Community Project
“Having to combine the projects of five people to create a single one in which we could all participate was a real challenge. We decided to leverage each person’s strengths to design a workshop that would be both fun and educational. We combined Aleida and Hiram’s writing skills, Sebastián’s acting experience, and Aranza’s physical approach to stage dynamics, and added Maya’s pixilation technique as the icing on the cake. The result was like a collage of ideas that, when mixed together, created a playful and very enriching experience.
Bringing our voices and styles together to build something solid forced us to dialogue, negotiate, and trust each other. We wanted the kids to discover their inner creativity, to approach audiovisual language from a free space, without rigid structures. And in the end, we achieved not only a cohesive project, but also a real connection between us: a strong friendship and a very solid team were formed. This was especially noticeable in the last session, when we printed the frames of the animation that the participants made so that they could intervene in them freely and personally.
After they created their own short film, something changed. The excitement, ownership of the process, and pride they felt confirmed to us that cinema, in addition to being a tool for expression, can also be a way to discover oneself and connect with others. Although a hurricane interrupted the process and at times we thought we would not be able to finish the workshop, we managed to meet again and have one last session which, although rushed due to circumstances, felt like a great ending. We were left with the feeling that we wanted to do much more (we wanted to do a visual presentation of the work in the cinema), but we ran out of time. Even so, we took away a powerful and shared experience that left us wanting to continue creating together.
I speak for everyone when I say that it was an extremely enriching experience in every way. We are left wanting to continue creating and to be able to meet again at some point in a place as wonderful as Casa Wabi”.
-Maya Lugo Hernandez
Bringing our voices and styles together to build something solid forced us to dialogue, negotiate, and trust each other. We wanted the kids to discover their inner creativity, to approach audiovisual language from a free space, without rigid structures. And in the end, we achieved not only a cohesive project, but also a real connection between us: a strong friendship and a very solid team were formed. This was especially noticeable in the last session, when we printed the frames of the animation that the participants made so that they could intervene in them freely and personally.
After they created their own short film, something changed. The excitement, ownership of the process, and pride they felt confirmed to us that cinema, in addition to being a tool for expression, can also be a way to discover oneself and connect with others. Although a hurricane interrupted the process and at times we thought we would not be able to finish the workshop, we managed to meet again and have one last session which, although rushed due to circumstances, felt like a great ending. We were left with the feeling that we wanted to do much more (we wanted to do a visual presentation of the work in the cinema), but we ran out of time. Even so, we took away a powerful and shared experience that left us wanting to continue creating together.
I speak for everyone when I say that it was an extremely enriching experience in every way. We are left wanting to continue creating and to be able to meet again at some point in a place as wonderful as Casa Wabi”.
-Maya Lugo Hernandez
