San Bernardo del Viento, a small fishing village on ungoverned land along Colombia’s Caribbean coast. The remote community sits at the mouth of the river Sinu, one of the longest waterways winding its way from the interior jungles of Colombia through cities and finally flushing into the Caribbean Sea.

 

Like the vast majority of Colombia, San Bernardo del Viento fell victim to a period of conflict due to drug violence and military strife. Some wealthier residents abandoned their homes never to return. Today these crumbling houses inhabited by bats and crabs are slowly sinking into the sand like their history is slowly fading into the past. San Bernardo del Viento is quietly entering a time of reparations although the conflict is still too fresh to speak openly about. Coast 2 Coast facilitated a monthlong stop motion workshop with local youth where kids wrote their own short stories and then transformed them into animations. Students learned to create storyboards, shoot footage, record their narratives, and organize a production team to bring their stories from their imaginations, to paper, to digital production. 

 

At the end of each project, we host a neighborhood cinema night together with local kids and their families. This is an opportunity for Coast 2 Coast youth participants present their photography, videos, or art in front of their family, friends, and fellow community members.