“…what we broadly identify as the passions and emotions induced by, or associated with, tourism, travel and movement. Tourism sets bodies in motion. It makes people move through unfamiliar grounds. It exposes them to exotic sensations, to the heat or cold of water, snow and sunshine, to odours, tastes, smells, colours, and forms that contrast with the aesthetics of their quotidian environments. It makes them leave their secure spaces of the familiar and exposes them, in secure doses, to the unfamiliar. It involves a transgression of the ordinary, an often ritualised temporary liquidification of moral and aesthetic rules that frame everyday life. The emotions of tourism, travel and movement, and the passions through which these are articulated, are hence directly linked to forms of motion. Motion disturbs the cognitive order of those in movement and challenges them to discover the familiar in the unfamiliar, to reconstruct and reconsider normality through the encounter of the extraordinary. It challenges them to repossess their bodies, to rethink the fundament of their being, to reassess the separations that configure the natures and identities of their belonging. Motion and the passions through which it is cultivated in fields of movement involves important psychological, economic, ethical and political issues. In many ways, motion creates its own frameworks of order and meaning. How does movement set emotions in motion? How do emotions work in travel and other movement based practices? How can different understandings of the concept of passion help to better understand such practices? What are the social consequences?” –

quoted from the front page of the 11th RAI International Festival in Ethnographic Film
I think written by: Dr David Picard, Prof Mike Robinson, Dr Simone Abram

I would like to attend the 12th RAI International Festival in Ethnographic Film. I apparently just missed their film deadline although… I’m not really ready with anything so that’s okay. I’d love just to be immersed in that environment.

No info on when the conference is for now. The festival in in June sometimes. Is it good?

http://raifilmfest.org.uk/film/festival/2011/home/registrations

Thanks to each and everyone for your support. I feel totally invincible to finish this film!

Dear Friends,

We have raised, fantastically, up to $10,136 for my film “Somos Buzos.” See description below. We need $15,000 total, so we’re missing $4864. Kickstarter will not take a cent out of your account, nor give me one cent, if I do not reach my goal. Seriously. Help me make some magic in the next two hours.

Please, lets do one FINAL push in the next two hours. Please send, email, share, this link to anyone who might be sympathetic, want a cool reward, would like to learn filmmaking, free DVDs, a trip to the Dominican Republic and more. Thank you SO MUCH.

http://kck.st/hVso07

Thank you to EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU to donated, shared, posted, linked, talked, you are absolutely amazing.

PLEASE VISIT THIS LINK TO DONATE  http://kck.st/hVso07

and then click on the green button on the right called  “BACK THIS PROJECT” and enter your information.

SOMOS BUZOS is a documentary about a community of people who live, breathe, eat, and die out of the trash in Cienfuegos, Santiago, Dominican Republic. It follows one buzo (their term for trash diver) who taught himself how to read and write at the age of 20 and considers the education for his kids as their way out. The last stages of production are very expensive and I just don’t have the funds or resources to cover what it takes. This started grass-roots and will end grass-roots. I’m determined to get the story of the buzos out there effectively and loudly. They deserve it the world over.

ABRAZOS
GRACIAS THANK YOU MERCI DANKE SHUKRAN DANIEVAD

Love
Isabelle

The best part is that along with your donation, you get to pick a cool reward: Film DVD, film poster, vintage screenprinted T-shirt, original song, framed art, filmmaking lessons, industry credit, or even a trip to the Dominican Republic. Back me up. Chip in. Become part of my team. Spread the word! The best part is that along with your donation, you get to pick a cool reward: Film DVD, film poster, vintage screenprinted T-shirt, original song, framed art, filmmaking lessons, industry credit, or even a trip to the Dominican Republic. Back me up. Chip in. Become part of my team. Spread the word!

http://kck.st/hVso07

I’m four days out until the kickstarter campagn ends to finish post production funding for the film. We’ve still got a ways to go, but yesterday was really encouraging with 12 (!) more backers for the project! I can’t thank everyone who has taken the time to contribute enough. Let’s continue to spread the word!

So on to today’s photo of the day.

Sometimes life creeps up with the strangest, creepiest kind of humor, and (as the last photo of the day will attest to) I definitely saw my fair share of weird humor and hope while filming Sumos Buzos. Today’s photo is yet another example of this. The child buzo depicted here found an Uncle Sam mask (sometimes I wonder where this stuff comes from. Scooby Doo costumes? Uncle Sam masks? Really?!) and put it on while continuing to collect garbage.

The determination on Uncle Sam’s face is such a false promise–no one is determined to help these buzos, lease of all Uncle Sam. Instead–he wants YOU! to throw your life away with all this trash.

As part of my kickstarter campaign for Sumos Buzos I wanted to share with you some crazy photos from my time filming in Santiago. Starting today.

Right now.

Today’s photo is from a part of the dump that is semi-sorted–I jumped in to try to get a good shot but was covered up to my chest in plastic bottles. It’s an ironic name for the pile of garbage because “semi-sorted” makes it sound like there’s some level of sanity going on here–nope. Just chaos and grime. Nothing about it is “sorted” in terms of the bigger picture of the environmental and human impact. Not sorted at all.