Global Voices » Juliana Rincón Parra

El Salvador: Documentary Planned on Women of the Civil War

Juliana Rincón Parra — Thu, 31 May 2012 01:15:19 +0000

A crowdfunding campaign for Women of the War aims to bring the stories of the women who took part of the Salvadorean Civil War (1980–1992) and who are now leading their communities for peace, equality and justice.

Through IndieGoGo, Lyn McCracken and Theodora Simon are raising part of the funds needed to make Women of the War, a full length documentary featuring the stories of 28 different women, publish a photo essay book and hold photography exhibits in El Salvador and the USA. So far, they've raised $4,000 of their $12,000 goal for that particular site and more than a month remains for people to make their donations.

The teaser video shows a sample of a couple of women telling their stories of survival and active engagement in the Civil War:

The Voices on the Border blog wrote about the documentary project including sections of the stories told by these women in their own words. Maria Yolanda Garcia Vigil had to flee from her home and witnessed the torture and assassination of family members by the government military forces during the Civil War during the 1970's and 1980's. Today, she works as a community leader, working with women and as an elected official in the city council:

I think we have achieved things for women. Maybe there are places where that’s not true, but in our community, it is. Here, women participate. Women are very active, and today, there is more awareness. The goal is to empower women and feel equal in work, in decisions. I think that as a community we’ve achieved a lot.

We are in favor of justice, and it hasn’t happened yet. Justice hasn’t come. So we have to keep fighting. That’s the challenge. We need to strengthen our organization. Because it’s a lie that things will happen just because, or because the big people want them. The effort has to be from the people.

On the Indie Go-Go site updates page, Theodora Simon writes about the importance of completing this project and being able to share it with the people of El Salvador:

A través de un documental largo-metraje, exposiciones fotográficas en los EEUU y El Salvador, y un libro, queremos contar las historias inspiradoras de estas mujeres, y compartir su dedicación y esperanza con el mundo. Mujeres, especialmente mujeres pobres, de color y campesinas, no tienen donde hacer escuchar su voz, una manera de compartir sus experiencias y sabiduría con el mundo. Esperamos que Mujeres de la Guerra será esta oportunidad, y estamos comprometidas a compartir esta obra con audiencias estadounidenses y salvadoreñas con trabajo binacional y bilingüe.

Through a long-form documentary, photo exhibits in the US and El Salvador and a book, we want to tell the inspiring stories of these women, to share their dedication and hope with the world. Women, specially poor farmer women of color, don't have a place to let their voices be heard, to share their experiences and wisdom with the world. We hope that Women of the War will be this opportunity and we are committed to sharing this work with the US and Salvadorean audiences with a bi-national and bilingual work.

Jenni for Women of the War photograph by Lyn McCracken

All the money that is raised for the project will be destined to make Women of the War a reality. Donations can be made through the fundraising page where updates are being constantly published.

Video: Defying the Stigma of Speaking Indigenous Languages

Juliana Rincón Parra — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:31:59 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.

Al Jazeera's Living the Language video series brings us the stories of indigenous activists and communities throughout the globe who are standing up against stigma and are proposing solutions to recover the spaces for indigenous languages.

In Bolivia, the majority of the population is Aymara or Quechua, but due to colonization the Spanish culture and language became official and mainstream. In recent years, initiatives have ramped up to remove the stigma many Bolivians had that speaking Aymara was for ignorant people and lower classes. Efforts precede the election of Evo Morales, the first Aymara descendant as President who put indigenous issues back in the political agenda.

Examples are cultural events including rappers and hip hop artists singing in Aymara, schools for Aymara education teaching language and also Aymara culture as well as activism. Their goal: to make indigenous languages more prominent and encourage young city dwellers, who may be shamed or teased for speaking indigenous languages, into proud representatives of their language and culture.

The story of the Mayan people in Guatemala is similar to that of the Aymara: The conquest, slavery and colonization periods relegated the Mayans to a status of foreigners in their own lands.

The fields of education, politics and the media all belong exclusively to the Spanish language, while smiling white faces and messages in Spanish look down on the Guatemalan people from billboards across the country.

“Our languages and culture are not being included [in public life],” says Saq'chen Roberto Montejo. “This is one way of making us invisible.”

The Maya communities speak more than 20 different languages - each of them is technically accepted by the state, but little effort to promote them takes place in practice.

In New Zealand, efforts to revive Maori started 30 years ago. The episode video follows through the efforts of activists and linguists who came up with a way to not only bring back the language, but also the Maori culture through Language Nests where very young children and their parents learned from the elders in their community. The first students of those nests and Maori immersion schools and programs are now adults, many who are not only using Maori in their daily life and work, but also passing along their traditional values to their children at home and also through the Language Nests. Following is the promo for the episode, which can be seen on the Al Jazeera site.

Other episodes in the series are Canada: The Ktunaxa, Australia: The Aboriginal People and comprehensive episodes Language: At threat of extinction and Over the Airwaves.

This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.

Video: How Societies Work - a Look at Unconventional Arrangements

Juliana Rincón Parra — Thu, 24 May 2012 01:17:05 +0000

The VJ Movement has partnered with the London School of Economics to bring us videos and stories that attempt to show how societies in conflict and crisis-affected areas across the globe are facing their futures.

In places such as Afghanistan or Zimbabwe, despite the apparent lack of clear structures of governance, “things” still seem to get done. This happens in large part thanks to all sorts of local customs, new-found practices and intricate deals made between groups in power. Understanding these everyday arrangement is key to knowing what kind of policies can help to improve the lives of those living in these countries affected by conﬂict and crisis.

From Latin American countries dealing with the murders of journalists, to indigenous people struggling to defend their territories, to women from East Asia defending their right to be mothers and to work, the subtitled videos cover a wide range of topics and all provide a look into the problems and issues faced by the communities, and the steps they've been taking to overcome them. Here is a sample of the type of stories featured in their project

In Philippines, government run programs train women to become better domestic workers, assuming and accepting the fact that most of the national income is brought in by migrant workers. In this video story, a young woman, Mia, travels to a training center where she learns how to use appliances and clean houses with equipment that is far from what she would use to clean her own house. All this, in the hope of going overseas and being able to bring in enough money to help her family back home.

Disabled women in Thailand face prejudices and obstacles from a society which deems them unfit to be mothers, judging and shaming them while excluding them from mobility in a city full of staircases and crumbling pathways. This video shares their stories and the message they would like to send out to their society.

This video challenges common preconceptions on indigenous people with an example from Peru:

70 families from the ethnic Group Shipibo conibo, moved from Pucallpa (near the border with Brazil) to look for a brighter future in the Capital City of Lima.

Despite the backlash from some anthropologists saying they should return to their Amazonian lands and defend the forest, they are determined to make their way in this new community where without losing their roots - their children go to bilingual Shipibo-Spanish schools - they are looking for progress and advancement with better opportunities for income, education and health.

In Karachi, Pakistan, a former schoolteacher took it on herself to start a free school for those children who could not access the free education programs the government provides. With funds raised in the USA during half of the year and her own personal funds, Rafat Ishaq gives these students a shot in life their parents possibly never dreamed for them.

Video: Youth Media Organization Sign up for Mozilla Popcorn Story Camp

Juliana Rincón Parra — Wed, 23 May 2012 23:51:41 +0000

Mozilla will be running a free six weekly modules summer camp to empower youth to use online tools for telling compelling interactive stories. Youth organizations can sign up on behalf of their students. (via @futuresoup)

Peru: How the Achuar People are Saving their Territory from Oil Companies

Juliana Rincón Parra — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:45:42 +0000

The movie Chumpi & The Waterfall follows the life of young Chumpi and his community, the Achuar people who live in the Amazon Rainforest in the border between Peru and Ecuador. In the movie, subtitled in English, the Achuar show the richness of their daily life and also the steps they are taking to protect their ancestral lands from Oil Companies.

On the website The Achuar Movie by Amazon Watch, there is a wealth of information on the Achuar and other indigenous communities that share the region and share the same concerns of how governments give permissions to Oil companies to exploit the land, considering them without owners and undeveloped. Using GPS systems and traveling through their lands, the Achuar are mapping their territory and their resources, in the hope that their claim to the land and its resources will be respected.

From the site:

Chumpi and the Waterfall (TeleAndes) was filmed in the Achuar community of Chicherta in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, the last community on the Huasaga River before the border with Ecuador. This is a headwater area, where the forest is full of animals and the rivers teem with fish. Daily life is usually peaceful and calm.

Chumpi, with his father Secha and his grandfather Irar, make a trip to a sacred waterfall where both adults had received a vision as young men. Achuar lands, including this waterfall, are under threat from oil drilling. The Achuar believe oil drilling would contaminate its pure waters and the Arutam spirits which inhabit it would leave, and future generations would lose the power of their visions forever.

The daily life of the Achuar is documented on the site through a series of photographs, and along with an explanation of the importance of the territory for the Achuar is an image of the map they've been making:

GPS points help map out the Achuar territory

You can get involved with helping the Achuar defend their territory by sharing the video through social networks to raise awareness about the Achuar, by signing a Global Petition, signing up to receive updates from Amazon Watch or donating money for the Achuar.

Thumbnail image of an Achuar man is from the Achuarmovie.org website.

United Kingdom: App for Sharing Mobile Videos for Collaboration

Juliana Rincón Parra — Mon, 21 May 2012 22:39:57 +0000

The Next Web analyzes how the new UK app Vyclone could have helped get more footage of Arab Spring or the Occupy Movement onto mainstream news channels, and if it could do the same for future newsworthy events.

Video: Capacity Building in Rising Voices Media Training

Juliana Rincón Parra — Fri, 18 May 2012 23:31:39 +0000

In the border between Burma and Thailand, the Rising Voices grantee project Karen Border News has launched their audio podcast workshop. In this short film, the students of the radio journalism course speak about their experience.

From their Blog post:

During this first round of training, we focused on four topics: news writing, audio recording & editing, and broadcast. It’s been really exciting watching these students improve their skills, and learn entirely new ways to tell their stories. While KSNG’s media staff runs most of the trainings, we also invited two specialist, Aung Nai, who works for Internews and Jack Chance, an experienced radio producer and media trainer. In addition to the workshops, we are also distributing some media equipment to students, including notebooks, media guidebooks, and audio recorders.

On a past blog entry, the Karen Border News blog explains the importance of their efforts in the context of the Ceasefire talks between the Myanmar government and the Karen National Union:

Most Karen cautiously welcome the ceasefire agreement, but there is much concern for how reconciliation will affect the Karen population, especially with so many of our people now living outside of our traditional homeland in Karen State

Rising Voices is an outreach initiative of Global Voices, aimed to helping to bring new voices from new communities and speaking new languages to the global conversations on the web by providing resources and funding to local groups working with underrepresented communities. The Karen Border News is one of the 2012 Rising Voices Grantees.

Afghanistan: Women's Voices Raised to Poetry

Juliana Rincón Parra — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:54:39 +0000

Through twitter, Al Jazeera shares the video story of a group of Afghan women who are using poetry as a way to empower themselves and reclaim their voice.

Video: Anatomy of a Good Advocacy Video by WITNESS

Juliana Rincón Parra — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:28:26 +0000

WITNESS, a site advocating for Human Rights Issues has produced a nice analysis of what makes a good Advocacy video, using Aristotle's' Poetic regarding story arcs.

Argentina: Transforming a Neighborhood Through a Cultural Shed

Juliana Rincón Parra — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:20:57 +0000

The Piedrabuenarte Cultural Shed in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina is transforming the neighborhood through culture, arts and citizen media. Formerly a warehouse for discarded scenery and sets for the Colon Theater, the space was transformed by artists in the community into a center for arts. Through their YouTube channel they are telling the world about it.

Eddie Avila, on a Rising Voices article from 2011, included this note before a video interview with the founders:

There are plans to work more closely with the youth in the neighborhood, showing them how they can use the cameras on their mobile phones to contribute to the YouTube channel. This would allow for additional perspectives on the diverse Piedrabuena neighborhood. In the following video, two of the founding members of the Shed, Juan “Pepi” Garachico and Lucian Garramuño, talk about what the Shed means to the residents and how they use citizen media to tell the stories of Piedrabuena.

So what have they been up to? On their YouTube channel, Piedrabuenartv is an artistic show that gives us images of daily activities in the Cultural Shed as well as being an artistic outlet for the community to express themselves through video. The next video shows the transformation of an empty lot into a cultural city, where relocated playground equipment found a new home, and an open air theater stage is being built, all of this surrounded by the high rise apartment blocks where much of the community lives.

Other episodes of the show feature neighbors talking about their expectations regarding the cultural transformation of the neighborhood, or like this next one, a look back to when they first opened the bricked up windows after 30 years.

Global Voices Helps Judge CNN's iReport Awards

Juliana Rincón Parra — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:18:53 +0000

You can now vote for your favorite of CNN's audience submitted videos from 2011 at iReport in their annual iReport Awards. Alongside the community vote, a panel of judges, including Global Voices managing editor Solana Larsen, will select winners in six categories.

China: Motor-Powered Breakfast Crepes

Juliana Rincón Parra — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:28:50 +0000

The Presurfer shares a video where we can see how the Beijing Jianbing is made. This large breakfast crepe is made possible thanks to a very steady hand and a motorized wheel that allows a really large and thin crepe to be evenly cooked.

Video: Indigenous Video Festival Open for Submissions

Juliana Rincón Parra — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:23:11 +0000

The XI International Film and Video Festival of Indigenous Peoples to be held in Colombia during last quarter of 2012 is putting out a call for entries for audiovisual material about indigenous and first people issues and topics.

The Center for Indigenous Cultures in Peru is promoting the festival through their blog, and this is how they summarize the event:

Colombia será la sede del XI Festival Internacional de Cine y Video de los Pueblos indígenas a realizarse en Bogotá del 23 al 30 de septiembre y en Medellín del 03 al 06 de octubre del presente año. Con el lema “Por la Vida Imágenes de Resistencia”, el festival tiene como objetivo visibilizar la extinción de los pueblos indígenas, la violación del territorio y a sus sitios sagrados naturales, como un espacio de análisis de la crisis humanitaria que atraviesan los pueblos indígenas.

Colombia will be hosting the XI International Film and Video Festival of Indigenous Peoples to take place in Bogota from the 23 to the 30 of September and in Medellin from 03 to 06 of October of the running year. With the theme “Images of Resistance for Life”, the festival has as an objective to visibilize the extinction of the indigenous peoples, the violation of the territory and their natural sacred places and as a space for analysis of the humanitarian crisis the indigenous people are going through.

Videos or films submitted to the Festival should have been made after January 1, 2010 and should not have previously participated in the International Festival of Film and Video of Indigenous Peoples. They should focus on the topics of child labor, ecology, education, history, indigenous medicine, identity, land and territory, political participation, rights of indigenous people's, women and worldview and they can be animation, docu-fiction, documentary, fiction, experimental video, music videos, video art, television programs. Deadline for submissions is May 21st, 2012 and information on where to mail the submissions and application forms can be found on their page.

Costa Rica: The Circus that Saves Children's Lives

Juliana Rincón Parra — Tue, 15 May 2012 01:39:27 +0000

To the south of Costa Rica lies the town of Perez Zeledon, home to the Fantazztico Circus that is giving children and youth in the region a chance to stay out of drugs and trouble while opening doors to international travel.

In a video documentary, the story of this 12 year old project by the New Life Asociation (Asociacion Vida Nueva) takes shape. In an interview, a mother explains how young people are left to their own devices, and they end up getting in trouble or addicted to drugs due to lack of opportunities to study or work. The circus gives them a chance to learn skills, discipline and become part of a group where they become valued. It is also the story of Josue, who drifted away from the circus, and almost died from a drug overdose. As he says, he returned to the circus where he knew he'd find the support to go on, and now he tries to steer clear from peer pressure.

The Circo Fantazztico has had the opportunity to travel overseas to Europe, presenting their show and work to audiences while also discovering new cultures and places.

The Sula Batsú Cooperative of Costa Rica which works in training and skill building for cooperatives and other non-government organizations shared through their facebook page a link to the promotional video with the comment:

El viernes pasado nos visitó la agrupación Circo FantazzTico, en este proyecto social se usa la pedagogía circense como medio del trabajo preventivo con niños, niñas y jóvenes en riesgo social. La idea del proyecto es crear un lugar seguro para los niños, niñas y jóvenes que están en una situación social difícil, y que puedan aprender habilidades corporales al igual que adquirir competencias sociales…

Last Friday the Fantazztic Circus group visited us, this social project uses the circus training as a means to do preventive work with children and youth in social risk. The project's idea is to create a safe place so that boys, girls and young people in difficult social situations can learn physical movement skills while they learn social skills…

The Circus is also well received nationally: the following video shows their presentation in the National Stadium of Costa Rica in the capital city of San Jose, to an audience of 10 000 people. The presentation included aerobatics of people twisting on ropes, fabric and tumbling as well as floor exercises and pyramids.

Afghanistan: How to Use an Afghan Box Camera

Juliana Rincón Parra — Fri, 11 May 2012 03:25:52 +0000

The Presurfer shares a small video documentary of one of the only two remaining Afghan box photographers left in Kabul, and how he takes pictures and processes them inside a small black box.