LA HUERTA DE LA ESQUINA

La Huerta de la Esquina, will show the experience of people and groups, demonstrating how urban gardens have helped them to solve unsustainable situations, caused by the lack of connection with nature, which exists in cities.
In the documentary we will see a compilation of projects and groups related to urban agriculture.
So far, we have been getting to know and film projects in Vancouver, Berlin, Asturias and Vigo, and we intend to continue recording projects until we have enough material to edit a documentary.
We’ll see how these gardens were created to solve the following problem situations that occur in cities and in society in general:

1. The housing bubble has caused the waste of large amount of abandoned urban spaces or used as dumps for builders. Residents Association Santiago in Gijon, is a clear example of how the possibility of having a garden in her neighborhood, has made it the neighborhood itself which manages the emptying and cleaning of these areas. Abandoned and neglected spaces help the increasing problems of social exclusion, while increasing the feeling of insecurity on the part of the neighborhood. Green environments reduce crime and fear of the people as they perceive their neighborhood as safe and careful.
2. Health problems caused by a diet based on processed foods. According to the Habitat and Society study “Contribution of urban agriculture to health”, interviews six gardeners and market gardeners Barcelona were held to discuss their perceptions of the influence of the participation in the garden on your health. The / the gardeners / as said they had seen an increase in physical activity, quality (although not quantity) of the vegetables they consume, benefits in their social relationships and psychological well-being.
3. The fracture between rural areas and cities has caused the loss of urban relationship with the local supply. In urban agriculture citizens participate directly in the decision of all that affects their diet ((consumption, food distribution system, prices, origin of food, etc.
4. The model of agricultural industrialization has contributed, among others, the increased use of toxic chemicals, risks of consuming GMOs ((Genetically Modified Organisms)), low salaries and sometimes poor working conditions and sometimes even inhumane treatment of animals.
5. The problem for many people, retirees, immigrants or people who are unemployed and do not know what to do to calm the frustration of being unemployed. There are urban gardens such as the Asociación Asturias Acoge in Oviedo, where immigrants were granted a plot of land for integration, training and self-consumption.
6. The problem for many people, retirees, immigrants or people who are unemployed and do not know what to do to calm the frustration of being unemployed. There are urban gardens such as the Asociación Asturias Acoge in Oviedo, where immigrants were granted a plot of land for integration, training and self-consumption.
7. Unhealthy eating habits, caused by lack of education in schools about how to grow your own food in order to improve nutrition, raise awareness of the need to protect the environment and conserve soil. Having orchard in schools helps support the lectures on horticulture, nutrition, environment and domestic economy.
8. Issues of environmental sustainability in cities. The current model of western city requires a very high level of resources to keep consumption while generating a lot of waste at a rate at which the planet can absorb. The inclusion of urban gardens is designated as one of the key measures to promote healthy urban environments.

On this day last year and half, we started a new adventure in a different country. This place was Vancouver (Canada). The idea to emigrate in search of work filled us with excitement, mainly because this trip had a component for inspiration to build new projects we wanted to return to Spain.
When we arrived, one of the peculiarities of the city that surprised us was to be in green spaces, full of nature and biodiversity within the same city. Urban gardens, scattered across virtually all areas of the city, creating one of these admirable places and that you could not lose. But behind these gardens, which surprised us most was the discovery that each of them had settled in the area in a different way, based on the social economic situation of the moment. Were places with deep emotional ties among horticulturists / as. For a moment you thought not to be in a large American city in which reigns spend, buy and sell.
Covering social needs which became integration projects refugees, immigrants, drug addicts and people at risk of social exclusion. In turn, several environmental education projects, permaculture, art and health were held in these environments, expanding from here the encouragement of self-care health that was present in the city.
Since then, we have continued to visit "Community Gardens" and informing us of similar projects in Europe, such as in Berlin, where "Prinzessinnengarten" is a meeting point in the center.
Here's a video-clip we made showing the urban gardens in Vancouver and Berlin.
https://youtu.be/pYTjDuB9qyE
We are aware that in Spain the distribution of our cities is different American cities, but no projects like these, lose interest here. Therefore, with this documentary we want to help the Asturian cities to benefit from projects like these, and urban space will become a healthy and integration of all collective space, used to disseminate agroecology.
In the blog https://lahuertadelaesquina.es/blog/ you can watch all the projects/videos we have visited till now.
¿How will we use the documentary?

The Public Administration and Associations, will be the main responsible for its diffusion.
Due to its high educational value, the documentary pretends to be included as teaching material in schools.
National and international film festivals, especially those that are related to the environment and urban sustainability.

This crowdfunding campaign not only aims to raise funds to finish producing the documentary, but also aims to look for projects related to ecological urban agriculture, and are interested in being part of the contents of the documentary, and in that way, be able to give a greater Visibility to projects that work for the common good.
Our idea is to be able to dedicate this year 2017, to finish recording the projects that we would need, and to have edited the complete documentary later this year.

Manuel Mateo Rodenas (Albacete 1976): I spent most of my career in the production of documentary series for public television of Valencia and Castilla-La Mancha. And, in 2008 I created my own production company in which I made series corporate videos and documentaries about social issues, culture and medium-environment. Later, I decided to continue my career in Vancouver (Canada). There I make videos for the international movement “Transitional Towns”, represented here by Village Vancouver, where forms of urban sustainability are promoted. This is where the main idea of this documentary project is forged.

Currently I am working on this project with the intention of knowing the world of crowdfunding, to subsequently develop in http://www.astube.es, Asturian audiovisual online platform on which I intend to be a guide to producers and filmmakers in Asturias and crowdfunding tool for audiovisual projects.

My jobs:

http://www.youtube.com/user/loleteav/playlists?view=1&sort=dd&shelf_id=0

Estefanía Bravo Román: I developed my professional experience as Technical Environment related projects Management of Aquatic Ecosystems and Renewable Energy. In parallel, I developed projects for Environmental Education and Sustainability, for an adult and child audiences. In 2013 I decided to continue my personal project in Vancouver (Canada), where I know the Transition Towns movement and realize projects of urban sustainability and organic gardens in the city, both funded by Vancouver Foundation. At this time, I decide to join Manuel Mateo to make this documentary project.

Currently working as an environmental educator in Asturias bilingual projects for schools, associations and others, as well as projects related to Sustainability, Natural Heritage Interpretation and Farming.

Fernando Oyágüez Reyes (1974.Valladolid, España.) Sound operator, musician and performer. Of mostly self-taught formation, lately he plays the viola, the banjo and some electronics. In Asturias, where he has been living since 1999, he has collaborated with the most diverse scene in the folk (from Felpeyu to Nacho Vegas) and also flirts with the experimental (.tape., Flugendorf). He practices the improvisation of the hand of Nilo Gallego and Pablo Rega in Yavestruzcomandandamasparecementerio and works in performing arts with La Danaus, Elena Córdoba, Lizard tails and Monica Cofiño with whom he participates since 2013 in La Xata la Rifa, landart festival and site-specific . La Huerta de la Esquina is his first foray into documentary music.

Bitxo. (1987.In all places and in none) Bitxo is the error that is born of the mixture of art and sweet disobedience. Draw all those things that live between the spaces where the worlds collide.

He graduated in Fine Arts with a major in Painting and Sculpture from the University of Vigo (Spain). Under the scholarship program, he finished his last year of studies at the University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, studying Visual Arts and Performing Arts.
It has been exploring the peripheries of creativity and collective action. A constant search that is born of the need to encourage and generate our own devices of resistance and attack. In this case, Creativity as a tool for social transformation. He has collaborated with different associations and entities related with social projects.
http://purajauria.molestar.org/bio/