Dia de San Lazaro - Sancti Spiritus

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

On December 16, I was in Sancti Spiritus, relaxing, planning and showing my wife Susie where I’ve been hanging out for the past three years. I’ve got a lot of great friends there, including our buddy Sam. Sam knows a lot about the layers of humanity all around him. Cuba is a remarkable society, a blending and mixture of so many times and places. One of the most facinating things about Cuba is the remaining influence of the old African religions that came with the slave trade.

One of those religions is called Yoruba. Before they were arrived in Cuba, some African groups practiced a religion centred around the Babaoa tree. They made the harsh crossing to the Caribbean, and discovered another tree, the Selva. The Selva tree was similar in size, shape and texture, and so it became the centre of the new Afro-Carribean religion.

Slave men were not allowed to congregate. To allow that would be to allow the possibility of rebellion. The plantation owners ignored the women as unimportant, and in failing to recognize the transfer of the religious priesthood from the men to the women, they ensured that the African soul would never be erased and defeated from Cuba.

The Dia de San Lazaro is the high holy holiday for the Yorbua religion.

Up North on the road

I’ve spent the past week and a bit on the road with my buddy Rob, screening Up North to audiences in Vancouver, Victoria and Golden BC, as well as Lethbridge, AB. We met some great people, and had a really good time. I feel like we’ve gained the momentum we were lacking with this film.

We’re screening in Edmonton, and Calgary in the next few weeks, so please come check out the film. There are links under the events section on the page. Hopefully the early fall will bring screenings in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Cheers, see you soon.

Drew

Up North Screening Tour

I’m really pleased to announce a Western Canada screening tour for Up North - A film documenting conversations on the impacts of change in Northern Canada. We made this film as a crew of 3, it was self funded, self directed. We lived in a van for a month, consumed a fair bit of Jamesons, met some amazing people and somehow made it home without too much hassle.

I’m really looking forward to getting back in the van and taking this film on the road. So, if you live in any of the following places, please come out to check out our film.

Join us for the Western Canada Screening Tour:

Up North - Conversations on the Impacts of Change

Winner - Best Art Documentary - Mountain Film Festival - 2010

Admission by donation

July 8- Vancouver, BC - Fletcher Challenge Theater Room 1900 SFU Harbour Centre Campus - Presented by SFU Political Science Student’s Association
July 9 - Victoria BC - Camas Books 2590 Quadra Street
July 11 - Golden BC - Bizarre Entertainment - 824 10th Ave S
July 13 - Lethbridge, AB - Lethbridge Public Library - Theatre Gallery
July 16 - Edmonton, AB - Latitude 53 - 10248 106 ST
July 24 - Calgary, AB - Plaza Theater - 1133 Kensington Road NW

Trailer: http://www.upnorthmovie.com/

Synopsis:

Our environment and culture have been linked to our evolution since the dawn of civilization. Currently that linkage appears to be having an increasingly evident impact on our ecology and environment with little change in global culture. This dissonance is exaggerated intensely in our most delicate environments. Northern Canada is one of these environs.

In the summer of 2007, Drew McIntosh, Robert Lutener and Aaron Bocanegra set out on a journey across the north into the Arctic Circle, in exploration of the impact change has on the landscape and people’s lives.

Their 8500 KM (5282 mile) adventure began in Edmonton, Alberta, four hours south of the largest proposed industrial project in history, the Athabasca Oilsands. Traveling through Alberta, British Columbia, Alaska, The Yukon, and the Northwest Territories they arrived in Inuvik, at the end of the 750 KM (466 Mile) gravel Dempster Highway, 200 KM (124 miles) north of the Arctic Circle.

Through conversations with First Nations Chiefs, Elders, comedians, artists, dancers and mountaineers, Up North takes you on a journey of discovery and inquiry delving into a mulitilayered look at forms of change including economic, environmental, cultural, social, political, dromological and linguistic. Set against the stunning beauty of North America’s last wilderness, it accesses an alternate history of Canada’s north, told through the wisdom of experience and the reflection of our culture in the landscape.

The project was and has continued to be entirely self-funded without any grant support or government support. We are not affiliated with any outside interest. The goal was to allow the landscape and the people to been seen and heard in their own voices. In addition to putting our money and time into the project we were helped a great deal by the donation of both the van and the trailer as well as camping supplies by friends and family. Without the support of those who believed in the project we would not have been able to accomplish as much as we did.

Dia de San Lazaro - Sancti Spiritus

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

On December 16, I was in Sancti Spiritus, relaxing, planning and showing my wife Susie where I’ve been hanging out for the past three years. I’ve got a lot of great friends there, including our buddy Sam. Sam knows a lot about the layers of humanity all around him. Cuba is a remarkable society, a blending and mixture of so many times and places. One of the most facinating things about Cuba is the remaining influence of the old African religions that came with the slave trade.

One of those religions is called Yoruba. Before they were arrived in Cuba, some African groups practiced a religion centred around the Babaoa tree. They made the harsh crossing to the Caribbean, and discovered another tree, the Selva. The Selva tree was similar in size, shape and texture, and so it became the centre of the new Afro-Carribean religion.

Slave men were not allowed to congregate. To allow that would be to allow the possibility of rebellion. The plantation owners ignored the women as unimportant, and in failing to recognize the transfer of the religious priesthood from the men to the women, they ensured that the African soul would never be erased and defeated from Cuba.

The Dia de San Lazaro is the high holy holiday for the Yorbua religion.

Up North on the road

I’ve spent the past week and a bit on the road with my buddy Rob, screening Up North to audiences in Vancouver, Victoria and Golden BC, as well as Lethbridge, AB. We met some great people, and had a really good time. I feel like we’ve gained the momentum we were lacking with this film.

We’re screening in Edmonton, and Calgary in the next few weeks, so please come check out the film. There are links under the events section on the page. Hopefully the early fall will bring screenings in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Cheers, see you soon.

Drew

Up North Screening Tour

I’m really pleased to announce a Western Canada screening tour for Up North - A film documenting conversations on the impacts of change in Northern Canada. We made this film as a crew of 3, it was self funded, self directed. We lived in a van for a month, consumed a fair bit of Jamesons, met some amazing people and somehow made it home without too much hassle.

I’m really looking forward to getting back in the van and taking this film on the road. So, if you live in any of the following places, please come out to check out our film.

Join us for the Western Canada Screening Tour:

Up North - Conversations on the Impacts of Change

Winner - Best Art Documentary - Mountain Film Festival - 2010

Admission by donation

July 8- Vancouver, BC - Fletcher Challenge Theater Room 1900 SFU Harbour Centre Campus - Presented by SFU Political Science Student’s Association
July 9 - Victoria BC - Camas Books 2590 Quadra Street
July 11 - Golden BC - Bizarre Entertainment - 824 10th Ave S
July 13 - Lethbridge, AB - Lethbridge Public Library - Theatre Gallery
July 16 - Edmonton, AB - Latitude 53 - 10248 106 ST
July 24 - Calgary, AB - Plaza Theater - 1133 Kensington Road NW

Trailer: http://www.upnorthmovie.com/

Synopsis:

Our environment and culture have been linked to our evolution since the dawn of civilization. Currently that linkage appears to be having an increasingly evident impact on our ecology and environment with little change in global culture. This dissonance is exaggerated intensely in our most delicate environments. Northern Canada is one of these environs.

In the summer of 2007, Drew McIntosh, Robert Lutener and Aaron Bocanegra set out on a journey across the north into the Arctic Circle, in exploration of the impact change has on the landscape and people’s lives.

Their 8500 KM (5282 mile) adventure began in Edmonton, Alberta, four hours south of the largest proposed industrial project in history, the Athabasca Oilsands. Traveling through Alberta, British Columbia, Alaska, The Yukon, and the Northwest Territories they arrived in Inuvik, at the end of the 750 KM (466 Mile) gravel Dempster Highway, 200 KM (124 miles) north of the Arctic Circle.

Through conversations with First Nations Chiefs, Elders, comedians, artists, dancers and mountaineers, Up North takes you on a journey of discovery and inquiry delving into a mulitilayered look at forms of change including economic, environmental, cultural, social, political, dromological and linguistic. Set against the stunning beauty of North America’s last wilderness, it accesses an alternate history of Canada’s north, told through the wisdom of experience and the reflection of our culture in the landscape.

The project was and has continued to be entirely self-funded without any grant support or government support. We are not affiliated with any outside interest. The goal was to allow the landscape and the people to been seen and heard in their own voices. In addition to putting our money and time into the project we were helped a great deal by the donation of both the van and the trailer as well as camping supplies by friends and family. Without the support of those who believed in the project we would not have been able to accomplish as much as we did.