under-employed masses in toronto

location: bloor west employment centre
environment: mixed bag of un / under-employed masses in toronto

weekends spent making potatoe stamps with my fabulous family of bathurst north. driving fast to peterborough and designing a art xmas holiday concept for a capital patio in London. in order to get a library card i must send myself a note thru the post. i persian fashion show at sheppard pays me a compliement, star fruit trays & the queen mum in green. today, a book to chicago, the female consciousness rests and regroups. ready to strike? i went to a dance party, where i overheard " so, are you a anarchist?" i danced, ate homemade samosas adn birthday cafe. the lavendar light of morning and a 4-minutes bike ride home.

godess's of ottawa

location: fifth and kent
environment: space

wonderful dreams of imagination stretched all the way to latin america. trying new things, curiuos stamering, running, taking turns on a bike and a academic snuggle. simple goals, ones like shoes painted with oil or climbing a namesake tree. i have 100 pages to go in a book designed to "start verbal brawls and intellectual fistfights" halafu it gets shipped to chicago. raising malawi on opera and fretting about what will happen to lucky'substance abuse. rockstar vancouver video games on hockey intermission... i missed my chance for a sweat lodge, to get mom to buy me a used jacket. i love her cooking but it feels like an opulant vacation.

october

location: london, cyberspace, kijiji toronto
environment: numb, maleable, flexible

searching out a new humble abode in a city i swore as a kid i would never live in. today the fear that griped me was job fear not to be confused with city fear. i called because the thought of traveling on the greyhoud, then along the danforth made me helpless, lost, immediately after my expectations were away, i could breathe. so today i am faced with some options do i take a house in town with the professor and his kids, cooking and babysiting (400) deal or move out crazy town downsview for (300)
ohhhh woe

home sweet home

location: 36 masson court, london, Ontario canada
environment: pleasantly plump after eating a happy meal, dad and brother talking hockey between the commercials
I went to the western fair, swirling in the haze of rollarcoster and cotton candy.
today i have been informed of a robbery at knife point at the convenience store near my house, the 7-11 is now borded up, newsprint plastered to the windows. I walked into the westiminister wood... rotary relief. big plans ahead...contentment whispers thru the maple leaves.

my eminant departure- arrival

location: talentus cyber cafe & tm meditation centre
environment: last days hitting the keys in arica.....countdown... 26 hours until my grand departure, the return journey begins... i am off to the "winning side of capitalism"

today..... is the greatest....fruit salad breakfast follwed by white tea..... i used a bolex camera, made in switzerlanmd in the 70, shipped via ebay from durban, with the double perf film an angel sent me from ottawa. i loaded the first of 5 rolls in a supermarket, they had a changing bag yet the end got jammed so i gave a demonstration about archaic technology at the nakumatt. after that i just tried to load it in my own shadow. i had a camera assiant named daniel who is 13. he told me which f-stop to set the lens to. he lead me around his school, this is the river, look at those kids. they were all shy, and curous about this old technology, why did it make so much noise? what kind of machine is this? My sound girl naomi, interviewedher friends with my video camera. the time seemed long, but the minutes passed slowly. I documented a play i ordered the children's garden students to perform, it was disappoining visually, i am reminded to work on their blocking for next time. when exactically is unknown, yet certain. I visited the new house of the headmaster moses and the extended family that lives in the rescue centre. they were watching a film made in nigeria...dramtica beyond my perspective. then some nuns came to chat and i hit the road, jumped on a matatu via naivasha road and headed for adams, where i ordered a wrap party mocha.

things i will miss about east africa
1. leisurly pace= polepole " there is now hurry in arfica "
2. black faces and features, big lips with warm smiles.
3. negotiating the price for anything sold by the side of the road.
4. drives thru expansive wilderness savanah, acacia and neem trees
5. floating on the ocean when ever i please, simply to cool the hottest part of the day
6. bongo flavor, kenyan club music and any other shake your bootie sounds
7. matatus, dala dala's minibuss public transportation with conductors that leave when they are filled
8. seeing women walking with fallen trees on there heads or large buckets of miscelaneous substances
9. women with babies strapped to their backs with khangas10. glansing out the window while washing a plate to see monkeys, with blue balls, bouncing on the trees,
food & drinks= sun riped papaya's, magoes and pinapple dripping with flavour, ugali na sukumawiki, maize from the roadside, madafu, chipsi mayai, fish, chapati's, soda pop in glass bottles, especially stoney tangawezi, fanta passion and picana, avacados the size of infants,

what is intend to do when i arrive home to canada
(scheduled to arrive in termainal 4 toronto at 5:50pm friday, september 15
- hug my family and friends
- visit people in parks and make house calls
- take a bubble bath
- eat olives and feta cheese and fast food
- re-arrange my room at my parents house, in london
- do laundry with a machine...ohhhhh ahhhhhh
- paint, edit, art work, facepaint outside the gates of the western fair
- fundraise door to door to send some books to some kids in Nairobi

sarah by the sea

location: indian ocean, mombasa, nyali
environment: cleaning in salt water, discovering new strange sting-ing acatic animals on my last trip across the creek, planning to spit of the bridge but then changing my mind, opting instead for neem powder from heino and marsala chips at books first.

this photo was taken at kipepeo in dar es salaam, the day my new khanga dyed my wet body blue. my pal mat sent it to me, i just finished reading a book that was written by a mzungu girl who toured west africa but is originally from lawerence, kansas just like matty.

in my last days by the sea side i was stagnant. i made little movement, from bed to the couch, to the forest, and back again. i visited my family in mtwapa, the twins being home from boarding school in kilifi, and uncles with kids visiting. they had a new house helper, christine and karen making the total female count 8, in my bed was njoki and caro. they conditioned each others hair, cooked ugali and sukumawiki and watched the horrible westlife DVD on repeat. while i was there i became an invalid. my hands became infected to the point where i could not even unbutton my pants to got to the toilet. what had been diagnosed in nairobi as a fungus on my right foot, spread to my hands, itchy, swollen water blisters. uggggg! so i shelled out more shillings to see a doctor, who sent me to a dermetologist, where i was told, that it wasn't a fungus but instead, a sever case of acute hand and foot vesicular eczema. he asked questions like "any foods i eat with two hands?". after wrting me a persription for steroids and iodine solution & antibotics & giving me a needle to pop the blisters with he charged me a 2000ksh consulation fee. ($40, BEFORE ANY MEDICINE) so after spending all the money i had intended to tour the coast with, i paid doctors and pharmcists instead. on my last swim, sitting in the creek withn my clothes on, pants filling with sand, squeeking the pus from my infected hands a young masai came to me and told me abotu the medicine they used for this type of illness. small seeds to crush up then boil like dark tea, and use to wash hands. that remedy cost about 10$ and althouggh i don't know which solution actually reduced the pain and swelling i know i am on my way back to health mobility and the land of somewhat universal health care...I love my country, Canada... 5 days and counting.

GP job hunt Nairobi

location: Nairobi, kilimani, talentus cyber with soloman, judy, minah, mixing up the music, kinothea sick under blankets.

this picture was taken at the Earthday beach clean up- I am holding Linda video camera at my chafu, wonderful Dar Es Salaam beach.

Dear Greenpeace

My name is Sarah Fowler; I am an independent media artist and am very familiar with the work of Greenpeace, specifically GP Canada. We have a long history as one of my first jobs was fundraising door to door. My commitment has stretched from ideological to financial when I became a frontline member. I am aware of current campaign and intend to make a feature length cinema documentary about life on the rainbow warrior, esperenza and artic sunrise. Currently I am living in Nairobi, Kenya but when you see both my creative energy and diverse experience perfectly suited to the position of video editor I intend to move to Holland.

I completed my first film in 2001, entitled The Memory Game; an exercise in directional thinking. It is a short experimental piece, which toured the festival circuit in Ebensee Austria, Olympia Washington and my home province of Ontario, Canada. Since I have been working on video projects in East Africa, volunteering for the Jane Goodall Institute and learning Kiswahili. I have my own final cut pro editing system, a G4 Macintosh, with which I will edit together my next masterpiece, a travelogue epic with sewn together themes of development work, poverty, theft and spiritual evolution in the cradle of humanity. Time will tell, it may be a musical!

An avenue where I found much experience, both working in time based medium and concrete technical skills was the Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa (IFCO). I had the opportunity to work with many talented directors, aiding them in attaining their own vision and also served on the Board of Directors, two years (one as president elect). Integrating contributions from my team, allowed us the accomplishments of submitting multi-year action plans to stakeholders, fabricating production grant criteria, constructing cultural equity policy and encouraging a membership of 200 plus media artist to complete masterpieces for our gala screening

This past July I was a guest instructor for the children’s panorama at ZIFF, Zanzibar Film Festival of the Dhow Countries. My class was designed to be a hands on learning experience for 30 Muslim students, where first we discussed the history of motion picture and then we used still camera to develop an eye for composition and easy with equipment. . Most recently my involvement with the Jane Goodall Institute; Tanzania has presented me the prospect of organizing an art-photo contest and exhibition,. It served as a local fundraiser to support local students on a cultural heritage field trip and marked occasions of World Environment Day and African Child Day. Combining media, art, awareness and democratic involvement of elementary school students, I spearheaded this event. It was very fulfilling to cultivate the idea and bring it to fruition.

My best trait is to cross-pollinate art and awareness, inspiring activism that people carry in their spirits. A collaborative designer, I tell stories which expand perceptions, open lines of communication and act as catalysts for creativity. I immensely enjoy collaborating on a perspective with a team then proceeding to flesh out the idea with details. Allowing the process of organic development to intermingle with facts and situations. Unfortunately due to my current location, which tends to change frequently, I am unable to send a demo reel until late September.

My coordinates are found at the top to my included curriculum vitae. If you have any questions, please contact me.


Sincerely,
Sarah Fowler