23 Jun A River Runs Through Us: Skylight’s June Newsletter

Above photo: JR created and installed GIANTS, Kikito and the Border Control along the U.S.-Mexico border, 2017. Mural and photo © JR. The photo is featured in Ken Grossinger’s new book ART WORKS (see the Skylight Familia section below) 

Last month, we partnered with The Center for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard College and Silver Sun Residency to invite the Skylight leadership team from across Latin America and the U.S. for presentations in the Hudson River Valley. Valentina Vargas, the Latin American communications lead, came from Medellin, Colombia and shares with us a reflection on our experiences together.  

Silver Sun Residency

by Valentina Vargas

The VIVX team ~ back row standing: Valentina Vargas, Kaxh Mura’l, Ignacio Decerega, Vaclav Masek, Matisse Bustos, Ana Caridad Sánchez, Estefanía Villa Díaz. Front row seated: Vanessa Cuervo, Paco de Onís, Heny Cuesta, Pamela Yates

In May, we had the opportunity as a VIVX team to return to the Silver Sun residency in Woodstock, NY. This time, and thanks to the concerted efforts of the Bard College Human Rights program, two of our colleagues who had been unable to get visas were able to take part in this year’s residency. The VIVX team shared two houses and two weeks together in the ancestral homelands of the Munsee and the Mohican-Knee-ok, the people of the waters that are never still, and their neighbors the Lenape and Esopus peoples.

We arrived in Woodstock excited to share our latest multimedia project, Guardianas del Rio (River Guardians). The project seeks to highlight the positive narratives surrounding the Afro-Colombian women who protect the rivers of Chocó in the western part of Colombia, especially the Atrato, a river that was recognized by the Colombian Constitutional Court as a river with rights.

It was an honor for us to bring the stories of the Guardianas to a land that also has such a strong connection to water. Here, listening to the stories of the organizations that voluntarily clean and protect the Hudson River showed us that even in the so-called “developed countries” there are still people and collectives with a need to protect our natural resources. While we create bonds of solidarity and resistance with the communities with which we share our project, we are also aware that the violence to which women like the Guardianas are subjected is directly related to the extractive industries from the global north operating in our communities. Read more here.

Sharing the Skylight model with Woodstock Film Festival Fellows

The 2023 Woodstock Film Festival Fellows, clockwise from top left: Tsanavi Spoonhunter, Sasha Wortzel, Benjamin Eckersley, and Sanford Jenkins

We had the great privilege of meeting and mentoring four extraordinary filmmakers focusing on films specifically telling stories addressing climate change at the 2023 Woodstock Film Festival Residency/Incubator at White Feather Farms. We shared the Skylight model of production, outreach and impact discussing and debating these questions: What does it mean to be a fiercely independent filmmaker in the age of streaming if we have to give up our editorial control? What does it mean to fully collaborate with the protagonists of our films? How do we create a virtuous cycle between the stories we tell and the building of social movements by helping the movements grow and getting our stories out in the world? 

VIVX RALLYS

In April we kicked off the first VIVX RALLY, short creative encounters of just one hour, to activate the VIVX network, think together and quickly deploy counter- narratives for our communities to help us imagine a better future for all. Born from our SolidariLabs gatherings, VIVX is a virtual network, created by and for human rights defenders, who champion and make visible their work—protecting defenders and at the same time shifting public narratives. 

The first VIVX RALLY focused on Peru, the site of our next SolidariLabs gathering this fall, and specifically on the police repression of Aymara mothers and the official government-propagated lies about the protests in the country. Then, in small groups and in just 30 minutes, we brainstormed  to generate film projects to produce to combat toxic narratives. 

Earlier this month, the VIVX RALLY gathering co-created counter-narratives about the ongoing human rights situation in Guatemala. We heard poignant testimonies of people resisting attacks and criminalization. For us at VIVX, it was an honor to be able to give the floor to Juan Francisco Sandoval, an anti-corruption prosecutor who has become an emblematic figure in the fight against the resurgence of authoritarianism in Guatemala.

Skylight Familia 

We are proud to have participated in Ken Grossinger’s new book out this July, Art Works: How Organizers and Artists are Creating a Better World Together, along with Harry Belafonte, JR, Jane Fonda, Ai Weiwei, and Sonya Childress. Ken is a member of the Skylight  Board of Directors. Art Works has been rated #1 on Amazon’s “hot new releases” in political advocacy. You can pre-order your copy here. 

Upon reading the book, Harry Belafonte said, “My life as an activist and my life as an artist are inseparable. Ken Grossinger reveals the power generated when these two strands intertwine.”