medellín, mi casa / my home, medellín
introduction
Over the last century, most of the international academic production, media coverage and Hollywood film about Colombia in general and Medellin in particular have focused on violence. There have been significant exceptions, such as works about literature, daily life, festivals, music and historical memory projects. We also wish to emphasize that the careful academic, literary, artistic and documentary work on violence is important, and in many cases fundamental to a deeper understanding of complex motivations, processes, and experiences of this violence and the ensuing hopes and movements for human rights. In the international spotlight, however, a consequence of the voluminous production about Colombia and violence is to reduce Colombia’s culture, Colombia’s people, Colombia’s past, present and future to nothing more than violence. With our project medellín, mi casa / my home, medellín, we do not intend to hide the violence. We seek to include projects that intend to improve quality of life for all inhabitants. We are interested in the perspectives of the inhabitants who live and work at the epicenter of these urban projects. Through the stories of community members—as told in their own words and images—we focus on two main storylines. (1) Perspectives on urban projects and (2) Stories of family, community, and town that people wish to pass on to their children, grandchildren and generations beyond.
project description
We are collaborating with families in Medellín and the Mayor’s Office of Medellín, the Secretary of Social Welfare, and their program Medellín Solidaria to create 325 five-minute documentary stories in the words and images of the families. We are publishing this work in video, photograph and written word in DVD, website, and print formats. The project will be in English and in Spanish. http://dukeengageinmedellin.blogspot.com
our goals?
Record family histories and culture that families wish to preserve for their children and grandchildren
Listen to & archive how families’ describe ways that the city of Medellín’s urban interventions (roads, buses, parks, libraries, schools, social programs) have impacted their lives.
Record families’ hopes and dreams for the future.
Archive & exhibit perspectives and stories of people and places not usually represented in media, film, or academic publications about Colombia and Colombians.
our process for 2010
1 visit with families, listen & record stories (June 22 – July 29)
2 edit stories (June 25- ongoing)
3 compile stories into a DVD (August 10 - ongoing)
4 distribute copies of the DVDs to each family who recorded their story (September)
5 exhibit stories online and in print in Colombia and in the United States (ongoing)
Exhibit a selection of these stories @ Centro Cultural de Moravia. August 10, 2010
Tools
We seek to do this project with technology that is the least invasive and easy for communities in Medellín to negotiate on their own for future projects and which creates high quality documents. (Flipcam, camera, microphone, paper, pen, consent forms, project description and questions.)
ABOUT US
Medellín Solidaria
Medellín Solidaria works in partnership with the Red de proteccion social contra la extrema pobreza (JUNTOS), a la Agencia presidencial para la Acción social, programas Familias en acción y RESA – Red de Seguridad Alimentaria. This program, which works in communities throughout Medellín, works to integrate, simultaneously, a variety of much-needed social services to families. This includes education about their rights as citizens, health care, school registrations for children, employment opportunities, psychological services and more.
DukeEngage Colombia
Funded by grants from Duke University and donations from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Duke University, DukeEngage is a civic engagement project at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. We are living and work in Medellín, Colombia for 8 weeks. This is the third consecutive year working on this project in which more than 300 Colombian youth and elders, 25 students from Duke University, and 57 students from Emerson College in Boston have collaborated. We are building on our past projects in Medellín that include 6 documentary videos entitled “Medellín, violence is not the whole story” and a multi-media catalog & a short film "108 things you might not know about medellín". http://dukeengagemedellin.blogspot.com
medellín, mi casa / my home, medellín
introduction
Over the last century, most of the international academic production, media coverage and Hollywood film about Colombia in general and Medellin in particular have focused on violence. There have been significant exceptions, such as works about literature, daily life, festivals, music and historical memory projects. We also wish to emphasize that the careful academic, literary, artistic and documentary work on violence is important, and in many cases fundamental to a deeper understanding of complex motivations, processes, and experiences of this violence and the ensuing hopes and movements for human rights. In the international spotlight, however, a consequence of the voluminous production about Colombia and violence is to reduce Colombia’s culture, Colombia’s people, Colombia’s past, present and future to nothing more than violence. With our project medellín, mi casa / my home, medellín, we do not intend to hide the violence. We seek to include projects that intend to improve quality of life for all inhabitants. We are interested in the perspectives of the inhabitants who live and work at the epicenter of these urban projects. Through the stories of community members—as told in their own words and images—we focus on two main storylines. (1) Perspectives on urban projects and (2) Stories of family, community, and town that people wish to pass on to their children, grandchildren and generations beyond.
project description
We are collaborating with families in Medellín and the Mayor’s Office of Medellín, the Secretary of Social Welfare, and their program Medellín Solidaria to create 325 five-minute documentary stories in the words and images of the families. We are publishing this work in video, photograph and written word in DVD, website, and print formats. The project will be in English and in Spanish.
our goals?
Record family histories and culture that families wish to preserve for their children and grandchildren
Listen to & archive how families’ describe ways that the city of Medellín’s urban interventions (roads, buses, parks, libraries, schools, social programs) have impacted their lives.
Record families’ hopes and dreams for the future.
Archive & exhibit perspectives and stories of people and places not usually represented in media, film, or academic publications about Colombia and Colombians.
our process for 2010
1 visit with families, listen & record stories (June 22 – July 29)
2 edit stories (June 25- ongoing)
3 compile stories into a DVD (August 10 - ongoing)
4 distribute copies of the DVDs to each family who recorded their story (September)
5 exhibit stories online and in print in Colombia and in the United States (ongoing)
Exhibit a selection of these stories @ Centro Cultural de Moravia. August 10, 2010
Tools
We seek to do this project with technology that is the least invasive and easy for communities in Medellín to negotiate on their own for future projects and which creates high quality documents. (Flipcam, camera, microphone, paper, pen, consent forms, project description and questions.)
ABOUT US
Medellín Solidaria
Medellín Solidaria works in partnership with the Red de proteccion social contra la extrema pobreza (JUNTOS), a la Agencia presidencial para la Acción social, programas Familias en acción y RESA – Red de Seguridad Alimentaria. This program, which works in communities throughout Medellín, works to integrate, simultaneously, a variety of much-needed social services to families. This includes education about their rights as citizens, health care, school registrations for children, employment opportunities, psychological services and more.
DukeEngage Colombia
Funded by grants from Duke University and donations from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Duke University, DukeEngage is a civic engagement project at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. We are living and work in Medellín, Colombia for 8 weeks. This is the third consecutive year working on this project in which more than 300 Colombian youth and elders, 25 students from Duke University, and 57 students from Emerson College in Boston have collaborated. We are building on our past projects in Medellín that include 6 documentary videos entitled “Medellín, violence is not the whole story” and a multi-media catalog & a short film "108 things you might not know about medellín".
