River Reactions

River Reactions from Kevin Co on Vimeo.

Here is a video I recently did a finish edit for the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council. This was a fun gig to work on. Rough chunks of the video had already been assembled, and I was asked at the last moment (just over 24 hours!) to come in and tie everything together with editing, graphics, music, and additional testimony. This is not an optimal way to get quality work done, but I always welcome a creative challenge and a good cause. Kudos to Multinesia Productions and Monty Worthington for giving me solid material to work with.

If you or your organization is having a multi-media emergency (like an imminent grant deadline), give us a call.

Here is the synopsis for the video: The Yukon River has been the lifeline of the First Nations and Tribes of Alaska's interior for thousands of years. In 2005, Toshiba offered the Native Village of Galena an experimental nuclear reactor for "free". In this video, we hear reactions of the tribes of the Yukon River to the proposed nuclear reactor.

Hoop Convergence 2008

2008 Hoop Convergence HD from Groovehoops on Vimeo.

What happens when you get 50 of America's best hula-hoopers together for a week to share tricks, strategies and moves? The world's fist international Hoop Convergence! Here's a short video that I shot and produced for the event. It was a blast to capture so many wonderful performances on tape, and then interview everyone in beautiful North Carolina. I especially enjoyed have a collaborator in the project -- Stephan over at Groovehoops in NYC did the post-production work. That's the way it ought to be. I'm honored to have been able to work and play with so many great people. Enjoy!

Bidarki: Where Science and Spirit Meet

Bidarki: Where Science and Spirit Meet from Kevin Co on Vimeo.

Subsistence. What does that word mean to you? To many Alaskans, subsistence is a way of life: living off the land and the ocean. There's a saying here that "When the tide is out, the table is set." Take a stroll at low tide and you will encounter a life clinging to every available surface. Rainbows of snails. Carpets of mussels. Forests of kelp.

This is a video about Bidarkis, An invertebrate critter that is important for both native culture and modern science.

I edited for an upcoming exhibit at the Pratt Museum along with Wendy Erd, another local filmmaker.

Film Diary: Istanbul

Film Diary: Istanbul from Kevin Co on Vimeo.

Back in the day, right at the dawn of Final Cut Pro, miniDV and firewire, I went to art school. We learned how to make lots of different types of things on lots of different types of media. Posters, magazines, newspapers, cookie packages, drawings, paintings, plaster, photo, silkscreen, videos, films... one of my big loves was film diaries. Like a big dork, I carried my super8 camera with me everywhere. This is one of my favorite pieces of work from that period, a super8 film diary of a trip to Turkey. This is a synchronized dual-projection film. Good times.

Group Worksample for Alaska Statehood Grant

FMA Group Worksample from Kevin Co on Vimeo.

This is a group worksample that we submitted with a recent grant. The first piece is a excerpt from a video that was edited by Miriam Elizondo and shot with Kevin Co. Second piece is some animation work by David Nicholson, and third piece is a excerpt from Kevin's upcoming film about Bristol Bay that he shot and edited.

The project we've proposed is a historical documentary of Bristol Bay, exploring pre-statehood to the present. The film will be told through the personal stories and images of Violet Wilson, an Aleut Elder who has been fishing the Bay for 51 years with her family. Keep your collective fingers crossed.

I've also started to use Vimeo as our online broadcaster. I think you'll agree that the videos look much better.

Homer to Amsterdam

I was recently given the opportunity to voice a piece/performance for artist/filmmaker Pablo Pijnappel in Amsterdam's lovely Rijksacademie. It was awesome to reunite with old friends in old Amsterdam and be a part of the art world again. 8 years ago, Pablo and I studied Media Arts together in Amsterdam at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie of Art & Design.

The show was a photography installation of Pablo's images of Homer. It was surreal for my family to travel half way across the world only to be suddenly immersed in Homer all over again. Taken in a European context, Homer Alaska is totally alien -- beyond the end of the road for sure. I voiced a wonderful story that he had written, and then performed live readings of the story for the start of the open studios (of which another 50 artists were having concurrent gallery shows).

I heard a rumor that 10,000 people from all over Europe converge at the Rijksacademie over a period of 3 days for the open studios.