Checkpoint - a modern Nasruddin

I came across a modern version of an ancient Nasruddin story .......

Checkpoint - A tale of Nasruddin. plus advertisement from Ross Al - Khirsan on Vimeo.

Angels watching over you

Woking Street Angels have produced a short promotional video:


WSA Promo 2013(Short) from Woking Street Angels on Vimeo.

This is all about Woking Steet Angels who patrol the streets of Woking on Friday and Saturday nights

if it is not visible above for some reason then click HERE     
 https://vimeo.com/61183595
 

The Hard Places - a video about Dr Tom

I was moved to support a video project - described as 'A film that tells the true story of Medal of Freedom recipient Dr. Tom Little and asks big questions about the future of Afghanistan'  It is being made by Lukas and Salome Augustine.
You can find out more on the Kickstarter website. Dr Tom ran the NOOR ophthalmic programme in Afghanistan, and was involved in helping thousands of Afghans recover their sight. He was leading the team that was killed on their way back form a medical trip in Nuristan in August 2010. I thought it looked excellent 

 



They produced another award winning vimeo called Afghanistan: Touchdown in flight which is well worth watching. I like the fact that it portrays the gentle side of Afghanistan, a country and people I have come to love.

Still Point

I visited the Lightbox in Woking earlier and saw an excellent installation: Still Point by Suki Chan, a Hong Kong artist.

You can read more about it on stillpointfilm.co.uk and here

Suki Chan’s new work, Still Point, is a film installation that engages with sacred spaces and places of pilgrimage.

"Whilst filming in sacred sites in Jerusalem, I was struck by how some parts of the city have two names, one in Hebrew and the other in Arabic. How one population can ‘unsee’ another group. How one part of the city is closed off to another group – by borders which are sometimes physical and sometimes psychological."

Still Point transports the audience from the site of the humble wooden structures offering refuge along Pilgrims’ Way in Northumberland, to contested sacred sites in Jerusalem, and the interior spaces of abandoned Syrian villages in the Golan Heights.

Have a look at the preview on Vimeo  Well worth it.......

It's based on the poem by T S Elliot   The Still Point in a turning world.   
I loved the 2 sacred:spaces visited:  Lindisfarne and Jerusalem... Holy Island and Holy City

India is ........ Global Video Challenge

My son, Jonny has produced a video of his trip last year to Kashmir where he was involved in helping teach 90 India school kids to ski on a golf course!   They were all from CMS-founded Tyndale-Biscoe School in Srinagar (which celebrates its centenary this year). The invitation to help came when they visited the school, as part of a visit to the Diocese of Amritsar, following on from the SACYN conference in Nepal and the Asia CMS CoMP conference in Amritsar in 2010. Jonny came along as photographer and took pictures of all the CoMPs.

We also went with Bishop Samantaroy up to a Youth conference in Gulmarg run by the Diocese of Amritsar and visited the T-B school in Srinagar, near the famous Dal Lake.  A conversation with the principal’s son over a cup of tea, lead to Jonny being invited to return and help teach skiing to kids at the school.

You may also remember that the beautiful (wooden, Chalet style) daughter school in Tanmarg was also burnt to the ground by a mob in reaction to an alleged Koran burning by a pastor in the US. Ironically the only Korans burnt were those in the school library burnt as a result of the arson attack!   Kashmir remains a fragile, conflict torn region and peaceful encounters, like the ski school, are all the more necessary.

Jonny and Stefan had both served with Skiers for Christ (SfC)   - a specialized ministry to skiers and snowboarders. They desire to share their faith, in practical ways, by serving the skiing and snowboarding community.  So they undertook the trip as a joint AsiaCMS & SfC enterprise in Feb 2011.   

This was one of 3 AsiaCMS interchange projects in 2011, including Chuli teaching cricket to Nepali Girls and Frederica facilitating Community Art in Pakistan. All three trips found their origin as a by-product of the SACYN conference meeting in Nepal

Stephen, the CMS Coordinator for India helped to set it all up and to orientate them on their exchange trip.  They also visited Dr Lalita in Pune and made a video of her work   called Positive + Children

The video Jonny made of Kashmir is stunningly beautiful......    

He also entered a briefer version of the video into the India Is Global video challenge and got through to the final round - one of 30 finalists - the outcome all depends on social network voting.

His video can be found on the India Is website.  (or You can cut and paste in the following link...http://indiais.org/rateit_eachvideos.php?userid1=372&videoid=3   and then you have 5 votes ..... so make them count…  that's the Challenge...

 

Global Video Challenge: 'India is ........ for Skiers'

My son Jonny has produced a video of his trip last year to Kashmir where he was involved in helping teach 90 India school kids to ski on a golf course!   They were all from Tindale Biscoe School in Srinagar. The invitation to help came when we both visited the school, as part of a visit to the Diocese of Amritsar. We also went up to Gulmarg where the video was shot.......  all I can say is that is was stunningly beautiful......     The original video is on vimeo and was part of the Serious Fun Vol 2    video magazine put out by sfc
He also entered a briefer version of the video into the India Is  Global video challenge and got through to the final round - one of 30 finalists -  the outcome all depends on social network voting.

So my request is for you to vote for his video, (it does not however work on the internet explorer you would have to use Firefox, Safari, or google chrome.) You can vote through Facebook or by signing on with an email account.  When you vote for it please let me know so I know who has already done so.  At this point of time Jonny is in 7th place and needs a BIG BOOST - YOUR VOTE can make all the difference   Please pass this on to your friends .... that's how viral campaigns start. We have until 14 March ...

His video can be found on the India Is website  You can cut and paste in the following link...
http://indiais.org/rateit_eachvideos.php?userid1=372&videoid=3   and then you have 5 votes ..... You only need to vote for Jonny's video !!

I'll keep you posted on the results..... Let's go viral

Afghan videos - what a waste

Two excellent movies (on vimeo) produced by Brian Cardarelli, one of the 10 aid workers killed in Afghanistan. (Thanks Khalid and Martin for pointing them out). He was with the Nuristan team to produce a video of the work. Sadly no more videos from him. What a waste......

Buzkashi from Brian Carderelli on Vimeo.

a metaphor of Afghanistan
Filmed in Faizabad, Afghanistan.

Hammer Jam from Brian Carderelli on Vimeo.

A modern twist on an ancient job.
Filmed in Mazar, Afghanistan.