Over the past few months, the Hello Cool World team has had the privilege of working with the First Nations Technology Council - an organization dedicated to building capacity and increasing accessibility to technology for First Nations communities throughout British Columbia. We're thrilled that the Technology Council has come on board as a community partner for our book 'Picturing Transformation, Nexw'ayantsut' which they have featured on their portal site.
Our work with FNTC began when we were invited to the #STRONG2013 conference back in May, where we did media engagement (i.e tweeting, blogging and posting to Facebook!) a photoshoot and video interviews. We produced three short films out of the conference footage we shot, that describe FNTC's goals.
I've been really amazed to see the innovative ways that technology is being used to preserve language and culture. The issues of language and culture have been in the media lately, with the ongoing Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that are happening all around the country. The Commission is mandated to facilitate healing across the country, from the scars of the Indian Residential School system, in which the government forcibly removed First Nations children from their homes and forced them into schools, where they were assimilated, and where Aboriginal language and culture was illegal.
David Ng is a Hello Cool World veteran with experience going back a decade. David first worked with us when he was just 14 years old as a participant in the youth advisory group for the sexual health education program Condomania. Now an accomplished videographer passionate about the issues of gender and power, he is currently on sabbatical in South Africa while he pursues a Masters in Gender Studies with a focus on international development.
Hello Cool World is excited to be working on the media relations for Occupy Love, an inspiring new documentary from award-winning Canadian filmmaker Velcrow Ripper (Scared Sacred, Fierce Light). Occupy Love explores the cultural uprisings of our time from the Occupy Movement and Arab Spring to the European Summer and environmental protests and asks the question, “How could the crisis we are facing become a love story?”.
Occupy Love is being self-distributed by a talented team led by Velcrow and producers Nova Ami and Ian Mackenzie. Their crowd sourced, social media driven approach to distribution is consistent with the theme of the film, which successfully raised $80,000 through the crowd-funding platforms IndieGoGo and Kickstarter!
The global response to the film has been amazing with over 200 grassroots screenings being self-organized by individuals and organizations in over 25 countries, and more being added every day. The largest community screening so far took place in Porto Allegre, Brazil on April 11th attracting a whopping 1,500 attendees!
We look forward to watching the momentum grow!
Occupy Love marks the completion of Velcrow's Fierce Love Trilogy, a twelve-year journey which began with Scared Sacred, named one of Canada’s Top 10 movies of 2004, and winner of the 2005 Genie (Canadian Academy Award) for best feature documentary. It continued with 2008′s award winning Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action. (We've got a special to buy both these DVDs on our webstore for 40% off.)
We worked on outreach and DVD production for Scared Sacred. As with our work with The Corporation, and The Take, we've been inspired by how films with a social message, can find audiences and inspire those audiences to action. All these films are available on our webstore, and all our profits go to our campaigns, and now also to the distribution platform for social cause media we are developing. Check out our proposal to CFC's IdeaBOOST program, and please BOOST us, our dream is to better help films like Occupy Love engage with audiences, and to encourage audiences to organize actions as well as screenings.
Occupy Love is a moving, transformative, heartfelt film, featuring Ripper’s signature stunning visuals and rich soundscapes along with interviews from leading visionaries including Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Jeremy Rifkin, bell hooks and Charles Eisenstein.
The Occupy Love US theatrical tour starts Friday, May 3, 2013 in New York City, with screenings and special events to follow in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Seattle.
Coming to Canadian theatres starting June 2013! Check out more screenings and opportunities to get involved after the page break...
Colette joined Hello Cool World team back in 2003 and was a key organizer for The Corporation and The Take's grassroots outreach efforts across North America.
After being inspired by the organizing and awareness building potential of the internet and social issue films, she returned to school to study Communications and sharpen her skills.
Once graduating, Colette returned to Hello Cool World once again as a grassroots campaign consultant. She is now the Director of Distribution for Hello Cool World's new fair trade distribution arm.
KENSINGTON & HELLO COOL WORLD - STRATEGIC PARTNERS IN HYBRID DISTRIBUTION
I recently had the privilege of meeting with the talented folks over at Kensington Communications that created RAW OPIUM: PAIN PLEASURE PROFITS, one of the documentary projects Hello Cool World has been involved with over the past year.
I was eager to sit down with producer Robert Lang and Kensington’s social media lead Amanda Connon-Unda to get a full update.
Kensington first approached Hello Cool World (HCW) last fall looking for strategy advice on self-distributing their film. In May, we worked with Kensington to host the world premiere of RAW OPIUM at DOXA and to strategize grassroots outreach across North America.
For all you music lovers out there, on October 16 you can combine your passion with supporting a great cause too! It's the second annual Health for Humanity benefit concert to support health projects in Guatemala and the Philippines, and will feature top artists in an "Evening of Jazz, Roots and Blues."
David Ng is a Hello Cool World veteran with experience going back a decade. David first worked with us when he was just 14 years old as a participant in the youth advisory group for the sexual health education program Condomania. Now an accomplished videographer passionate about the issues of gender and power, he is currently on sabbatical in South Africa while he pursues a Masters in Gender Studies with a focus on international development.
