WALK! Los Angeles With Me

Download experimenting_sequencev1.mov

After an Unscheduled Hiatus...

Just a general note as to what is happening with the project nowadays.

Episode two is airing on channel LA36, and I think episode one is still airing too. I've moved back to the UK and am continuing to edit a film of 'Walk LA With Me' from the material I got on the project. I'll keep this site updated at key points when there is anything interesting to add.

I'm in the process of looking at what I did and what it all adds up to. It's both invigorating and difficult because I got much out of the project that was beyond my expectations and at the same time was frequently overwhelmed by the mammoth task I set myself and so, sometimes fell short of what I would have liked to have achieved. Personal events have played a key roll in me falling off radar, keeping you all from being informed as to what the status of the project is. I'm disappointed about that because the level of support I have received for this project has been such an inspiration to me and has become a key element in the project itself.

I'm excited to be editing away from LA. It's giving me a great perspective to look at all the material and try to understand, in hindsight, all that the experience came to. When I arrive at a stage that the film will be showing, or if anything interesting happens in between, I promise you'll see the updates here, as and when.

(10/23/05) TV Episode #1 on LA36!

The first TV episode of Walk! LA With Me is in the can and on TV at cable channel LA36!

You can view it in the next couple of weeks at these times:

Walk! Los Angeles With Me #1, Episode 1

Play Date / Time Channel
10/21/05 Fri 1:30 pm 36
10/22/05 Sat 9:30 pm 36
10/23/05 Sun 5:00 pm 36
10/24/05 Mon 12:30pm 36
10/27/05 Thu 11:30am 36
11/2/05 Wed 11:00pm 36
11/3/05 Thu 9:30 pm 36
11/4/05 Fri 12:30pm 36
11/5/05 Sat 7:00 pm 36

Enjoy. And leave me a comment here with your thoughts!

(9/27/05) Hello Folks - Here's an Update

I just wanted to let you know that I haven't disappeared.

I'm still working hard trying to raise funds to complete the project and hope to figure out how to get back out there soon.

I haven't quite figured it out yet but I will. The project isn't over, it's just hybernating for a little while.

Join the mailing list to receive info on any updates. Send me an email with 'subscribe' in the header to do so.

I'm working with local cable television LA36 to put the videos into a tv program and on their website too. Their server is uber-powerful so anyone who isn't on dial-up will be able to watch the vids instantly.

Meanwhile, here is a picture from the protests downtown last Saturday.

(08/31/05) Jack in Pasadena

Click Pic to Watch Jack in Pasadena

Jack is disabled. He makes ends meet by spending his days on the streets of Pasadena asking people to put spare change in his cup. He likes to think he gives something back to the streets that give to him. Over time, he has developed a personal philosophy about what he does and how to deal with the challenges of everyday life.

(08/20/05) Sheesh! I know this has taken ages.

Here are three videos - all posted as separate entries for those viewing through Ant and other RSS mediums.

They show the build-up of my day walking around South Central and the Crenshaw District.

All in all Autumn and I walked for nine hours in a huge circle. When we began our day, we commented to each other how much we were enjoying being in South Central and how we didn't really feel any of the trepidation whilst we were there that people had had about those neighborhoods when they heard I was going to walk there. It's been an issue since beginning this project of how to separate the reputation of a neighborhood from it's reality and how the two influence each other.

Then we walked down this street and met these firemen and had this conversation that put me on edge. (Watch the vid. It's some outtakes from Autumns' B Roll. The beginning I left in just coz I liked it but then you'll see me talking to the fireman.)

How do I balance between what I'm feeling about where I'm at (i.e. fine) with the stories people are telling me about the place while I'm in it? And which is truer, my feeling or their story? How can I trust that the motives of a person telling me their scary stories are pure motives? Or that what's true for them is true for me? This was what kept on coming up throughout the day.

Click Pic to Watch the Firemen in South Central

(08/20/05) DWP Guys in South Central

A little while later, we ran into these DWP guys. They also gave us free, ice-cold water from their truck - the day was very hot.

This is the conversation I had with one of the DWP guys:

Click Pic to Watch DWP Guys in South Central

(08/20/05) Black Power in Crenshaw

And then, I guess, this was the climax of the day.

It's taken ages to fix the sound on this one. It looks awful because of what I had to do to trick FCP into raising the sound levels. Please excuse how messy it is and just focus on the content!

Click Pic to Watch Black Power in Crenshaw

(08/15/05) Update

Although I've been good at delivering a few false promises of late, I've not disappeared altogether.

I'm still working on the vids with the crappy sound and will post them asap.

I've had to take a time out to deal with my finances. Unfortunately the project cannot take priority until that has been sorted.

I'm sorry if my announcing the recurring financial element is a bit boring. That's kinda how I feel about it too. I do feel though that that is as much a part of the reality of doing this project as anything else.

I've had masses of support and encouragement for what I'm doing and I know that people out there are interested. However, this has not translated into the money that it takes to continue and I feel pulled between continuing with something whilst it still has a lot of life in it and not being able to pay the rent whilst doing so.

I realise now for sure that this is a project that would have been better as sponsored by a company or a grant. Unfortunately I didn't have the lag time available that it would have taken to get that sorted. Had I not done this project when I did, I wouldn't have been able to do it at all, which is also why I ended up doing it through the middle of the summer heat.

I also felt that there was something to be said for the community that the project was for and about also being the community that supported it. I was concerned that it would lose something if it was sponsored by a corporation and that if it were sponsored by a grant that it would be restricted in what it could grow into because it would have to fulfil the specifications and priorities of the grant-giver. I do have mixed feelings about asking for donations too and this has been a learning experience on that front.

I'm hoping that the project is about to enter a second phase that accomodates my need to make money right now without putting it to sleep altogether. Some have thought that perhaps it's time to lay it to rest but I'm hesitant to do that because I still see so much potential within it. Obviously I cannot continue though if my own basic needs are not taken care of.

Keep checking in this week and look out for the remaining videos. I'll let you know when some of the other stuff is resolved.

Join the mailing list by sending me an email that says 'subscribe' in the header (lisa@walklawithme.com).

Please don't abandon ship just yet.

(08/10/05) Misc. South Central Vid

Still working on the rest of the S.Central and Crenshaw vids. I'm trying to put more up later tonight.

Click Pic to Watch These Kids in South Central

Here is a miscellaneous minute that Autumn shot of some kids in South Central.

I didn't edit it at all - just swiped it from her tape. I like it though.

In case it's not obvious, the hand signals they're making are gang signs. It brings up an ongoing theme of that day - about how dangerous the place really might be or if people were just enjoying trying to scare me based on the obvious folklore of fear that surrounds those neighborhoods.

Because they were kids, it's easy to think they were just having fun fooling around and showing off. But that guy on the bike with the hat you see me talking to in the video - he was in the middle of telling me that I had to watch out for kids that age because they were most likely to be in gangs and had the least to lose when committing crimes because their young age makes them relatively unpunishable.

That guy also told me I was in a particularly bad neighborhood of South Central. That he's more than once caught paedophiles on that block. That a girl recently got caught in the cross-fire of gang shootings and died just half a block away.

I have a friend who lived in South Central for five years. He told me that this stretch of South Central was a pretty good one to go to and that it is, in his experience, safe.

I'm pretty sure these kids turned a switch on my DV cam that turned the mic off and hence my sound issues. I guess I was an easy target.

I felt stupid sometimes. Naive. Being there, walking around with the stroller-rig. No matter what is truth or fiction about the place, I felt the density of the social politics that surround it. I felt naive because in the innocence of my project I might have been unaware of how strong barriers to connecting and seeing what's real can be - no matter what your intentions. And that it can be simplistic to think they can be transcended so easily.