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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Here Comes THE MEGA POST - Part One -
I will be following up and addressing a number of topics.
Plenty to last for a while - as this time - I am really, truly, seriously going into my "creative cocooning mode" in order to paint and also determine and establish the new direction for AngelDust Creations, that has had a "line of new inspirational items" on the drawing board for a while. (Will be doing my blog rounds though..)

.
I'll start off with :
The Social Justice Film Festival
- It was a huge success in my opinion and judging by the full house attendance for
"An Inconvenient Truth" and "Black Gold"
and, the determination and dedication of those that came out for the 10:00AM films, throughout the day and, evening as well as on Sunday to hear the Children's Choir (along with the Scouts on Baden Powell day!).


This is a view of the main venue The First United Church , Rev. McMurtry addressing the guests on Opening Night. We were all very exited as we saw people lining up for tickets!

My top pick, "Uganda Rising" was shown at The Salvation Army and got to meet its Director, Peter McCormack, a Vancouverite, posing (on the right) with lovely Committee Chair, and Activist Jean Kromm and (left) local Artist Tessa Lloyd - his mother... Nice!

For the discussion Peter was joined by Elaine Halsall, who was kind enough to come over all the way from Vancouver Island. They made a fantastic team as Elaine has made several visits to Uganda. (She is now completing her dissertation at the University of Roehampton , London, England in the area of Human Rights Education. The title of Her dissertation is: Girls at the Front: An exploration of the relationship between human rights education policy and the lived experiences of girls taken by the militia, in northern Uganda’s civil war. Bless her! )



Above, Roxane Cave, Manager of 10,000 Villages, from Vancouver's Commercial Drive store, whom graciously spent the morning with us and spoke on matters of Fair Trade after the movie "Big Sugar" - another must see, particularly for those of us in the US and Canada.
If you have not heard of either Fair Trade or the Ten Thousand Villages shops, please, do take the time to visit the links...

"Black Gold" made a huge impact on Saturday afternoon's audience - a lot of young "coffee drinking" people - which lingered on well beyond the discussion period and bought out all the Guatemalan Coffee that was brought in by a local non-profit group that buys it directly from the Mayan farmers.
I will post in the near future on this unique project that was started by a handful of UCB students (website in the works) which is growing into a wonderful example of international respect and friendship, now also involving one of our local high schools. It was very exiting to hear all this and be there!

Owwh....
I almost forgot - we had to turn people away as "Iraq for Sale" sold out all available seats.

In a week the committee is convening again, a bit more informally this time, to asses and begin plans for the 2008 Festival (for which we already got some tittles - ay Chihuahua - no rest for the activists!).

(I ended up "hosting" Big Sugar and, as "official" photographer - as usual, the cameras acted out their limitations...!) lol

cont. bellow...

20 comments:

vinay said...

:-))
so its been a success!!!good work!!way to go..hip hip hurray!!!maybe next time i will volunteer for you !!!!

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

That sounds good!
I would be very curious as to know how?
Ah..?
:)

Vallypee said...

Dear Angel! I've been remiss again I know and what doe I dind here when I come and visist - enough reading to keep me going for a week! Well, I shall and will, but I just wanted to say that your posts are always to interesting and meaningful. I hope your cocooning is productive and worthwhile and we'll look forward to seeing you back when you feel the time is right!

Katie McKenna said...

Sounds like everything is going fabulously!

I need to go hide out as well to get some drawings done!

hugs!

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

Hello dear Vally

I have been wondering about your barge's scheduled repair this month...
I will have some time to visit at you blog and see what you have been up to.

A week?
What about the other blogs...? LOL!!!

I am definitely, looking forward to this "quieter period", there is so much to be done (with the scheduled shows aside from it all).
I am geting really itchy.

Love an laughter to you, Koos and the youngens

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

dearest Katie - heading in that direction, yes...

Good time to go hide - it's probably raining around your place too.

((Hug))

Deepak Gopi said...

Nice to know that it had been a huge success.In furture I may also be able to participate in that festival(if God permits).
Thank you:):)

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

Great Deepak!
Have you got something in the works?

The shorts at the Oscars were so varied... we were looking for some hope, some community building/strenghtening ones among all the painful messages...

Love and joy to you

vinay said...

hahha!!thats why i said .."maybe"..it makes a lot of difrrnce!!hehehe

Matthew May said...

Alicia,

Thank you for the kind words, and I am very happy you enjoy what I am doing with my blog, as you know - blogging is time consuming, it is always good to hear people appreciate it :)

I have added your wonderful blog to my blog list, keep up the great work!

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

Maybe!?
Yeah... more like wishful thinking - then, one never knows... (?) young Mr Vinay

:)
Hug

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

Matt:

The work you are doing is absolutely commendable - wonderful.
I am glad I found you and to have you on my sidebar under the heading of "Heart Tugs".


I know well how much time it takes to keep up a blog in a decent fashion and offer something of subtance in it.

Love, joy and laughter

pilgrimchick said...

That sounds like it was a great time, and it is good to hear that it drew so much interest--I see that more or less "as it should be", too. Yes, please share any more you know about the "Black Gold" project, because I, as a coffee drinker, am always happier to buy the Free Trade coffee when available.

vinay said...

hmm!!thats what one never knws!!!we have a new client in Canada...so i could cme there as well!!!!!!paulo coelho...destiny..signs...u never knw!!!!

Margie said...

Will be back later to catch up on all the posts I have missed!
So much going on here!
I promise I will call!
So glad this all went so well...wish I could have been there!

HUGS

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

SLSKenyon nice to see ya!
Hope you are keeping well

I think it went rather nicely...

Will be posting on the topic as soon as I get more info, but do go ahead and rent the film and watch it with you friends - also you might have one of the "Villages" shops in your area, pop in

Love and joy

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

Vinay dear,
make sure you do come to this side of the continent... as I suspect your client might be from "back East"

Hug

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

Yes Miss Margie -

Thank you...
Big Hug

Margie said...

I wanted to view your other posts, but no time today...off to work now.
Will be a long day!
So nice catching up on each other last night.
Always so enjoy our conversations!

Big Hug!

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

Thank you Margie
- I'll hold to it!

Nice visit indeed.

It is cloudy agaaain!!!!
have a great day - big hug