Check out this site where you can map your brain, and brainstorm with others. It’s called Mindmeister. The image above is my breakdown of Filmmaker-in-Residence. Check out other people’s maps on the site - someone has plotted out their happiness, others create their “to do” lists, others have elaborate schemes of how the universe works. It’s a great visualization tool.
Add comment May 26th, 2008
All week long, we’re at the Gladstone Hotel, shooting interviews with all the Filmmaker-in-Residence partners to talk about and reflect on our many collaborations. We’ll weave this material together into the FIR compilation DVD, that will include ALL the films, ALL the special features, ALL glued together with these “Gladstone interviews.”
Pictured above is my 260 degree (or so) view of the drawing room earlier today. So great to get a chance to hear people’s points of view on all the films we’ve made together. And sooooo great to have a real crew - two cameras even. I feel like I’ve died and gone to FIR heaven.
And lunch was not bad either:
Monica (DOP) had the near north salad, Chris (Second Camera and super-tech whiz) had the Gaspé Tourtière, Tim (sound) had the risotto, Heather (director, editor and long-time FIRer) and I split the veggie burger. But I digress.
1 comment May 22nd, 2008
Check out our new 10-minute film on youtube about the Hand-Held [un]conference. It was sewn together by the lovely and talented Heather Frise, from many, many hours of footage taken of the day. (See if you can spot Tonya Lee Williams, of Young and Restless fame. Or maybe you’ll see yourself in there somewhere? Or, just learn about the open-source concept and how Misha Glouberman brilliantly mashes-up people from all walks of life.)
The other great news from the Hand-held front: there’s a meeting confirmed with the Ontario Minister of Youth and Children Services. The I WAS HERE team has an appointment with the Honourable Deb Matthews in mid-June. The photobloggers will share some of our media work with her, and talk to her about the idea for a Hand-Held Social Innovation Lab.
Then, we’ll follow up with everyone at the next advisory board meeting, set for June 18th. Please join us if you’d like to help out. Its only one meeting a month. e-mail me at k.cizek@nfb.ca for deets.
Add comment May 21st, 2008
Just in time for Mother’s Day, we’re in today’s Toronto Star in an article about the young parents’ project.
The piece focuses on our video bridge film, Unexpected, that kicked off our [un]conference. It is a frank and candid video dialogue between young mothers who have experienced homelessness and the health care workers who help to deliver babies.
There are a few inaccuracies in the article: “Keneisha, another young mom/videographer featured in Unexpected, opens the film with her contempt for the grilling she faced at St. Mike’s when she showed up expecting twins.”
Keneisha did not have her twins at St. Mike’s, nor was she speaking specifically about her encounter during her delivery of her twins. She was speaking in general about attitudes young mothers face everywhere.
Another important clarification: while many of the health care workers in the film are from St. Mike’s, the issues that everyone raises are not about *one hospital*; it’s about attitudes everywhere.
Kudos to St Mike’s for being part of the brave, innovative experiment.
The Toronto Star online is running an excerpt from the film here. The film will be available soon (on the documentary anthology DVD HandHeld: Health and Homelessness), check www.nfb.ca/handheld for deets.
Unexpected was made by Dawn Wilkinson, Adrienne, Jess, Keneisha, Meghan, Nicole, Catherine Moravac, Alice Gorman, Heather Frise, Genevieve Trilling, Erin Clarke, Rebecca Fortin and Daniella Guerriero. The project was made possible with the great support of St. Michael’s Hospital’s Oby-Gyn department, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of SMH, and we owe special thanks to the fantastic Head Nurse Audrey Nevins. Childcare thanks to Sophia at Ontario Early Years. Gerry Flahive is the Producer, Silva Basmajian is the Executive Producer.
1 comment May 10th, 2008
An interesting Village Voice blog about the terror mobile technology can induce in the wrong hands. Cell phones are not just all about People Power revolutions, unfortunately. The technology is also linked to rape and war, in places like Iraq and The Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ward Harkavy sums it up brutally, and links to our work at the Seeing is Believing website, that we put together a few year ago, about the central role Coltan (a mineral ore used in cell phones) plays in the ongoing war in Congo.
Harkavy also links to Stephen Lewis’ recent, raw speech about the horror of rape as a weapon of war in the Congo, that has become so common, it has been given a local medical term “vaginal destruction.” Terrifying.
Friends of the Congo seems to be doing good work on the issue. They’re based in Washington DC.
Add comment May 9th, 2008
Small article in Globe & Mail today about our Webby. We’re the only Canadian win.
They didn’t mention co-creators and collaborators on the win: Gerry Flahive, NFB Producer, Rob McLaughlin, Loc Dao and Sean Embury of Subject Matter.
And to clarify: we are not “embedded in various locales around the world,” we are only at St. Michael’s Hospital.
Add comment May 7th, 2008
We’re getting pretty excited about our meeting this Wednesday, May 7 at 5:30-7:30, which is a follow-up to our handheld [un]conference. We will show the short film about the day, release a document of the Recommendations developed from ideas during handheld. We’ll brainstorm and plan next steps. If you haven’t RSVP’d yet, write me at k.cizek@nfb.ca and I’ll send you the info.
Add comment May 6th, 2008
A nice article in today’s Now Magazine about the power of photography in the hands of people. The writer dedicates a few inches to our STREET HEALTH STORIES project. The issue is in honour of the commencement of North America’s largest month long photography fest in Toronto, CONTACT.
Add comment May 2nd, 2008
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