With Glowing Hearts - The Movie

As someone who lives in the GVRD, we're all aware of the amount of film production that happens in "Hollywood North", but how often have we had the chance to get involved? "With Glowing Hearts" is the debut documentary feature from Vancouver-based director Andrew Lavigne. It is currently in post-production, but it needs your help to get to the finish line.

The story follows 4 different people living and working in Vancouver whose lives have been changed by the power of social media and the Internet. The four stories come together and move apart as the subjects live and work in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside during the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The filmmakers are still short $10,000 (CDN) needed to complete the film. To fund the completion of the film the producers are launching "The Toonie and Tweet Torch Relay", an online fundraising campaign combined with a unique real world event: flash mob human curling.

"This is a film that was made to document an important period in the city's history and in particular how it affected marginalized populations," says Producer (and Green Earth Organics employee) Jon Ornoy, "It's a natural extension to reach out to our friends and neighbours in the final push. Like the people in our film we are using technology and social networks to draft a small army of 'producers' to help make our vision of celebrating Vancouver's diversity a reality."

The filmmakers, with the help of a community of contributors, have set up a website (WghTheMovie.ca) to process micro-donations by PayPal or credit card. With a minimum contribution of $2, participants can have their name published as 'producers' in a word cloud that will appear in the film's credit roll. Increasing your contribution will increase the size of your name in the cloud.

"Our idea comes from a time when people would pass around a hat to support artists they enjoy and communities they believe in," says Ornoy, "In our case, the contributions support social media for social change. And like the stories and movement our film covers, we hope this campaign inspires audiences to move beyond spectators and become participants."

Anyone interested in becoming a part of Team WGH should head over to WghTheMovie.ca and look for the "Support the Film" tab, or write to jon@animalmotherfilms.com for more information.