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AHA MEDIA and Fearless City Mobile Crew members at Raise the Red Lantern Event at W2 Culture + Media House for W2 – 112 West Hasting in Vancouver Downtown Eastside
AHA MEDIA and Fearless City Mobile Crew members wearing DTES CAN T – Shirts ( a Core Member of W2 ) livestreamed and provided mobile media coverage at Raise the Red Lantern Event at W2 Culture + Media House for W2 Community Media Arts using Nokia Cameraphones especially Nokia N86, Nokia N95 and Nokia N97
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Below are photos of our great Crew members of AHA MEDIA and Fearless City Mobile 🙂
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.
Al Tkatch of AHA MEDIA tries a Bourbon Burger from Burger King
In this photo and video, Al Tkatch tries a Bourbon Burger from Burger King
This was filmed by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a Nokia N77 mobile cameraphone. April is passionate and skilled in making Nokia films by exploring mobile media production through the camera lens of a cellphone. For a better quality version of this video, please DM April Smith Twitter.com/AprilFilms or Facebook.com/AprilFilms
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.
Peter Davies demonstrates Livestreaming at Bladerunners Creative Industries Launch at Theatre 319 on December 1, 2009
Peter Davies as a member of W2 Bladerunners Youth Media Apprenticeship program demonstrates Livestreaming at Bladerunners Creative Industries Launch at Theatre 319 on December 1, 2009
The Bladerunners Creative Industries Launch is from 10:30-11:30 at Theatre 319 on Main St.
W2 Bladerunners Youth Media Apprenticeship program and its participants will be introducing project outcomes for the upcoming year.
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