Tag Archives: latin america

Off to Trinidad!

3 Aug

I’m leaving tonight for Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. I am working on the Organization of American States on a video to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the OAS scholarship program. The video will mostly consist of interviews with former recipients of the scholarship.

My main assignment is will be interviewing the Director of the University of Trinidad and Tobago, a former recipient of the OAS scholarship. Since most of my filming will take place only in one day, the OAS asked if I’d like to stay in Trinidad for a couple of extra days (paying for my own food and hotel after Day 2 in Trinidad) since they are arranging the flights for me. I took them up on it since I’ve never been to Trinidad before, so I will be there for a week.

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New opportunity!

23 Jul

Great news!  I was referred by the Pan American Development Foundation to work on a video for their affiliate, the Organization of American States (OAS or “OEA” in Spanish) in the Department of Human Development, Education and Culture.

The project is a video to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the OAS scholarship program, which funds a student from an OAS member state to pursue higher education in another OAS member state.  The video will mostly consist of interview testimonials from former scholarship recipients.  Some OAS scholarship recipients are now directors of hospitals, universities, professors, and ambassadors all over the hemisphere.

Since most of the interviewees are in Latin America and the Caribbean, my supervisors have been working to get local student film crews to conduct the interviews on location remotely (at limited to no cost to the OAS!).  Since many of the interviewees have connections with local universities, this was fairly easy to do.  Though as the producer, I will personally film at least two of the interviews myself.  One will be in Washington (the interviewee works at the World Bank, right across the street from the OAS building), and the other will require travel.

I’m so grateful that PADF recommended me to work on such an exciting project!

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Back in the U.S!

8 Jul

The visit with PADF to Colombia was overall amazing and productive.  I got a lot of great footage and stills.  I feel like my Spanish has definitely improved.  I’ve already become Facebook friends with several people from the PADF Colombia office.  I’m very excited to start postproduction, though I’m definitely going to miss the mountains, the cool weather, and the amazing Colombian food.

One of the video projects I’m working on (a lower priority than the Heroes of the Hemisphere videos) is CAIF (Centro Atencion Integral a la Familia), which is basically a school and family center partly funded by PADF.  I filmed classes with the children, classes with the parents, the playground, even a football game.  Part of CAIF goal is maintaining cultural identity.  Some of the children dressed up in traditional Colombian costumes and performed a traditional song and dance.  This was one of the most challenging parts for me to film only because the kids were so adorable that it was difficult for me to hold the camera steady.

This is a picture from CAIF overlooking the football pitch and the town of Popayan.

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Off to Colombia!

2 Jul

I’m leaving the States again this weekend, this time for Colombia.   I will be there for all of next week.

I’m mostly staying in the capital city of Bogota where my organization, the Pan American Development Foundation has an office.

I will be filming several projects in Colombia, but the main one is conducting a video interview of one of the 2010 recipients of PADF’s Heroes of the Hemisphere awards.  The Colombian “hero” works to preserve the indigenous Guambiano people of Misak by initiating profitable economic development projects.  Misak is considered to be a fairly dangerous place in the country because of the illegal drug trafficking in the area.  I actually had to get a security clearance from the country office before leaving.  I’m traveling with my supervisor this time (I went to the Dominican Republic alone), so that makes me feel a little bit better!

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Off to the Dominican Republic!

6 Jun

I am leaving tonight for the Dominican Republic to shoot video for the Pan American Development Foundation.  I will be flying into the capital city, Santo Domingo, and driving to Las Matas de Farfan, where I will be interviewing this year’s honoree for the Heroes of the Hemisphere awards event.  I’ll be bringing my Canon Vixia HV40 HD camcorder with a shotgun microphone.

The honoree, Amarilis Castillo, works to improve conditions at the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.  The border is one of the most challenging areas in the country, particularly after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.  Castillo created a network of civil society organizations called Nuestra Frontera (“Our Border”) to combat poverty in borderlands.

I’ll be back in the States next Monday!

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