Latin America, total
From April 2010 till May 2011 I have been traveling around this continent. My goal was to combine traveling with gaining more professional experience as a videographer and working with people from different cultural backgrounds. This resulted in the production of various video’s and documentary’s for NGO’s, cultural organizations, travel agencies and the Dutch Embassy.
The projects I’ve been involved in were mostly educational.
Which I love since video is such a great tool for educational purposes and I’ve always been interested in the possibilities of combining media & education in different ways.
LOS CACHORROS
Februari-April 2011 - The most recent project was in Ayacucho, Peru. Here I’ve been working with ‘Los Cachorros‘, a foundation dedicated to street children from 6 to 18 years in Peru. Apart from volunteering at the shelter, I’ve been making video’s with the kids for ‘Calle tv‘ (street tv). Calle Tv was started in 2009 by Roel van Keeken and it is a website with videos about their life in Ayacucho. Below you can see one of the videos for Calle TV. It shows what daily life at Los Cachorros looks like.
CRS TOURS
January/February 2011 -Series of promotional videos for CRS Tours in Costa Rica. The General video is shown below, you can watch the complete project (divided into 4 videos) over here.
Danza por la Libertad
November 2010 - Video comissioned by the Dutch Embassy. Danza por la Libertad is an initiative of the Dutch Embassy in Mexico D.F, in cooperation with the Human Rights Committee and the Education Department of the Nederlands Dans Theater. In november 2010, 60 children of the Republica de Guatemala primary school in Mexico D.F. participated in dance workshops with the universal childrens’ rights as theme. After 3 days of practice they performed their interpretation of this universal theme in the National Centre for the Arts in Mexico D.F. The video gives a short impression of the workshops, atmosphere and of the final performance.
Niños de Guatemala!
October 2010 - Promotional video for NGO Niños de Guatemala in Ciudad Viega, Guatemala. NdG is a 2006-established Guatemalan-Dutch non-governmental organization, which works towards building a better future for Guatemalan children where such work is needed most. They believe that education is the key to empowering local communities and reaching self-sufficiency.
Maya Culture…
July – October 2010 – During this period I was working for Arte Accion in Copan Ruinas (Honduras). Together with a Honduran colleage, I did an educational theatre/video project about Maya culture with 8 different (Maya) schools in some of the rural communities near Copán. One of the videos is shown below, you can watch the complete project (divided into 4 videos) over here. Pictures of the process are also online: click here… In the video below, the children of grade 4 to 6 of the school of the community ‘la Pintada’ made a movie about an ancient Maya tale. The tale is about Wukub’ K’aqix’, a very arrogant half God and about the twin heroes Ixbalanque and Hunahpu, who decide to teach him a lesson. The children that are being interviewed in the intro are from the community ‘Llanetios’.
Blood, Sweat & Turtles…
July 2010 – It took some effort, quite some time and especially sh*tloads of patience to get it right for online viewing, but the video for La Tortuga Feliz is finally online.
It´s an informative video about this non profit organization committed to the conservation of seaturtles in Costa Rica. The organization is a cooperation between the local community and volunteers from all over the world.
Polifonias: extract from the documentary
June 2010 – Extract of the documentary Polifonias by Adrian Crúz, of which I did part of the editing. The film is about the Piano Training Intensive Program of the Universidad Nacional and Instituto Superior de Artes in Costa Rica. This intensive training program for talented young people is very special, since in Costa Rica a program like this didn´t exist yet.
The documentary is a production of the program for Cultural Identity, Arts & Technology (ICAT) at the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica (UNA)
La Yeguita
April-May 2010 – This is one of the small trailers I made in for the database of Cultural Heritage-footage at ICAT. It is a compilation of the footage about la Fiesta de la Yegüita, which is held on 12 December in Nicoya (Guanacaste). The indigenous legend is about two brothers caught in a machete-fight over a girl. People leaving the church and seeing the fight started praying to the Virgin of Guadelupe for a miracle to happen. At that moment a horse appeared, running down the hill and separating the fighting brothers.
The festival is preceded by a preparative gathering in which firewood is being chopped and corn is being grinded, approxiamtely one month earlier. During the festival people carry an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and of the horse. The festival is a mixture of native Indian and Roman Catholicism.