Agency Left Photojournalism and Documentary Media

Wazi

Ryan — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:20:36 +0000

          Wazi: Strength in Unity
          With approximately 1.3 million cases of HIV and AIDS in Tanzania, the issue is a serious health concern. With 1 physician per 20,511 people, life expectancy is 51 years for men and 53 for women and still far less for those livig with the virus. In sub-Saharan regions 1 in 4 young adults carry HIV with 16,000 new infections being acquired everyday. From the beginning of the epidemic until the start of 1998, some 8.2 million children around the world lost their mothers to AIDS. In 1997, it is estimated that HIV and AIDS has orphaned 1.6 million children. At present, 90 percent of the orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa.
          Although Tanzania is fortunate to be climbing above the continent’s worst infection and death statistics, the social effects of the virus are not improving. Despite national efforts to educate and encourage testing, reality for those infected is one of struggle and hardship. Treated as pariahs in their own villages by those as close as their own families, there is little hope for the outcast that battles alone.
          In the rural jungles of the Rombo District in Northern Tanzania, these outcasts have banded together to stand against the opposition. Held accountable to each other, it is in their numbers and their unity that they discover their greatest power.
          ”Wazi” explores the daily joys and trials of those living in the HIV positive group in a remote mountain village. It is a story about people who depend on each other and their group for their sanity, their health and ultimately their survival. “Wazi” intimately reveals a handful of characters who’s struggle and who’s strength prove to be not so different than those of suffering people everywhere else in the the world.
          Still in post-production, this is a short trailer for what will be a 60 to 90 minute full length documentary film.

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In the Face of Autism

Ryan — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:02:42 +0000

In the Face of Autism: An excerpt from Case Study Billy
This is a story currently in production, exploring the burdens and joys of caregivers and the profound bliss in ignorance of many children growing up with Autism.

Urban Decay

Ryan — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:26:43 +0000

          Urban Decay: A Corroding South Central Los Angeles
          With hopes to blur collective memories of violence and blight, South Central Los Angeles was official changed to South Los Angeles in 2003. South Central had become synonymous with poverty, violence, unemployment, drugs, and gangs. South Central had become a byword for urban decay.
          In the heyday of public housing construction during the 1940s and 1950s, a singular architectural vision swept the country. Sought to house as many people as possible in one spot, vertical warehouses were constructed, stacking residences row upon row. South Los Angeles was the only district-scale area within the city in which African-Americans could purchase property prior to 1948. Pueblo del Rio became the first public housing project to accept African American residents.
          With the increase of Hispanic immigrants arriving in South Los Angeles, the tension between Black and Latino gangs have led to increased racially-motivated violence. Latin American immigrants are continuing to become the majority.

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Photojournalism

Ryan — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:34:39 +0000

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Travel and Adventure

Ryan — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:07:56 +0000

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War Within

Ryan — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:57:18 +0000

War Within: The Pueblo Del Rio Federal Housing Project
This is a trailer for a series of short documentary web episodes filmed in the Pueblo Del Rio Federal Housing Project in South Central Los Angeles. The episodes feature multiple characters including: current residents, prior residents, government officials and active gang members. The story revolves around the difficulty of life for citizens of this notorious Project and their daily struggles with addiction, poverty, gang violence and the abandonment they feel from government.

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Leading the Charge

Ryan — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:33:55 +0000

          Leading the Charge: One Man Transforms a Community
          As a boy raised walking the streets of South Central Los Angeles, Alfred Lomas took steps into manhood at a young age. In a land described by Lomas as the “wild wild west,” where the law is as simple as “kill or be killed,” the cowboys of the streets are the members of gangs. Once available like an independent contractor, lomas served as a hired gun to the highest bidder, no matter the neighborhood, no matter the risk, no matter the consequence.
          “Freed from that mentality of violence,” Lomas has dedicated his life to the revitalization of the suffering communities of south central. Motivated by the atrocities witnessed with his own eyes, his new found faith fuels him to be a catalyst for change. Optimistic and hopeful, Lomas sees neighborhoods in the future where children grow in safety, looking up to positive role models and are raised by responsible parents allowing both to interact within their community in a way that is healthy.
          Choosing a life of “humility and servitude, “ Lomas makes himself available to not only the citizens of the inner city but also to the volunteers that help along his side. Not granted authority for leadership by traditional certification or schooling, the counsel Lomas has to offer is sought after because of his charisma and zeal for learning and teaching alike.
          Once a member himself in the very rehabilitation program that now employs him, Lomas works as a site leader for the South Central area as well as a driver for a food delivery truck. Having been released from prison with few more than the clothes on his back, a handful of spending cash and some new tattoos, Lomas has taken leaps and bounds into improving his situation.
          Stepping cautiously yet intentionally in the open, Lomas believes his efforts in leading a food donation to the area as well as connecting with the hurting families are the first fruits of what may one day blossom into a peaceful healing between the warring races.
          In the end, it will not be his attitude or even his actions that attest to the community’s new life but the testaments of stomachs no longer empty, knees not trembling from the cold and hearts warmed with needed affection that will speak of the difference Lomas has made.

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Light in a Dark World

Ryan — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:28:30 +0000

Light in a Dark World: Claiming Victory Over Heroin
Addicted to heroin for sixteen years, Jose Galvan entered the Discipleship program at the Dream Center Los Angeles, which allowed him to clean up and find new direction in life. Galvan now dedicates his time ministering to those living in the inner city surrounded by drugs, violence, poverty, and gangs.

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