Filmmaking :: Ho::Me::Less

Tent City squatters meet Neighborhood block party in Vancouver's oldest neighborhood.

• September. 2003
• 6 minutes
• National Film Board Exploration project.
• Responsibilities: Producer/Writer/Camera/ FCP-G4 Editor
• Music: Youssou N' Dour and Deep Forest, "Undecided".

Context

• Tent City
  • Darrell used to play saxophone with us in Azul Liberte. He was among the first squatters to appropriate Woodwards. He was at Victory Square. He was at Science World. He and 40 other men, women, boys and dogs split from Science World to land 200 feet away from Hawks Street.
• Strathona
• This is Vancouver's oldest neighborhood. I mean oldest. The original East End. The real Chinatown. The first White Russians landed there alongside swamps and Chinamen and moonshine and Negros. I live 3 block North 2 blocks West of Skid Row, and right behind me is the Viaduc that required killing Hogan Alley, Vancouver's own AfricVille. Hey, we even had our own library.
• This is Vancouver's funkiest neighborhood. Carnegie Center has music and art. Our East End Culture Crawl has at least 200 applicants every year.
• National Film Board
  • Jacob Selwyn was curious. He helped me find $2,000.00 for development money, which I immediately spent on food, DV tapes and gear.
  • I didn't work on the paperwork. The docs. The presentation. I didn't do my homework on how to sell a documentary. At that time, I didn't really want to see anything else but my vision.
• The Block Party
• There are 3 block partys every year. The one on Hawks Street is the oldest, and figures among Martin Bowden's art display in the Strathcona community center.
• Home - Homeland - Homeless
• Among the interviewees are long time residents, established home owners and new renovators. My neighbours. In my old rooming board building on Union and Dunlevy I met Chinese elders who remembered their head tax years and their first votes. I met Yuppie renters in the hip houses along Mc Leans Park. Emily Carr students. The long time residents who tended their plots down the street with the fastest red light in Vancouver. The Resist-Ca tribe that moved in the Fish Bowl on Hawks and Georgia. Plus the idle men from the rooming boards on Hastings Street. And the homeless. The roamers from Skid Row. My neighbors.
• "LS: Ho:Me:Less" was shot a few weeks before politichiens shut Tent City down. Cops and City crews worked at night. The park became clean and proper again.

Crew

• Me, myself and I, walking everywhere.
• Vidcom had lent me a Panasonic 24fps

Story Notes

• Strathcona was green.
• The Block party rocked.
• Unexpected footage: the 2 seniors. The murder of crows. Got kicked out of the tracks.
• The faces come from a storefront on Main and Cordova.

Production Notes

• I had at least 4 hours of footage
• Next time, use the Celtic Cafe's giant screen for editing!! Everything looks so different. So big. Especially the fuckups.

Editing Notes

• Placing layers upon layers upon layers, never more than 4 at a time. That was fun.

Sound Notes

• The music was way, way too long but I loved it.