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AHA MEDIA is very pleased to meet Lesley Ewen a facilitator for Story Box Project at LifeSkills Centre in Vancouver Downtown Eastside
Lesley Ewen is a Theatre, Film and TV Artist
A 2005 Moffat/LIllo prize winner and two time Jessie Theatre Award nominee, Lesley has lived in Englad, Australia and Canada, graduated from the Vancouver Playhouse Acting School under David Latham and has contributed to Vancouver’s cultural milieu since 1977.
As an artist who responds to the world via diverse media, Lesley’s created an array of theatrical/art/events, videos, music and has over 150 professional film/tv/theatre acting, directing and producing credits. She works as an wholistic dramaturge and has written 4 plays, with her latest, Camera Obscura (Love. Murder.), featured at Factory’s ’05 Crosscurrents and in PTC’s inaugural Playwright’s Colony. Assorted modes of live performance include: Shakespeare at the Bristol Old Vic and Stratford, conventional theatre with most major and many smaller theatres throughout Canada, new circus and independent live art here and in Europe.
Things I’ll bring to Story Box:
– an understanding of and an ability to support the diverse components and modes of creation within the group
– the ability to recognize and nurture things before they’ve sprouted, helping them to cultivate ground within which they can grow
– recognizing and en-couraging the quieter voices in the group being fearless
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In this video, Hendrik Beune of AHA MEDIA reads a poem called Worms for Story Box Project, facilitated by Lesley Ewen at LifeSkills Centre in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
This video was filmed by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a New Media camera This video 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
AHA MEDIA is very proud to attend 5 Zeros – A screening of new video works by LifeSkills Collective at 7pm on Thurs March 11, 2010 in Pigeon Park, Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
AHA MEDIA congratulates the LifeSkills Collective for 5 Zeros – A screening of new video works!
TL Frederick
Ali Lohan
Quin Martins
April Smith
Juliet Van Vliet
and Christoph Runné & Allison Laing!
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AHA MEDIA is very proud to present at 5 Zeros – A screening of New Video Works in Pigeon Park on Thurs March 11, 2010
The 12 Days of Olympics (2010)
Digital Video, Colour, 8:39 minutes
The 12 Days of Olympics is a short video presented in two parts, both of which offer differing social reactions and unresolved political anxieties associated with poverty, community representation, and the 2010 Winter Olympic Games held in Vancouver, Canada.
Formulated around the familiar Christmas carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” this project anticipates and contextualizes urban-specific dilemmas that pose the greatest threat to some of the most vulnerable members in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Highlighting issues such as budget cuts, heightened security, seemingly never-ending road closures, corrupt Olympic games, and an “eternal” deficit, while also providing a balancing viewpoint of friendly sports competition and world – wide happy camaraderie that is both insightful and inspiring, this project – which was shot just a few months before the Winter Games – offers two competing and humorous perspectives associated with living in a city that is about to host the Winter Games.
To be sure, the Olympics are not designed for marginalized communities such as Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, but it is through their unrestrained opinions and curiously contagious enthusiasm that the viewer can acknowledge the inherent contradiction made obvious by the Olympic games themselves: despite attempts to unify the world, this large-scale event, by its very nature, has the reverse effect, because it excludes the majority of the population (most specifically, the poor) from its celebration.
April Smith is a Vancouver-based videographer and documentarian who lives and works in the Downtown Eastside. Through art, music, and community promotion, she is a self-taught advocate for social outreach and neighborhood unity. Using social media, new media, mobile technology, and video, she concentrates on sharing the stories and voices of an otherwise-silenced community with a global audience.
Co-founder of AHA MEDIA, her practice includes educational and political cartooning, facilitating social, new and mobile media literacy workshops, as well as recording subversive and situational observations of her own community. Most recently, her work was published in Megaphone Magazine.
Photo of April Smith by Simon Hayter
April Smith of AHA MEDIA on SWISS TV on how PHS and Woodwards Housing helps her and others with housing, employment and life opportunities in Vancouver Downtown Eastside
In this photo and video, April Smith of AHA MEDIA speaks with SWISS TV on how PHS and Woodwards housing helps her and others in Vancouver Downtown Eastside by providing housing, employment and life opportunities.
April’s interview highlights the new Woodwards Housing run by PHS and also AHA MEDIA’s new videos ” The 12 Days of Olympics” about life in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) and how residents are affected by it
The original link to the story on SWISS TV is here
http://tinyurl.com/yg9cdrl
This video was filmed by April Smith of AHA MEDIA (off the Swiss TV website online http://www.rsi.ch) 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
AHA MEDIA is very honored to screen their “12 Days of Olympics” films at Centre A on Sat Feb 20, 2010 from 7-9pm in Vancouver Downtown Eastside
AHA MEDIA is pleased to invite you to our global online screening and world film premiere of our films both titled – 12 Days of Olympics” about life in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside during the 2010 Winter Olympics at Centre A – on this Saturday Feb 20, 2010 from 7pm to 9pm!
AHA MEDIA is so very honored to have this great opportunity to share our two Olympic films from Vancouver Downtown Eastside, Canada with people in Yokahama, Japan during Jun Oenoki’s Yokohama-Vancouver, a Skype Festivity and LiveStreaming with Nine Key Art Organization, alternative space and live party http://www.worldteaparty.com/jun-oenoki-skype-with-yokohama
During this time, our films will be shown on the large front windows so both the online and street community of Vancouver Downtown Eastside can share in this global screening and exchange!
Through our linked online community presence using Social Media Tools such as Twitter, Flickr, Ustream and Skype, both cities of Vancouver Downtown Eastside in Canada and Yokohama in Japan will be able to see, hear and share a 2 way interactive conversation about our community, media, art, activism and most importantly – our neighborhood residents!
Large projections play on the Centre A’s exterior windows. Video content includes work by various artists, live broadcast of performances, “skype” teas and the documentation of the World Tea Party in different contexts.
Presented in partnership with the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. As a part of the City of Vancouver ‘s Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program: Bright Light
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Jun Oenoki, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Tokyo Keizai University and artist-in-residence at Centre A, will produce a teleconference from 7 – 9pm in Japanese and English, with Nine Key art organizations in Yokohama, Japan which will be streamed live to the Internet and a live party by Skype between Yokahama, Japan and Vancouver, Canada will allow both cities share a 2 way interactive dialogue about media, art and activism with each other!
A live streaming with Nine key art organization, alternative space and live party in Yokohama, Japan by Skype. Including, “Sixsquarebridge“,”Yokohama Creativecity Center“, “Noge Hana*Hana“, “BankART NYK/KOJIMA RADIO“, “KOTOLAB,LLC/YOKOHAMA HOSTEL VILLAGE“, “KOTOBUKI CREATIVE ACTION“, “Kanagawa University SOGABE-ken“, “KOGANECHO AREA MANAGEMENT CENTER“, and “YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE 2011” talking about long term urban revitalizing projects initiated by the city of Yokohama in collaboration with artists and architects and the local community
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April Smith of AHA MEDIA from Vancouver Downtown Eastside’s two films which are both entitled “The 12 Days of Olympics” gives viewers the two perspectives of how Vancouver Downtown Eastside residents and their lives are affected by this historic event of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Presenting 2 sides of this event allowed the residents to voice their opinions through a musical and film format to reach a world wide audience
April Smith is an avid new media videographer based in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside and is a co founder of AHA MEDIA.
Her interests are documention of daily life in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside area, highlighting the positive while bringing to light the injustices that occur in the neighborhood. April has filmed her observations, some subversive and situational, of the Vancouver Downtown Eastside over the last 2 years.
April is a cheerleader for Positive community building and outreach, through arts, music, and advocacy in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside.
Using social media, new media, mobile media, and now filmmaking, to get her people’s stories and voices across, April hopes to reach and communicate with a world wide audience by utilizing both online and offline ways for social change and justice
Photos of April Smith by Simon Hayter
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Centre A is pleased to present World Tea Party, animated by tea master and calligrapher Bryan Mulvihill (aka Trolley Bus). Truly one of Vancouver’s “living cultural treasures”, Mulvihill has produced a special edition of The World Tea Party for the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.
Previous versions have been presented publics large and small in a wide range of contexts, including the Winnipeg Pan Am Games, the Venice Biennale, the National Gallery of Canada, the Hollywood Bowl and the Eiffel Tower.
The World Tea Party is based on the notion that humanity shares in the drinking of tea a spirit of generosity and understanding that both celebrates and transcends our cultural diversity. Tea is the most popular beverage in the world.
The World Tea Party is a “social sculpture” that involves the creative empowerment of the audience. The tea salon is a meeting place. Its interactive aspect makes it a suitable vehicle for a debate about the relationship between the Olympics and the Downtown Eastside.
Free Tea and Big Video
In the afternoon, tea is offered for free, both inside the gallery and at times on the street. From 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm, large projections play on the building’s exterior windows. Video content includes work by various artists, live broadcast of performances, “skype” teas and the documentation of the World Tea Party in different contexts.
http://www.worldteaparty.com/jun-oenoki-skype-with-yokohama
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/world-tea-…
http://www.worldteaparty.com
http://www.bright-light.ca
http://www.flickr.com/photos/centrea
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/world-tea-…
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AHA MEDIA gives Great Thanks to Hank Bull and Makiko Hara of Centre A along with Christoph Runne of Interurban Gallery for this wonderful opportunity for us to show our lives in the Downtown Eastside during the 2010 Winter Olympics
AHA MEDIA is very honored to be able to see a Rainbow from their new space at Woodwards Housing run by PHS Community Services Society in Vancouver
AHA MEDIA is very honored to be able to see a Rainbow from their new space at Woodwards Housing run by PHS Community Services Society in Vancouver! 🙂 We thank everyone who made it possible for us to see Rainbows again especially Mark Townsend, Liz Evans, Tom Laviolette, Gerry and Joanne – 🙂
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In this video a Rainbow is seen from AHA MEDIA’s space at Woodwards Housing run by PHS Community Services Society in Vancouver
This video 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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