On June 21, the CAMP UNITY team completed our second fundraising goal on IndieGoGo just in the nick of time (with only about 62 hours before the fundraising period closed). This is excellent news as we will be departing for Kurdistan in about 4 days! There is still a ton to do to prepare for [...]

We just finished filming the last interview, with “Sophie”, who agreed to be part of the film only if she could remain anonymous and her face not shown. She doesn’t want her daughter to suffer the stigma associated with living on welfare. Sophie’s story is somewhat different from the other women. She ended up on [...]

Only two more days of filming. The days have been very very full, and intense. Yesterday we did a shoot with Pam, who is very lively and animated. Although her story is similar to Debbie’s and Summer’s, it doesn’t have the same heavy quality, partly because she has a very strong political analysis and feels [...]

Today we filmed Debbie and Summer, two friends and next-door neighbours who live in public housing. Debbie has been on a disability pension for almost 7 years, related to depression and anxiety. Summer went on welfare about a year ago after fleeing an emotionally, verbally, financially abusive relationship. We did about 90 minute interviews with [...]

After years of thinking and dreaming about this project, and months of organizing all the pieces, it’s finally here! We started filming this morning! The filming began with Margaret Little, a professor of political studies and women’s studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, and a long-time anti-poverty activist. It was a perfect start. Margaret is [...]

Soulbird is pleased to announce its sponsorship of Elaine Power’s new documentary Life on the Cheque, a feature-length documentary film that will profile six mothers in Kingston, Ontario, living in poverty.
Soulbird’s official statement of sponsorship:
Soulbird aims to give a voice to the those who are suffering injustice. We are very pleased to support the making [...]

This month’s Soulbird Profile is Elaine Power, Director, Writer, & Producer, of the Life on the Cheque documentary project.
What motivates me? I think it is some combination of compassion and indignation; a sense that it is mostly luck that I am not in similar circumstances, and that we can and must do better as a society [...]

On May 8, after only 12 days of fundraising on IndieGoGo, the CAMP UNITY project  reached its first fundraising goal of $1000! This only happened because of support from my friends, family, and colleagues who received an email about the project a few weeks ago - and I cannot thank them enough. I also can’t [...]

Caroline Davies reports in The Observer:
‘Life for artists in Iraq has turned into hell. We have been forced to stay in our homes and to stop working. I don’t remember the last time I saw an exhibition, or a singer at a club, or an actor at a local theatre. All of us have been [...]

Soulbird would like to wish all mothers around the world a very Happy Mother’s Day!  In the United States, Mother’s Day began as an anti-war rallying cry in 1870 (the American Civil War lasted between 1861 and 1865).  We salute the millions of women around the world who continue the struggle for peace and the [...]