Here it is, my main mode of transportation at lest within Vancouver, Canada where I live.  

About 40 % of the film is shot in the Vancouver area on my bike.  

I live in Vancouver and one of my favorite things is that I can bike all year round and everywhere in the city. When I started Green Dream I was first thinking that I will do it the ‘right’ way – have a crew and rent a car.

But as finances didn’t permit me to hire a crew (and to be honest I found that for what I was doing I didn’t need a crew, but just myself and my intuitive sense of filming) and I could not rend a car or become a member of a car co-op because of my license, I went to something that feels very natural to me and has suited my filming style perfectly.  For the month of May and June I biked around Vancouver filming with my camera on my shoulder and my trypod strapped to my bike rack.

Things changed when I had to fly to Toronto and depend on car and public transport to get around.  I missed my bike during my time there.  

WHAT IS REALLY GREEN?

the teaser asks this question

Greenwashing is this new buzz word, which I love. It has come in response to everyone trying to jump on the sustainable band wagon more in appearance then in real action. I explore some of those issues in the film.

I read blog post about greenwashing today check it out if you are a company.

And here is an interactive site where you can learn more about greenwashing and assess the real green of companies.

http://www.greenwashingindex.com/

Personally, I am starting to get a bit dizzy by this Green thing. I am starting to feel a bit less hip, a bit like my dad decided to listen to the anarchist punk rock band that me and my radical friends only know about. Now he can’t stop talking about the band and wants to come to the shows with us… (sorry dad this is just a metaphor).

But GREEN is still my favorite colour.

oh, human beings…  so resistant to change

Literally,

I went to film at the Don Valley Golf course today and after my shoot found a grassy area on the edge of the forested Don Valley where I can eat my lunch. Lucky me was wearing shorts and before I knew it I felt a big pinch. I realized the whole ground was covered in this little red ants, which hurt so much when they bite, and for my misfortune move so fast. For the next 15 minutes I impersonalized the action that people imagine when they use that phrase.

My other highlight of filming in Toronto was getting up on the green roof of Mountain Equipment Co-op.

It was one of those beautifully hot and sticky southern Ontario days, which get intensified by being in the big city ( I guess the smog doesn’t help). So the green part of the roof was beautiful, all native plants and butterflies fluttering away.

But the funny part was, that the guy that brought me up there said he will come and get me in 20 minutes. 40 minutes later I was sitting in the scorching heat thinking I should have put some sun screen on, I am dehidrated and this roof is intensly hot. I waited a while longer…and decided that I was probably forgotten on the roof.

This could have been more dramatic, but we do live in the time of cell phones. It all ended with a laugh, but if I can take the permission of the MEC staff, who so generously allowed me to go up, I would love to share this story. I was forgotten on the green roof of MEC, when I was filming.

I am quite excited about this website

Please forward me any interesting events, issues that might be related to Green Dream, and links that I can post.

Please sign up for the mailing list and keep checking the blog.

Also a note on the making of the website.
I wanted to say that making it was a bit of an undertaking. As an artist I had a pretty specific vision of what I wanted it to look like, but no practical knowledge of how to realize it.

I was lucky to collaborate with BJ Vicks (www.bjvicks.com, www.freshfront.ca), whose great knowledge as a webmaster and creative eye and patience, helped make the process fun and the end product to look like what I imagined.

Hi, welcome to the Green Dream adventure, well as adventurous green and everyday life are. But I think if you follow along you will feel the excitement.

Anyway. As you can see from the director’s statement I have been working on the development of this film for a while. Well, at least a while if we consider it in human time. When I started, my niece Maria, was barely able to walk. But now she runs around the house and shouts out commands. A year and a few months have been half of her life.

In film time , however, a year marks the period of time when you can apply for the second round of grants after you were turned down for the first round. So this film is in its second round of grant applications. It has not been all an easy journey, but while most worth while pursuits are a bit of a struggle I deeply belief (in principal at least), that joy is important element in any work. And I have been trying to remind myself that when I get too bogged down in paperwork and too discouraged by rejection.

I have finished about half of the shooting in the Vancouver area, where I live. Now is the beginning of the part of the film I need to shoot in Ontario and in Bulgaria. So about a month ago I finalized the plans to go away, for about two and a half months, and finish filming Green Dream.

But there was a bit of a bump on the road. Funding had not been confirmed, yet. Waiting for funding would have meant going to film next summer , and would have meant stretching the project almost to the time when my niece Maria starts preschool. I decided to just go for it, before I ran out of steam and what I was trying to say had become old news . I was going to keep the budget and my expenses as small as I can and find alternative ways of funding.

To the surprise of my friends and roommate, I decided to give up the beautiful attic apartment where I lived and put everything in storage so I can be rent free for the journey.

I will filming most of the footage myself and I will fundraise in alternative ways trying to cut my dependence from Arts Councils and traditional funding agencies. I always wondered if that could work and I guess I am about to find out. If people could fund you in more direct way, if they would like to contribute to the art they want to see being done.

And here it is happening.

I moved out a few days ago. I flew to Ontario (yes I tried everything to find the best, environmental way for transportation, but was not successful in finding a ride and could not take the train because of the little budget that I had).

I am in Sudbury, Ontario. Where I am combining a visit to my brother, his family, and my niece Maria with filming of a two day process of laying of sod in their backyard.

Director’s statement.