Paula E. Kirman: freelance communications professional, digital content specialist, and social entrepreneur in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
For the past year I have been working on a short film called McCauley: A Caring Community – Conversations on Social Housing. The film discusses the concentration of social housing in the McCauley neighbourhood, and why housing needs to be a city-wide responsibility. It is an independent production with support from McCauley Revitalization. The official trailer was released a couple of weeks ago – here it is!
Metro Edmonton ran a story this week on the video I put together for the local Oromian community about human rights abuses in Ethiopia. The video continues to go viral- it had around 2500 views before the story ran. In the couple of days since, the video now has over 4000 views!
Early in the new year I will begin filming my next video project for the City of Edmonton/McCauley Revitalization. Entitled “McCauley: A Place to Call Home – Housing Issues in a Caring Community,” the short film will explore issues of housing and homelessness in the neighbourhood and how other communities can learn from McCauley’s example. The ultimate message is that housing needs to be a city-wide responsibility.The film is also being made with the assistance of Boyle McCauley News. I’ll be posting updates concerning the project at the associated website and Facebook page.
During this holiday season I edited and voiced a short documentary for the local Oromian community to raise awareness of human rights abuses in their home country of Ethiopia. The video went viral pretty much as soon as it hit social media. “Oromo Lives Matter: The Oromo Popular Resistance Against the Infamous Addis Ababa Master Plan” was an extremely interesting experience for me, because I myself was unaware of the Oromo people and what they are experiencing until this past December, when I filmed a protest the local community did as part of a global day of action. I connected with community leaders a short while later, which led to the creation of the video below.