Nature and Constructed Space: First Contact

Since our film is focused on the nature around us, we do not have one location we have been visiting to help us direct our film. Instead, we have been exploring different opportunities, organizations and people in search of a good story. From there, we plan on letting our story develop.

A few weeks ago while searching the website for information about parks I stumbled across another organization that formed for the sole purpose of preserving parks. Partners of Parks is a non-profit organization in Long Beach who raises funds to preserve and protect green spaces and provide recreational opportunities for people in Long Beach. I thought they might just be a good interview for our project, but I found out that they are more than just an interview, they are the entrance key we've been looking for to develop our story.

I met with the Executive Director and Senior Program Manager today. They were very friendly and very excited about our film on parks. Instead of doing the pre-interview questions I thought I would do, they gave me contact after contact who they thought would be informative and interesting people to include in our film. They told me about all sorts of people: the maintenance men who are passionate about keeping their small area of the park clean and beautiful, about a neighborhood called Rose Park who has an association to preserve the historic area and the small park in their neighborhood, and El Dorado Nature Center which was formed to replicate what the land use to look like and has fanatic volunteers and staff who tend it. I am especially interested in including El Dorado Nature Center in our film. When this park was formed not only were plants brought in, but rivers and lakes were carved into the land to follow the patterns of the California rivers. The Nature Center has many community projects, activities and volunteers that may be fascinating to include in our film.

Darren the program manager of Partner of Parks has volunteered to be our main contact and connection with the Long Beach Parks. He is going to begin by contacting the people they know at the Nature Center and arrange a tour for us to see the land and meet the people. He is also going to talk to the Parks and Recreation Department to find out what permits and permissions we need for filming.

I am so thankful for this connection with Partners of Parks and their support of our film. I am excited to see how our film develops with our new contacts and I look forward to the interesting people and stories we will encounter as we begin meeting people and exploring our sites.

- Rachel