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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.
J-Hock of AHA MEDIA talks about Bill 18 – Assistance to Shelter Act in Vancouver Downtown Eastside
J-Hock of AHA MEDIA talks about Bill 18 – Assistance to Shelter Act in Vancouver Downtown Eastside
Read about Bill 18 – Assistance to Shelter Act – where the Homeless get picked up by Police to go into shelters!
http://www.leg.bc.ca/39th1st/1st_read/gov18-1.htm
According to
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Opponents of the province’s new ‘Assistance to Shelter Act’ are holding a rally today in the Downtown Eastside, intensifying the fight over what to do about Vancouver’s homeless during the Olympic Games.
Opponents call it the “Olympic Kidnapping Act’, saying the act is unconstitutional. The province maintains it is simply trying to help people who cant, or wont, help themselves. Some claim the homeless are being chased out of the city altogether before February 2010. A drop-in centre in Kelowna is reporting a 20 per cent increase in traffic, with many of the new clients saying they are from Vancouver.
http://www.news1130.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20091125_142744_7224
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In this video, J-Hock of AHA MEDIA speaks on Bill 18 – Assistance to Shelter Act in Vancouver Downtown Eastside ( DTES )
This was filmed by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a Nokia N95 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
“The DTES is changing. Do you want to have a say? We invite people who live in the DTES to form a Neighborhood Council”
“The DTES is changing. Do you want to have a say? We invite people who live in the DTES to form a Neighborhood Council”
Sponsored by ACCESS – Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity
CCAP – Carnegie Community Centre Association
VANDU – Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users
We invite people who live in the DTES to form a Neighborhood Council Saturday December 5 and December 12, 2009
Register 1:30, Meeting 2:00 – 4:00
CARNEGIE THEATRE 401 Main St
Can Residents & Associations hold the City to its promise to not displace current residents?
Can we advocate for development that will benefit 70% of the DTES who are low – income?
April Smith will be interviewed on CBC Vancouver Radio The Early Edition by Guest Host Ian Hanomansing at 7:12 AM on Wednesday November 25, 2009
April Smith will be interviewed on the topics of BC’s Child Poverty Rate being the highest in Canada for the sixth year in a row as well and the stigma that still remains for people living in the DTES who are trying to get out of poverty and what supports are needed to help children in need on CBC Radio The Early Edition by Guest Host Ian Hanomansing at 7:12 AM on Wednesday November 25, 2009
Listen Live
Listen to CBC Radio 
690 AM/ 88.1 FM Vancouver online
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Hanoman…
Taken from his Wikipedia article:
“Ian Hanomansing (or Hanoomansingh) (born 1961) is a television journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He is the co-anchor of CBC News: Vancouver, CBUT’s supper hour newscast. From 2000 to 2007, he was the anchor of the national segment of the defunct newscast Canada Now. He has been a reporter with the CBC since 1986, and was one of the network’s main reporters for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is married, and has two sons.
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According to article by CBC
B.C.’s child poverty rate still Canada’s highest
Customers in need of extra food line up at the Surrey Food Bank. (CBC)
British Columbia’s child poverty rate has remained the highest in Canada for six years in a row and it’s time the provincial government took action, according to a child and youth advocacy group.
In its annual Child Poverty Report Card released Tuesday, the advocacy group First Call said B.C. had 156,000 poor children in 2007 — even though that was a good year for the provincial economy.
“When will the provincial government take action?” asked First Call chairwoman Julie Norton, who released the report on the 20th anniversary of an unanimous House of Commons vote to end child poverty in Canada by 2000.
‘We are seeing dramatic declines in child poverty in British Columbia,’—B.C. Children and Family Development Minister Mary Polak
The proportion of children living in poverty in B.C. was 18.8 per cent, while the national child poverty rate was 15 per cent, according to Statistics Canada data cited in the report.
Please read rest of CBC’s article http://tinyurl.com/ycmalxq
AHA MEDIA is very proud to celebrate its First Birthday and First Year Anniversary online on Wednesday November 11, 2009
AHA MEDIA is very happy to celebrate its First Birthday and First year Anniversary online on Wednesday November 11, 2009 !!! 🙂
AHA MEDIA has come a long way in one year when we ( April Smith, Hendrik Beune and Al Tkatch) formed AHA MEDIA ( using the first letter of our first names) and decided last year to have our very own site online!
AHA MEDIA does mobile new media/social media reporting and event documentation for all communities in Vancouver and Downtown Eastside. We have even been invited to the cities of Whistler and Victoria to do mobile media and livestreaming.
With lessons learned from the Fearless City Mobile project from W2 Community Media Arts Centre http://www.creativetechnology.org, we are proud to continue to grow everyday and help support/report in all our neighborhoods from social justice issues to social media events!
AHA MEDIA enjoys providing an independent and alternative perspective to general media views. Through our new media devices and cameraphones, we hope to be a news resource for everyone who is interested in us.
Over the year AHA MEDIA has grown to include 11 people affiliated with AHA MEDIA – nearly all live and work in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside.
We are honored to have the Aboriginal/Native Culture perspectives from our Aboriginal reporters – Brody Benson, Alvin Clayton, Clyde Wright
Other fantastic members of AHA MEDIA are :
Peter Davies – Photographer
Ken Glofcheskie – Sports and Social Justice
J-Hock – Housing and Economic Issues
Derrick Simms – Tech Support
Alain Assaily – Real Journalist!
AHA MEDIA enjoys peer training, participating and engaging in our communities to produce content for everyone to see and hear!
Among our many news/events coverage, our next ongoing project is documenting and archiving events leading up to and during the 2010 Winter Olympics. We will report on all perspectives as well as hearing the personal stories of folks in our neighborhoods.
Two future projects AHA MEDIA will be involved in are:
1) Documenting the Poverty Olympics – a satirical view of the Games put on by CCAP who are concerned about economic, housing and social justice issues of the Downtown Eastside
2) Participating in Fearless City’s CODE Live and Bright Lights editions – the Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition, part of the 2010 Winter Olympics celebrations. The projects will include streaming videos created by local residents and shown on giant screens at W2, a community media arts centre opening this winter as part of the Woodward’s development.
AHA MEDIA is proud to be part of ongoing year long documentary filming process for a movie called With Glowing Hearts – http://www.vimeo.com/5401993
AHA MEDIA is still learning and growing everyday! We humbly thank EVERYONE who has supported us, been our mentor and most importantly been our friend!
We couldn’t have done it without you! 🙂
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Below is a photo of AHA MEDIA – Al Tkatch, Hendrik Beune and April Smith celebrating our First birthday and First Year Anniversary together on Wednesday November 11, 2009 in Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver Chinatown
We hope AHA MEDIA will continue to have good luck, good fortune and live as long as the turtles swimming in the ponds! 🙂
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Below is a photo and video of AHA MEDIA Co-founders Hendrik Beune and Al Tkatch and their thoughts
This was filmed by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a Nokia N95 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 @AprilFilms on Twitter or Facebook.com/AprilFilms
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Below is a photo of three ducks swimming at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver Chinatown. AHA MEDIA believes that beautiful things can happen in small places especially in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside
AHA MEDIA thanks everyone once again during our year long journey into media making online and offline 🙂
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