Hello everyone,

This will be our LAST quarterly film screening in City Heights for Connect SD. This time, it will be at the Hoover High Auditorium. We hope you can join us to talk about the power of organizing, both in New Orleans and right here in City Heights.

WHEN: Thursday, November 17
TIME: 6-8 PM
WHERE: Hoover High Auditorium, 4474 El Cajon Blvd. San Diego, CA

A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES, directed by Leo Chiang

In a New Orleans neighborhood called Versailles, a tight-knit group of Vietnamese Americans overcame obstacles to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, only to have their homes threatened by a new government-imposed toxic landfill. A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES is the empowering story of how the Versailles people, who have already suffered so much in their lifetime, turn a devastating disaster into a catalyst for change and a chance for a better future. Panel discussion to follow. Film website: http://avillagecalledversailles.com/

Doors open at 6:00 PM
Film starts at 6:30 PM
Panel discussion to follow film screening

CO-PRESENTERS:
Environmental Health Coalition
Little Saigon Foundation
Mid-City CAN Youth Council
San Diego Organizing Project
Van Lang Language and Culture Center
Vietnamese American Youth Alliance

We are also now on facebook! Here is the link to the event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=237043329682680. Feel free to join the event page and invite all your co-workers, friends, family, and others who may be interested in this community event.

We hope to see you then!

Ratatouille

Our next monthly outdoor film screening is coming up tomorrow (Friday)! We will be screening RATATOUILLE, and yes, there will still be free popcorn. Here are the details:

WHEN: Friday, September 23rd
TIME: 7:00 PM
WHERE: Teralta Park, City Heights (Orange Avenue and 40^th Street)

We are also now on facebook! Here is the link to the event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130078733745865. Feel free to join the event page and invite all your co-workers, friends, family, and other who may be interested in this community event.

Thank you. See you then! =)

FREE Films at Teralta Park: UP

Hello community partners,

Just a friendly reminder that our monthly outdoor film screening is coming up this Friday! We will be screening UP. Here are the details:

WHEN: Friday, August 26th

TIME: 7:30 PM

WHERE: Teralta Park, City Heights (Orange Avenue and 40^th Street)

We are also now on facebook! Here is the link to the event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=189909091057322. Feel free to join the event page and invite all your co-workers, friends, family, and other who may be interested in this community event.

Thank you, and we'll see you Friday! =)

Another important event coming up in City Heights!

How Would You Make it Easier to Get Around your Neighborhood?
Let’s talk about how to make it better

Colina Park Transportation Community Workshop
Thursday, August 11, 2011
6:30pm to 8:30pm
Ibarra Elementary School (4877 Orange Ave)
Free snacks and refreshments

Colina Park residents who attend this workshop and the follow-up workshop in late fall will be entered into a raffle to win a free commuter bicycle!

For more info contact:
Randy Van Vleck, Active Transportation Manager, City Heights CDC,
619-584-1535, rvanvleck@cityheightscdc.org

Under the Same Moon pics

"Under the Same Moon" film screening was our first outdoor film screening at the Performance Annex in City Heights. We had over 150 people come out!


Kids playing Street Fighter 4 as we wait for the sun to go down!


Aglae selling popcorn as a fundraiser for the library.


Virginia Angeles from Proyecto de Casas Saludables was our MC for the night!


And the film begins!

Iron Giant pics

Another successful film screening in Teralta Park!!

The crowd

The screen

These two boys have come to EVERY film screening since we've started doing film screenings in Teralta Park. Unfortunately for us, they are moving to Los Angeles, so they won't be coming to anymore of our film screenings. We will miss them dearly!

Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna)

Our third Connect SD film screening at the City Heights Performance Annex is just around the corner! We will be screening "Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna)"!

Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna) tells the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hops of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works undocumented in the U.S. while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Mexico. Unexpected circumstances drive both Rosario and Carlitos to embark on their own journeys in a desperate attempt to reunite. Spanish w/ English subtitles.

WHEN: Thursday, August 4th
TIME: 7:00PM
WHERE: City Heights Performance Annex (outdoor screening)
3795 Fairmount Ave. San Diego, CA 92105

We are also on facebook! Here is the link to the event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=229581753743138. Feel free to join the event page and invite all your co-workers, friends, family, and other who may be interested in this community event.

We hope to see you then! =)

Colina Park Night Out

Another event in City Heights by one of our partners!

4th Annual Colina Park Night Out

Join us at Colina del Sol Park to celebrate safety with a night of fun with your family and neighbors!!!

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

5:30 - 8 p.m.

Candlelight March for Peace & Safety

Kids Activities!

Free Raffle!

Community Resources

The City of San Diego

“WE ENRICH LIVES THROUGH QUALITY PARKS AND PROGRAMS”

COLINA DEL SOL RECREATION CENTER

5319 Orange Ave • San Diego, CA 92115 • (619) 235-1144 • www.sandiego.gov

Brought to you by residents of Colina Park in collaboration with The San Diego Park and Recreation Department, San Diego Police Department, City Heights Community Development Corporation, International Rescue Committee, Unity Tech Fitness, Pro Kids Golf, STAR/PAL, SAY San Diego-Crawford Community Connection, Proyecto de Casas Saludables, City Heights Foundation, City Heights Business Association, Mid-City CAN, Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention, and Youth Voice.

Iron Giant

Hello community partners,

Just a friendly reminder that our monthly outdoor film screening is coming up this Friday! We will be screening IRON GIANT, and remember that we will have free popcorn! Here are the details:

WHEN: Friday, July 29th

TIME: 7:30 PM

WHERE: Teralta Park, City Heights (Orange Avenue and 40^th Street)

We are also now on facebook! Here is the link to the event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=230376813643461. Feel free to join the event page and invite all your co-workers, friends, family, and other who may be interested in this community event.

Thank you, and we'll see you tomorrow! =)

Check out an upcoming event by one of our partners, the Nile Sisters Development Initiative!

SAVE THE DATE: Nile Sisters Development Initiative - "Celebrating Our 10th Anniversary"

Nile Sisters Development Initiative will be hosting its annual fundraising event on Saturday, September 17th, 2011. The theme of the luncheon will be "Celebrating Our 10th Anniversary". Please mark your calender. More details will follow shortly. For more information about this upcoming event, please visit our website at www.Nilesisters.org. Thank you.

When	Sat, September 17, 11am – 2pm GMT-07:00
Where	7715 Draper Avenue, La Jolla, CA 92037-4380

Thank you,

Elizabeth Lou, President/CEO

______________________________________________

Nile Sisters Development Initiative 6035 University Avenue Suite # 22 , San Diego, CA 92115 Office: (619) 265-2959 Fax: (619) 265-2998 Website: www.Nilesisters.org

Shrek screening 5/27/11

Shrek screening at Teralta Park was a great success. We had over 300 people come to the park to watch the movie! Definitely the biggest turnout we've had at Teralta Park thusfar. =) Pictures below...

May classes

Kim Shults, the New Arrivals teacher at Hoover High, invited us to come into her classroom to teach her students about filmmaking. She has a total of 22 students from all over the world, including Vietnam, Mexico, Peru, Burma, Yemen, Congo, and Ethiopia! Although the language barrier has been difficult for them, hopefully the universal language of film will help them communicate to the world their unique experiences. We hope through teaching, we'll be able to capture all of their amazing stories, from their journey to the United States to what it's like to acclimate to a new country. Stay tuned!

Free Films at Teralta Park: Wall-E

On April 29th, we had another free film at Teralta Park located in City Heights. This time, we invited families and friends from all around the San Diego community to join us as we showcased the fun film, "Wall-E"!

This little guy was one of the first people to grab a spot in front of our big screen! We gave him a prize for being so awesome. :)

Our staff work hard to get the big screen up and ready before sun-down.

We work hard to outreach to all community members, no matter how big or small!

As the sun went down the temperature also dropped to be very chilly... but families stuck with us and continued to watch the movie. Although we had a rather wet interruption that caused us to end the event early, everyone that came out had a great time with their families and friends.

Please join us for our next free screening also at Teralta Park! Next time, we'll be spending some quality time with a green ogre and his donkey friend. Please come out and watch "Shrek" with us on May 27th at 7:30PM. Hope to see you there!

Senior workshops at Hoover High

Connect SD was invited to do senior workshops at Hoover High in City Heights today, on the topic of "Media Arts & Social Justice." We focused on three topics: multiculturalism, intergenerationalism, and social justice, and then discussed how media arts ties into everything. We did three sessions from 8:40am to 12:15pm in their auditorium, with 50-60 students per session. I'm glad to say that it was a very successful event, and we reached over 150+ seniors! Hopefully they learned the importance of arts & culture from our workshop and are able to incorporate multiculturalism, intergenerationalism, and social justice into their daily lives. Congrats to Wendy and Karla for doing an awesome job facilitating!

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" at Teralta Park

We held our 2nd outdoor screening at Teralta Park on April 1st with a screening of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." Over 300+ people showed! Even City Councilmember Todd Gloria came out to welcome the crowd before the movie started.

Bridget from City Heights Business Association getting ready to pop the popcorn

Eric from City Heights CDC prepping the generator

The "Voices of City Heights" crew (aka Cami, Karla, Mike, and Phuong)
getting ready to do some interviews of residents in the community

Once it started getting dark...
Interviewing City Councilmember Todd Gloria

The popcorn line that never ends

Phil and Eric introducing the film

The crowd. Even more people trickled in as it got darker...

The big screen

Our next screening at Teralta Park will be on Friday, April 29th. Festivities will start at 7pm where we'll have activities for the kids until it's dark enough to start the screening. We'll be showing "Wall-E," so please come out! =)

Focus Group: Discussing Multi-culturalism, Inter-generationalism, and Social Justice

On March 29th, we had the pleasure of gathering with some organizations in City Heights to discuss themes such as:

1. Multi-culturalism

2. Inter-generationalism

3. Promoting social justice through the media arts

Little Saigon Foundation tells us a little about what their organization does :)

City Heights CDC gives us a visual display of their goals.

Latino Youth Council tells us about the active work that they do with their members.

Midcity CAN tells us about their vision for the future.

We were very excited to get these group together and start interacting! :) We were very jittery as the date got closer and all of our plans started falling into place. The staff was very happy when the participants were so responsive!

The input that was brought to the focus group was very informative. There was great interaction between the older and younger generations that were present, as well as great responses to the questions that were posed. Over all, the discussions that took place at the focus group gave all of us here at Connect SD, a look into the bigger picture. The bigger picture on what the community in City Heights wish for the future and the different issues that they want to address.

We are so excited for the next focus group in May and what the new group of City Heights organizations will bring to the table! :)

Kung Fu Panda @ City Heights Teralta Park

Together with the City Heights Business Association, a free film screening was held at the City Heights Teralta Park on Friday, March 4th. The film for this night was "Kung Fu Panda," a light, heart-warming movie to battle the cold that was slowly rolling in.

Setting up the screen and projector

Connect SD team mates, Karla and Phuong are excited to watch the movie! :)

Even though this screening was postponed from last week due to questionable weather, we were delighted to see lots of families come out to enjoy the movie.

Families waiting for the movie to begin.

A large number of families came to enjoy the movie with us.

While our screening equipment was being set-up, our go-to man for our Reel Voices program, Mike Watson interviewed some of the residents of City Heights with the help of our lovely Spanish interpreter, Karla.

"The Voices of City Heights" project is coming along nicely. :)

Our next screening is on Friday, March 25th. It is also at City Heights Teralta Park and we will be showing "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs!" Hope to see you there!

Our first film screening in City Heights! "Last Train Home"
















Our first day of film classes in City Heights at Hoover High:
















Our next film screening:

KUNG FU PANDA!
WHEN: Friday, March 4th

TIME: 6:00PM
WHERE: Teralta Park, City Heights (Orange Avenue and 40^th Street)

We will be providing free popcorn!

Please also let people know about the "Voices of City Heights" booth that we will be setting up at the event. As a way for people to get to know their neighbors, SDAFF will be doing short interviews of members in the community (such as yourself) before the movie starts. We will edit these interviews and then show a couple of interviews at each of the future Teralta Park screenings before the feature film. This is a great opportunity for you to tell your story and get it documented, so please stop by! We will be giving out free children's books as well. Interviews will start at 5pm.

Hope to see you then!

Last Train Home

Hello everyone,

Our first Connect SD film screening in City Heights is just around the corner! We'll be screening "Last Train Home" in celebration of the Lunar New Year. Every spring, China's cities are plunged into the world's largest human migration and chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the Chinese New Year's holiday. (Mandarin w/ English subtitles)

The details!

WHEN: Friday, February 11th
TIME: 7:00PM
WHERE: City Heights Performance Annex, 3791 Fairmount Ave. San Diego, CA 92105

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Please spread the word to your family, friends, and constituencies. We hope you can join us!