It’s been a busy few weeks here at WGH.  Producer Jon Ornoy took our freshly minted DVD’s to the HotDocs festival in Toronto for “Schmoozing, selling, ambushing, talking, pitching, networking and a bit of sleep somewhere in between”.  With any luck we should have news for you shortly about broadcasts and screenings!

NV#11-seven for seven!

We also attended Northern Voice 2011. The 7th annual two-day, non-profit personal blogging and social media conference held in Vancouver, Canada on May 13-14, 2011.  It was great to run into old friends and meet new ones.  Dave Olson was speaking during a session of PhotoCamp about how his time in Japan influenced his creativity.  He also shared some great pics he took while living there in 1993.  It was also great to be able to present a copy of the film to Dustin Sacks, our first contributor and the one who got the ball rollin’.  One of the more exciting moments at this years conference was April Smith’s Keynote address!  April spoke about ‘Storytelling From the Heart of the City’ and her unique and honest perspective on local issues in the DTES.  It was a very moving and inspiring keynote.  Thx April!

This was also a chance for us to catch up with the key contributors to our film and we look forward to sharing those stories with you shortly. Stay tuned!!

Andrew.

‘With Glowing Hearts’ is a story about hope and one of a community struggling to be heard.  Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), rated as the poorest postal code in Canada, is infamous for its social ills, but unknown to many it is a community full of heart.  Fighting for social justice is not new to this community. Their voice that is continually ignored, now faces its biggest fight as the world comes to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics.  One of the most publicized fights has been for community space in the contentious Woodward’s redevelopment.

“The Woodward’s Squat (video) was an autonomous direct action housing initiative that took place in Vancouver over 92 days in the fall of 2002.”  from woodsquat.wordpress.com

Now in 2010 in the shadow of the Olympics and under the  famous – and refurnished -  ‘W’ the redevelopment has opened just in time for the world to see.

Webisode #3, the story of W2 follows the journey of a community fighting for it’s space in it’s own neighborhood.  During the the Games W2 will be running all kinds of great programming including ‘Fearless City Mobile’ a Citizen Journalist platform, just visit them behind the flames on Hastings St.  ‘Fire with Fire’ is an Isabelle Hayeur installation running through February in the windows of W2.

Video posted under the creative commons license from www.youtube.com/user/kriskrug