Photos to Share

We wanted to share some photos from our video workshops, the town of Juanacatlán, and the Río Santiago waterfall we often mention.  If you click on any photo, it will enlarge and you can easily peruse all of them.  To view our whole photo collection, click on this link.

Video workshops

Views from a hilltop in Juanacatlán

Waterfall on the Río Santiago

Steve(o)’s Video Blog

I decided to video blog this week. I discuss my journey with an “environmental vigilante”, named Don Pedro. He took me on a bike tour to his brother’s farm in the hills. Thereafter we climbed a mountain to get footage of the surrounding Juanacatlán municipality. I also talk about my internal struggle in working with a community exposed to intense pollution.

It was an incredible, powerful week!

I look forward to your feedback.

-Steve

How Did the River Come to Be This Way?

The Río Santiago’s state of contamination is a really complicated issue, with many sides. For this post I took a two pronged approach to begin understanding and explaining the issue. First, there is a simple breakdown of the industrial and municipal contributors. Second, a stirring first person account of the river’s transformation as it “changed from being a river of life to a river of death.” We have received a lot of comments and emails asking for more information about the Río Santiago, and how this situation has gotten so bad.  We are exploring this issue in our documentary, and will be running video workshops in Guadalajara to capture another side to this history.  In short, there is still a lot for us to discover and learn, but we are happy to share some of what we have gathered thus far.

Directly below, there is a breakdown of the human and industrial pollution in the river. Disclaimer: there is a real lack of scientific studies so this data is outdated (2003).  Currently, the first major medical study is being conducted in the area and the data from an extensive house survey focusing on health issues is being compiled. All information for this post is taken from “Mártires del Río Santiago,” a joint publication of IMDEC and Instituto Vida.  For a succinct article exploring the pollution and water quality of the river, as well as the health effects, please check our friend Jeff Conant’s article Not a Drop to Drink.

Read more »

The Story of a Photo Exposition

Video of the Week!  ”The Story of a Photo Exposition” depicts the history and fruition of the photo exposition “Through the Eyes of Children.” The kids in La Huizachera not only took the photos, but were involved in each step of creating their exposition. We hope you enjoy it, we certainly had fun helping out. If you’d like to read and see more, Jess wrote a great post on the photo exposition’s debut and the kids’ reflections and we created a video looking at the world “Through the Eyes of Mauro.” El video está en Español también.  ¡Disfrútalo!

Río Santiago, Interviews and Predictions

We met a wonderful array of people in Juanacátlan this week, and they all shared compelling stories. There was the generous veterinarian, the couple from the Playa Pharmacy, and the crew of elderly gentleman that “kill time” in the plaza every afternoon. One of the plaza revelers, named Don Pedro, spent ‘69 to ’06 in California and worked as a coyote or border immigrant smuggler. There was also the metal smith who spoke of living in the town his whole life and planned to continue doing so, polluted river be damned.

Read more »

How Do You Tell a Story?

How do you tell a story?  Yes, it is a simple question, but we are finding out it is not a simple answer. How to tell a story is a question we are exploring in the workshops we are coordinating in Juanacátlan and debating amongst ourselves as we begin shaping our documentary more decisively. We are entering the third week of our first round of Flip Video workshops, reflecting on the direction of our workshops, and meeting with wise IMDEC popular educators to shape its future.  The enthusiasm and material generated by our workshop participants so far is incredible, and we are more impressed and inspired each time we meet.

So far, we agree upon this much about what comprises a story: A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. With any luck, it has a climax and a revealing contrast.  The good ones possess a twinkle, a raw emotion, and/or something we hold onto and want to share with others. If you are interested in reading more from a master, I recommend  “Ira Glass’s Radio Manifesto.” A good friend and collaborator, Becca, is also exploring how to tell a story visually with youth in Hyderabad, India, and I highly recommend checking out her approach.

Read more »

Our First Workshop

Steve(o)’s first video, shot and edited. Watch the surroundings and reflections on our first workshop in Juanacátlan before AND after.

Social Media Workshops, Stories, and Mango Trees

Hello Wonderful Readers,

Steve reporting here: My week was full of integrating and learning. It included meeting IMDEC folks, going to Juanacátlan to facilitate social media workshops, and eating bacon. Juanacátlan is my focus. I’ve met wonderful people there, including lifelong residents who told me of the glorious history of this laid-back, lovely pueblito.

Read more »

Steve Meets IMDEC

In the spirit of community and communication, we made an introduction video for Steve to meet IMDEC.  Let me just say, we had a lot of fun with it.  We have been playing around with our Flip Cameras and iMovie to prepare for our workshops in Juanacátlan, so we made the video with those tools.  Tomorrow we have our second video workshop with a group of high schoolers and we look forward to seeing the footage they have taken and introducing storytelling and editing techniques.  We are designing the workshop to be popular education based, and look forward to its co-evolution with the participation of our students.

A2S Keeps Growing: Steve(o) is here.

I made it to Guadalajara! This week was spent adjusting, catching up with my sweet pals Sarah and Arthur. We’ve known each other for nearly 5 years and are incredibly exicted to finally be collaborating after following each others’ work for so long. My name is Steve Fisher and I now coordinate interviews and promote community outreach for A2S (Adapting to Scarcity). I’ll be working with them for at least three months. My background is in Latin American politics, anthropology, and popular education. Check out my bio to learn more about me.

Yesterday we went out to Juanacátlan where I saw (and smelled) why we have to use gas masks to film near the river. I also talked with Rodrigo, an incredible community organizer who explained some of the issues they were dealing with in regards to the Rio Santiago. I’ll be living in Juanacátlan part-time doing the prep work for workshops and filming.

Read more »