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AHA MEDIA is very proud to attend Fearless City Mobile Project Meeting on Wednesday Jan 13, 2010
AHA MEDIA is very proud to attend Fearless City Mobile Project Meeting on Wednesday Jan 13, 2010
W2’s Fearless City Mobile is recruiting Vancouver DTES residents and artists for an exciting mobile video streaming showcase of ideas and views from our neighbourhood.
VJs (video jockeys) will remix live videos created by participants and project a mashup on giant screens from the large window facade of the new W2 Cafe site inside the Woodward’s Atrium. (The W2 Cafe will not open in the Woodward’s Atrium until late April). The mobile video mix will also be viewed on a screen at the W2 Culture + Media House – our space at 112 W Hastings.
Fearless City Mobile has a successful track record of empowering local residents with access to technology, and helped launch other projects in the neighbourhood like AHA Media. Funding for this February program is from CODE Live (Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition) and the City of Vancouver’s Bright Lights. For project background, check out these samples of previous test events: showing Fearless participants learning about mobile video and VJing are Vision Division; with mobile streaming from DTES locations and our shopping cart screen; mixing it up with VJs and DJs at Tech Forms; in Ottawa for BC Scene with VJs remixing streaming connections from seven galleries and layered social media together.
Meeting: every Wednesday 1-3 PM W2 Perel Gallery 112 West Hastings @Abbott. Weekly Fearless City Mobile training and peer support sessions (lunch included) every Wednesday. We will be providing an honorarium for Fearless City Mobile Project participants and we especially encourage our original 2008 Fearless City crew to come and work and create again
I encourage everyone to sign up as a member on W2 Community Media Arts site on www.creativetechnolgy.org and come join us!
Please also join Fearless City Mobile on W2 after you sign up. http://www.creativetechnology.org/group/fearlesscity
If you use Twitter add: @W2Woodwards and @FearlessCity
See you soon! 🙂
April Smith of AHA MEDIA is a featured storyline in ” With Glowing Hearts” – WGH the Movie
Vodpod videos no longer available.
This storyline is from the Documentary ‘With Glowing Hearts‘. It follows April Smith on her journey building AHA Media as the preeminent news source for Vancouver’s DTES using social media for social justice. Along the way April faces many challenges including homelessness
” April Smith is an incredible young woman facing a boat load of challenges. She has graciously allowed us to follow her for the last 8 months and gather the footage we used to compile this story thread. Hers is a story full of both despair and inspiration. ”
A Social Media revolution has been brewing for the past five years on websites from FaceBook, to Wikipedia, to Flickr, and as it spreads throughout the Internet and into popular culture through an increasing number of portals, it is creating a new sense of community and empowerment amongst those who have embraced it.History has shown that poor and marginalized communities stand to gain the most from leaps forward in the democratization of information, so the excitement in areas like Vancouver’s maligned Downtown Eastside about the possibilities of Web 2.0 and beyond is palpable.
With the Winter Olympics less than a year away, billions have been spent in preparations and many poverty advocates are concerned about how the city’s several thousand homeless and working poor will fit into the equation as Vancouver puts on its best face for the world.
Against this background the film examines Social Media in action as a group named Fearless City embarks on a campaign to empower and protect its neighbours with cellphones, video-streaming, and the World Wide Web.
With great thanks to Director Andrew Lavigne and Producer Jon Ornoy !
April Smith of AHA MEDIA is very honored to be featured by Gillian Shaw – Digital Life Writer for The Vancouver Sun Newspaper on Christmas Eve 2009
By GILLIAN SHAW
23 DEC 2009 DIGITAL LIFE
As it comes time to wrap up 2009, I wanted to share the story of a journalist who has inspired me this year.
A citizen journalist – April Smith, who is making an impact not only for her work chronicling the news and stories of Vancouver’s inner city but also for giving back to her community by mentoring others.
April didn’t graduate from any journalism program. Hers was truly the school of hard knocks and her background one of hardship.
I first met April at WordCamp Whistler last January. She was a grad of the Downtown Eastside’s Fearless City Mobile project, which helped residents and artists of the neighborhood learn to tell stories through mobile media.
At the time April said the experience had been ‘life-changing.’
“I have moved from one side of the tracks to the other,” she told me.
The other side of the tracks was pretty ugly. It was a life of homelessness and struggling to survive on the streets.
April shares her story with eloquence and honesty that is all the more compelling because it is free of self-pity. Her optimism for the future is what comes through loud and clear.
You can listen to Vancouver’s CBC radio did with April. And you see her at work in an episode of With Glowing Hearts the Movie. She is @AprilFilms on Twitter.
WGHthemovie.ca -April Smith storyline from Andrew Lavigne on Vimeo.
The mentoring April received is being returned to the community many times over with the creation of AHA Media, a fledgling new media company started by April along with Hendrik Beune and Al Tkatch – AHA coming from the first letters of their names.
April is teaching and mentoring others in the Downtown Eastside, sharing her skills and enthusiasm in the hope of offering alternatives that will help improve lives.
April lives in a single room in the DTES and carries out her work and volunteering on a shoestring budget – no shoestring might be too generous to describe it. When I talk to April on the phone, I know that it’s using up precious minutes that she must buy to recharge her cell phone. I recently found out that the Nokia video phone that April was using in her work was borrowed and had to be returned. So I asked her what she needs to carry on.
While it has been a tough year for media organizations, not many list food and warm clothing on their wish list, but those are among the items AHA Media, which does volunteer peer training at the LifeSkills Centre near Oppenheimer Park, is seeking for its DTES neighbors.
The organization also needs: FIDO Pay as You Go Phone Cards for cell phones, digital cameras, SD memory cards, laptop and desktop computers, video cameras and audio equipment.
If you have any of these things kicking around, consider sharing them with others who will pay it forward many times over.
AHA MEDIA ‘s First “Holiday Themed” Film in Vancouver Downtown Eastside with LifeSkills Centre members
AHA MEDIA began producing their first “Holiday Themed” Film in Vancouver Downtown Eastside with members of LifeSkills Centre – a drop in centre run by PHS
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AHA MEDIA is thankful for the opportunity to make a film through great support from our Artistic Mentor Christoph Runne, staff at LifeSkills Centre and PHS who provides us space, high end cameras and gear as well as ongoing training in Art, Media and Filmmaking! 🙂
Producing Short Satirical/Parody films is one of the reasons why AHA MEDIA came together in the first place! 🙂 – To do positive community engagement while educating others on the social justice issues of our Downtown Eastside neighborhood
Lights, Cameras, ACTION! 🙂
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In this photo is Andrew Lavigne with Hendrik Beune. Andrew is one of AHA MEDIA’s mentors
Andrew Lavigne is also Directing a movie which has AHA MEDIA as one of the story lines and includes great insights into social media, social justice, Vancouver Downtown Eastside and the Olympics!
http://www.WGHTheMovie.ca
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In this photo, Hendrik Beune takes “roll call” with LifeSkills Centre members interested in acting
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In this video are members from LifeSkills Centre getting ready for AHA MEDIA First “Holiday Themed” Film Shoot in Vancouver Downtown Eastside
This was filmed by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a New Media camera – Panasonic DMC-ZS3. AHA MEDIA is about exploring mobile media production through New Media cameras. For a better quality version of this video, please DM April Smith @AprilFilms on Twitter or Facebook.com/AprilFilms
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In this following photo is April and Hendrik – in a serious moment before the camera! 🙂
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In this photo, the cast reads their lines while April stands by 🙂
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In this photo, Hendrik and Clyde of AHA MEDIA stand with Andrew Lavigne after being out in the cold weather to film our scenes!
AHA MEDIA is very proud to present “With Glowing Hearts” – a documentary on social media and W2 Community Media Arts Centre in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside
Animal Mother Films invites you to join us for a drink and exclusive preview from the film at the official launch party for the website for our documentary project With Glowing Hearts. We continue to capture the pressures facing Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as the city prepares to host the Winter Olympics next February, and how a remarkable group of individuals is using cutting edge social media technologies to empower their community.
WGH-is a story about a revolution, one of social change and a paradigm shift in media representation. Vancouver sets the stage, against the backdrop of the 2010 Winter Games, for our documentary about a marginalized community embracing social media tools to empower, inspire and breakdown the digital divide.
This is a project that Andrew Lavigne is directing and is being produced by animalmotherfilms.com. Shot on various capture devices including the Red, the HVX 200, the 5D MkII and the Nokia N77 cellphone. We began shooting Feb/2009 and will continue through March/2010.
Director Andrew Lavigne and Producer Jon Ornoy are now 9 months into production, charting the inspiring story of the creation of the W2 Media Arts Center as part of the Woodward’s redevelopment and the vital steps towards breaking down the digital divide that will take place within its walls.
With the launch of wghthemovie.ca, our Facebook presence and the Games only a few months away, we’re excited to throw the doors wide open and let you have a look inside.
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