It has been a very long time since we've posted. No, we have not fallen victim to the ailing economy. Exactly the opposite--we've been too busy to keep up our site. This summer we completed a bunch of cool new projects and taught a series of classes to community members, high school and college students. Keep checking back for new content. In the meantime, follow us on Twitter.
We're two journalists with a knack for storytelling. We report stories dynamically, using audio, video and still photography. We also make affordable Internet content for non-profit organizations and companies that are working to make the world a better place.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
New video shows neighborhood sports in action
Saturday, March 28, 2009
While community agencies and sports programs were getting ready for Spring Into Sports, multimedia journalists Sarahmaria Gomez and Alex Fledderjohn were out in the neighborhoods asking youth and adults what neighborhood sports are all about.
Their answers are in the video below. Check it out, and send the links to others so that they can see it too. (If video doesn't stream well, try the YouTube version.)
Neighborhood Sports Chicago! from Tu Multimedia on Vimeo.
While community agencies and sports programs were getting ready for Spring Into Sports, multimedia journalists Sarahmaria Gomez and Alex Fledderjohn were out in the neighborhoods asking youth and adults what neighborhood sports are all about.
Their answers are in the video below. Check it out, and send the links to others so that they can see it too. (If video doesn't stream well, try the YouTube version.)
Neighborhood Sports Chicago! from Tu Multimedia on Vimeo.
Spring Into Sports Wrap Up from Tu Multimedia on Vimeo.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Belize and Guatemala
This month we had a fantastic opportunity to escape the dropping temperatures in Chicago to spend three weeks working on some international stories with a vacation in between. Our first stop was the Feria Internacional de Barriletes Gigantes, or the International Festival of Giant Kites in Sumpango Sacatepequez, Guatemala, about 30 minutes from Antigua. The festival is part of the Day of the Dead celebrations, put on by the indigenous community in the region. Residents
After one week of work in Guatemala City, we headed out on one of our most ambitious road trips yet. Alex drove straight for 12 hours through dozens of small towns, over countless potholes and we even shared a makeshift ferry with a semi to cross a flooded river. We arrived in Bullet Tree Falls, San Ignacio, Cayo, Belize, late at night and were looking forward to visiting our old friends at the Cohune Palms cabanas next to the tranquil Mopan River. When we stepped out of the car, we were surprised to find the place eerily deserted. Exhausted and disappointed, we headed toward the lights of riverside lodge across the road. Colin, the owner of Iguana Junction informed us that the town (and most of Western Belize) had been wiped out by flooding a month earlier and many of the lodges were now only beginning to rebuild in preparation for tourist season. Colin and his wife Dawn graciously offered up the only place fit for sleeping--a room with five mattresses on the floor. Luckily they had fixed up their kitchen and we had a delicious dinner of Ramen, fine conversation and even an after-dinner drink (We started off with a cooler full of beer that the Belizean boarder patrol helped themselves to. At least they didn't take the rum.) Good thing we were traveling with three of our awesome friends, which made a potentially disheartening situation into a laughter-filled adventure. That night, our floor accommodations felt like the Four Seasons to us. :) We even ended up staying an extra day to relax by the now bloated, rapid river. We didn't much care that someone's washing machine floated by on what was once a clear blue and very swimmable river. Our friend Jessica and I tied vines to our waists and splashed around--just to make sure we wouldn't be carried away by the current. What a difference great friends make.
The next day, Alex drove us four more hours to Placencia, Belize. The pictures speak for themselves. We spent four days in a house just minutes from the beach and even had time to hang out with the local school kids. Our final stop were the ruins of Yaxha which were less-developed, but just as stunning as Tikal with a fraction of the tourists. We were treated to a territorial dispute between howler monkeys and spider monkeys--the uninhibited wildlife is unlike anything I've ever seen. I'll excuse the 100+ mosquito bites I got that day. A week later they still itch, little reminders of a wild vacation.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Our Audio Slideshow at the Newseum!
Shrinking the Food Desert
There's a new farmers market on 61st and Dorchester in Woodlawn. It bustled with shoppers, the beets were fresh and going fast and the nine vendors nearly sold out of everything. This is one great step toward building healthier communities, especially because of the scarcity of fresh produce in this area. We can't wait to see how this market grows. Enjoy the sights and sounds!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Antigua, Guatemala
Tu Multimedia’s annual trip to Antigua for Holy Week is a great excuse to travel, shoot some pictures and do what we love to do—experience life first-hand. It’s also a reminder that while Alex seems to have shot ever inch of the 10-by-10-block city, there is so much more to be captured.
Our primary purpose was to wrap up Alex’s second book on Holy Week. Check out his first one, available to purchase online here. The book, which will be released during Holy Week of 2009, is different in scope than the first, featuring the preparations and celebrations of Escuela de Cristo, one of the largest and oldest churches in the city.
Once the bustle of Semana Santa slowly dissolved into the Antigua pace we’re used to, we discovered the one place that refused to take a vacation: the market.
We set out early-morning, reminding ourselves that two of Antigua’s greatest charms don’t wait around
past 10 o’clock: the early-morning market and a cloudless view of the volcano (especially during rainy season.)
Now when I say market, I mean a you-can-find-anything-from-carrots-to-car-parts, outside bonanza where buses from neighboring villages cram merchants and shoppers in the seats, and the roof with bundles of whatever is selling. They flood the dusty parking lot and lug, roll or drag their bags of wares toward the flower aisle, the vegetable row, the cure-everything with-one-sip section. Some vendors scowl if they see you trying to take their picture, but most are too busy to scold you, especially if you click the shutter, smile and move on. Which is exactly what you should be doing, because nobody likes a photographer standing in the way of a cart full of tomatoes, when backs strapped with avocadoes shuffle left and heads balancing mangoes turn right.
Our primary purpose was to wrap up Alex’s second book on Holy Week. Check out his first one, available to purchase online here. The book, which will be released during Holy Week of 2009, is different in scope than the first, featuring the preparations and celebrations of Escuela de Cristo, one of the largest and oldest churches in the city.
Once the bustle of Semana Santa slowly dissolved into the Antigua pace we’re used to, we discovered the one place that refused to take a vacation: the market.
We set out early-morning, reminding ourselves that two of Antigua’s greatest charms don’t wait around
past 10 o’clock: the early-morning market and a cloudless view of the volcano (especially during rainy season.)
Now when I say market, I mean a you-can-find-anything-from-carrots-to-car-parts, outside bonanza where buses from neighboring villages cram merchants and shoppers in the seats, and the roof with bundles of whatever is selling. They flood the dusty parking lot and lug, roll or drag their bags of wares toward the flower aisle, the vegetable row, the cure-everything with-one-sip section. Some vendors scowl if they see you trying to take their picture, but most are too busy to scold you, especially if you click the shutter, smile and move on. Which is exactly what you should be doing, because nobody likes a photographer standing in the way of a cart full of tomatoes, when backs strapped with avocadoes shuffle left and heads balancing mangoes turn right.
Tikal and Belize
Please press play to hear the sounds of the Oropendola.
Patrick, one of Alex’s old Peace Corps buddies, met up with us for a trip through the Mayan ruins in Tikal and an adventure through the western part of Belize. The Tikal photos speak for themselves—it amazes me that we were still allowed to climb up monuments that are thousands of years old. I brought my sound recorder to collect the distinct sounds of wildlife in the rainforest, specifically the oropendola, that have made a community of basket-like nests on a tree in the Grand Plaza. Sitting in the Grand Plaza at sundown, when the Temple of the Jaguar is bathed in golden light makes the Chicago winter we escaped from seem like a distant memory.
The next morning we headed for the Belize border. The heat makes everyone a bit dreary, add a barely-held-together Nissan-turned-taxi, on a scorched, makeshift dirt road, and we began to wonder if we would find the paradise we set out for.
We wanted a place to stay that afforded some natural beauty, while not being too far away from the city of San Ignacio, where we could get our necessary staples. Alex knew of a small town named Bullet Tree, that he’d been to once before, so we headed down another rocky dirt path, where rows of elementary school children, in their pink and blue uniforms, held classes in the shade. A few more twists and turns, passed seemingly empty lots, and we end up at the Cohune Palms, an intimate, family owned cluster of thatched roof huts, owned by a local Rastafarian and his wife from Idaho. We shed our luggage, and hungrily dove into the Mopan River that was the perfect shade of green. Home-cooked meals, good company and tubing down the river made our week satisfying at our own pace. Plus, iguana sightings, especially during the morning hours (they sunned themselves on the grass next to where we ate breakfast!) never got old. After we found our own secluded paradise, a trip into San Ignacio for dinner and drinks seemed touristy and all too unnecessary.
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