give you better sleep, make your early commuting exciting, it will make you hate the rain, the hills, aggressive drivers and big vehicles. It will show you well your day to day fitness, it will remind you when you need to take more care of your body, sleep more or eat less.

The bicycle is the proletariat chariot of the 21st century, it is community, diversity, self-exploration, speed, style and revolution. It offers an alternative to face climate change, the oil crisis, it offers a different way of rethinking inner city development and commuting routes. There are about 52 bicycling communities and subcultures in vancouver ranging from commuters to extreme mountain bikers, from world naked bike ride activist against climate change to velo-mutation shows of 3 bike high monsters with fire turbines, there are bike co-ops, coallitions, clubs, speed demons, tin collectors, rat alley racers, film makers and more.

If you dont ride a bicycle it is time to reconsider riding one, for the sake of the environment, for the well being of your body, for the health of your mind, in the spirit of revolution, the proletariat and building a progressive community.

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).