New Doc: BIRTH FROM THE EARTH

Things have been very challenging with finding funding and finishing our second TIME IS ART film… so in between the chaos a short documentary about birthing in power through natural childbirth was made. Not sure how we pulled it off but it all started with filming an interview with Nubia Martin an amazing midwife and human being who helped bring our daughter Ariel into the world (not in a hospital but at home!).

BIRTH FROM THE EARTH
Directed/Produced by Katy Mejia
Edited by Natasha Scully
Produced by Betty Bastidas
Executive Produced by Hudsy
In partnership with Sunrise Media Cooperative
WATCH NOW ON Hudsy TV

Best Short Film Award | Best Director Nomination MOM Film Festival 2023

This inspiring and insightful documentary film features Nubia Martin, the founder of Birth from the Earth, a non-profit, dedicated to making home birth safe, sacred, and accessible to those who need it the most. As a midwife and educator, Nubia has made it her mission to address maternal health disparities that negatively impact BIPOC women, mothers, babies, and their families

Her commitment to creating equity, quality, and love through her birthing center has offered hundreds of women an alternative to the broken for-profit medical system. The film also features mothers and partners and their empowering home birth experiences as well as their personal photos and videos documenting the magical side of birthing at home.

Support the Time is Art Documentary Series

Time is Art: The Frequency of Love coming soon.

After Time is Art: Synchronicity & The Collective Dream (2015) was released, we started working on the second documentary film in the series, Time is Art: The Frequency of Love. Through cosmic rapper Omboy Rॐ’s aka ELE47N lyrics and his story, we explore the underlying premise of the film: perhaps we can tap into a way of being that is not ruled by a finite sense of time, but rather by the ability to live in harmony with the true creative nature of our existence.

Watch our latest promo for the forthcoming documentary, Time is Art: The Frequency of Love and don’t forget to subscribe to our Youtube Channel. Subscribe and follow the film series for updates. The film has been pushed back but we plan to finish it by 2022.

Time is Art Now Available via Amazon Prime

Through international screenings, word of mouth, social media, Vimeo’s VOD platform, DVD & Blu-ray sales, this inspiring documentary film, Time is Art, continues to be seen by true seekers.  Now the film is available on Amazon instant video (US & UK only).

Indie filmmakers have the power like never before to reach niche audiences and with your help, even more people will be exposed to the film’s powerful messages explored through art and the lens of synchronicity.

Please help spread the word by rating the film on IMDB and reviewing the film in Amazon.

Learn more about the follow up film at TheSyncMovie.com/support

Youth Media

Recent Youth Media projects

MIMA Music – Let Us Rise (Anti-bullying song) from Things Are Changing Productions on Vimeo.

You will be amazed by the anti-bullying anthem created by MIMA Music students at PS186Q (The Castlewood School) in Bellerose, Queens, which they will perform for the whole student body in May!

Huge thanks to our inspiring students, our generous sponsors The ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund, MIMA TAs Phoebe Lichty and Frank Perowsky, and to the extraordinary efforts of Castlewood’s Adam Zwang and Michele Rowe. Video produced and edited by Things Are Changing Productions (Katy Walker-Mejia)

GLTT Music Video (Youth Media) from Things Are Changing Productions on Vimeo.

Great Loving Time Together written by Restart junior high students in Brownsville, Brooklyn during a 10 week Mima Music workshop. Featuring Marquis, Lorenzo, Diante and Marcos. Teaching artists Katy Walker-Mejia and Josephine Cho. Edited by Katy Walker-Mejia.


makers
Makers.com and Reel Works Teen Filmmaking created an all girls editing workshop in the summer of 2016. As lead instructor, Katy guided six talented young women through the process of editing short form interviews highlighting inspiring women changemakers. They learned how to use Adobe Premiere and After Effects as well as how to edit from transcripts in order to create paper cuts. Some students even created original music using Garageband!  Those that finished their videos early learned out to create a logo sting for their production company.

Watch the interview with activist, Salamisha Tillet.


Juventud Proyecto Artes Mediáticas con Aetlier Favela en Nicaragua from Things Are Changing Productions on Vimeo.

Vídeo, fotos, música y arte por la juventud de Aetlier Favela en Ticuantepe, Nicaragua
“Sin Fronteras” y “Pachamama” por Phillip Moltaban & Los Nativos

Support the Time is Art Documentary Series

time is art
Riding the wave of excitement and an overwhelmingly positive response to the first film, we have already begun working on the second documentary film in the series titled, Time is Art: When the Grandmothers Speak.

For part two of the series, inspired by the Hopi prophecy, “When the grandmothers speak the earth will be healed”, the film follows Rome, a young artist who seeks to discover the ancient divine feminine teachings which have been repressed for thousands of years. He is looking to the elders and teachers of ancient wisdom to expand his consciousness, understand what it means to be a galactic citizen, and inspire his music. Like the first film, we use synchronicity to allow us to connect the dots and guide the filmmaking process.

In partnership with the Law of Time Foundation, Stephanie South will be featured as well as a host of other enlightening artists and scholars.

How can you help us complete the second film?

– Get the movie on demand + soundtrack, Blu-ray or DVD here and gift it to friends to help spread the word. More info here on how to gift the film here.

– Contribute artwork (for example, we need new title artwork for the second film)

– Contribute music to the soundtrack/music library (provide a dropbox link)

– Write a review of the film. Reach out to us for a screener.

Rate the film on IMDB and email us a testimonial.

Share the trailer and our screenings on social media

Host a screening in a theater in the US, Australia, or New Zealand via Tugg or in your community

– Help with PR and getting press

– Be a part of our NYC film crew (camera, audio, style, still photographer, PA, etc)

– Contribute an article to this film blog

– Order the film in bulk for resale at an event, festival, in a store, to gift friends, etc. Order 10 or more DVDs ($15 each) or Blu-rays ($25 each) and get 2 free.

– Contribute any amount to Things Are Changing Productions and receive producer credit ($500+) and a thank you in the credits.

‘Time is Art’ NYC Film Premiere Has Sold Out!

We are thrilled to have sold out the theater premiere of our latest documentary film ‘Time is Art’ and to be premiering the film in four U.S. cities and in Europe and Central America! The theatrical screenings were crowdsourced in three cities via the Austin, TX based Tugg platform. Fans can also host their own community screenings via Tugg. We partnered with a few other folks like Evolve & Ascend and Timewheel to help us promote the film in Austin and San Francisco. There are just two days left to get your tickets to the San Francisco & Austin premieres. We also premiere in several other cities, for more info visit TheSyncMovie.com/screenings

New York, NY
8:30pm, AMC Loews Kips Bay 15 + after party

Ashland, OR
6:30 pm, Havurah Shir Hadash Ashland, Featuring Guest Speaker Stephanie South, Protégé of José Argüelles

San Francisco, CA
8:30 pm, AMC Van Ness 14

Austin, TX
8:30 pm, AMC Barton Creek Square 14

Zutphen, Holland
7.30 pm at Het Koelhuis with special guest speaker, Gary S. Bobroff, hosted by Nina Elshof

Lewes, England
8:30, Zu Studios

Manifesting Time is Art

time is art

[man-uh-fuh-stey-shuh n, -fe-] noun
1. an act of manifesting.
2. the state of being manifested.
3. outward or perceptible indication; materialization:
4. a public demonstration, as for political effect.
5. Spiritualism. a materialization.

Manifestation is about materializing something from a another dimension of reality into the third dimension, the dimension we are all intimately connected to. A thought essentially exists in another dimension then becomes a word manifested into the third dimension of time and space. For every creative idea, project, film, song, screenplay etc. perhaps less than 1% of that thought will be manifested.

What does it take to manifest a unconventional non “talking heads” style documentary film? Well, the first step is picking a topic like synchronicity that allows for an experimental and a “go with the flow” process. Then it takes leadership, technical expertise and of course collaboration. For over three years we’ve been hard at work co-creating and manifesting this 90% complete 120 plus minute film called ‘Time is Art: Synchronicity & the Collective Dream‘. It was an idea that started from a book by Jose Arguelles then became manifest on paper during the six hour plane ride back to NYC from the Yucatan in 2012. Flash forward three years later, we have one small succussful crowdfunding campaign under our belt, which allowed us to film the second half of the film. Three editors have spent literally four months (and probably more) editing this film. It’s been a marathon in the making. We are now about 90% complete and need to manifest the next crucial step in making a film.

During the process of the lead up to the crowdfunding campaign, the team was set on manifesting many things. Events were top on the list, promo videos, articles, t-shirt designs, workshop ideas and of course emails. Hundreds of emails. Now, I’m not one to sugar coat things. There were several things that simply didn’t manifest due to a person’s flakeyness or to be perfectly honest, just simply not resonating with a person who didn’t feel like being a part of the manifestation of our dream. “It’s all who you know” takes on a whole new meaning when crowdfunding a documentary film.

Our dream is a big one. We ultimately want to get our 120+ minute film out to the world on 11/11/15 color corrected with the sound mixed perfectly and translated into three languages by crowdfunding the money. We’ve worked diligently on manifesting partners with much larger networks. It’s no secret we are the underdog, with in the whole scheme of things, a teeny tiny network. No one knows who we are, this is our first feature documentary film. All the prolific folks in the film took a chance with us. They in no way wasted their time as the film is truly mind-blowing. You can either wait and see, or be a part of the paradigm shift by supporting our campaign. It’s also no secret that we need your help to make this happen. This is a full blown grass roots movement and we are putting ourselves out there by trying to raise a lot of money (which to some people is not a lot of money). Regardless of where you are at in terms of the sliverspoon, please support this incredible film. The music is fantastic, the message is clear and its not your typical talking heads documentary. It combines the artist’s perspective with cutting edge science, activism and a message that really is all about getting back in sync with nature.

“Time is Art” is ultimately the story of an artist’s search for inspiration in a money-driven society that shuns creativity, and of the human search for meaning in a seemingly meaningless world. Presented as a cinematic meditation along the lines of Waking Life and Samsara, this unconventional documentary film takes an experimental approach that allows us to experience a reality less concerned with linear storytelling, and more open to the cyclical patterns of nature, the hidden meanings of symbols, and the dreamlike overlapping of people, places, and moments.

Support the film on Indiegogo Now

time is art, indiegogo, crowdfunding

Gearing up for the Time is Art June Indiegogo Campaign

This week we begin the month long process of prepping our final crowdfunding campaign for our documentary film, Time is Art, launching June 3rd. With the help of an amazing campaign manager, we are confideent we can raise $25,000 which will mostly go to sound fixes, mix, sound design and color correction as well as basic marketing and legal fees. Our small team is incredibly blessed to be a part of this project and there is no doubt it was an absolute miracle that we have made it this far. Clearly the universe is conspiring to make this film happen. The rough cut is now around 90% complete and we’ve received some crucial feedback that has taken the film to the next level.
time is art, documentary, behind the scenes

The first campaign was an excellent learning experience. We raised over $5k to fund a film shoot to Joshua Tree, a magical desert outside of L.A. We had two successful events and although we didn’t plan it exactly right, (always plan at least two months in advance of your campaign launch date), we were successful in building our community and funding our most important film shoot. Although TAC Productions and the film is still “under the radar”, we feel that at some point very soon, especially with the help of the crowdfunding campaign, the “tipping point” will be reached. We are also excited about our June 4th launch party event at Reflections Yoga Center in Chelsea Manhattan.

The Time Feels Right

For those paying attention, we are living in extraordinary times. People have always made extraordinary art and overcome extraordinary challenges so why is now any different from the past?  Self-awareness empowers the shift towards a more sustainable way of life where we are more connected to nature and to ourselves. Where traditional media has failed to inform us, independent voices have risen to educate the people about what is really going on. Technology puts content and the ability to make content within reach for anyone that has curiosity, creativity and discipline. The documentary film, Time is Art, was born from that combination of necessity and opportunity, seized by passionate creatives looking for a hungry audience with the hope that such important ideas are considered more and more legitimate in the mainstream. While it’s true that many of the claims we make are esoteric and mysterious in nature, if you check into any one of the artists, scholars, activists and scientists featured in the the film Time is Art, you’ll see they have plenty of legs to stand on. Their books, such as Rupert Sheldrake’s “The Science Delusion”, have a backing in science’s rigorous methods. We are making this film because it is imperative that these ideas get out into the mainstream if we are to continue to create a more balanced world that cares for the well being of the planet and it’s people.

It’s rare when everything lines up for the underdog documentary project and it’s under resourced creative team. It is also rare for an artist to be able to pinpoint the exact source of their ideas or even how they ultimately end up executing ideas that were once completely abstract. There is obviously vision and talent involved, but sometimes there is something more to it – what many artists call a “divine spark” of inspiration – that which is mysterious and oftentimes, unexplainable. It is important to note that this entire transmedia project has been a co-creation between a group of talented artists, each contributing an important skill throughout the production process and trusting the very phenomenon we were documenting; synchronicity. This mysterious phenomenon is a template, a guide, to our creative process that allows things to just happen, to breathe and flow as opposed to forcing the outcome. The exploration of the nature of time has truly become the driving force behind many of our artistic choices.

toko-pa-CTA

Visionary art, that which is ahead of its time, is often misunderstood and overlooked. Yet over time it eventually reveals its secrets to the world. Although we are at a very peculiar moment in human history, the time feels right for telling a story of this kind. Millions of people buy books, read articles, and watch documentaries about spirituality and supernatural experiences because they’ve had something unexplainable happen to them and want to explore it further. We have come to realize over time that we all share this connection and we call it the “collective dream”. The spiritual path we follow can be better understood through art, community, and conversation. Thus, the transmedia project becomes a tool we can use at conferences and retreats for individuals who want to explore these topics more in depth. We plan to develop and facilitate workshops around the world, screening the film and assisting groups of people in co-creating transformative projects together. This type of direct action is happening all over the world. People are starting schools, retreat centers, community centers, wildlife sanctuaries, permaculture farms, building earthships and ecovillages. The time feels right and we are confident our film can reach an international audience itching for this kind of experience.

The time doesn’t feel right every second of the day but in general, it’s feeling more like we are co-creating a new timeline. Life is a rollercoaster ride and the moment you receive the truth and think you’ve reached the end of the ride, someone tells another big lie, creating more karma and suddenly the ride is going in reverse.  Maybe that’s why its helpful, even on just a psychological level, to be more open to the cyclical patterns of nature, the hidden meanings of symbols, and the dreamlike overlapping of people, places, and moments. This is a major theme in our forthcoming film, Time is Art.

There are many prophecies about the coming age. This fascinating article, Earth Changes and Hopi World-Ages By Gary A. David via Graham Hancock’s website (Graham is also featured in Time is Art), helps one gain a larger understanding of the cycles of time.

“We are currently living at the end of the Hopi Fourth World, where chaos and a life out of balance with the ways of the Creator are the norm. Hopi elders believe, however, we are soon to enter the next world-age (Fifth World), where peace, prosperity, and spirituality shall reign. Some Hopi prophets forecast that fire will again be the purifying agent that ultimately brings us into this new era. In biblical terms it will be “a new heaven and a new earth.” Grandfather David Monongye, Fire Clan member from the village of Hotevilla, Arizona, stated the following during the 1970s when he was over 90 years old.”

Another Hopi teaching and for me, one of the most powerful prophecies from the Hopi which also resonates with the creators of the film, who are mostly women, refers to the rise of the divine feminine.

“The wave that we ride is the emergence of the “grandmother archetype” that is remembered in the ancient stories… a powerful metaphor, a truly sacred symbol that arises now from the depths of the psyche of the individual and of society. It is being activated and embodied by circles of elder women on many fronts, in many locales, and it holds the seeds of an entirely new consciousness that stands in stark contrast to the prevailing paradigms of our current situation as a human family. I like to call this the Age of the Grandmothers.” – GrandmothersSpeak.com

Understanding Renewable & Sustainable Energy

wind power, costa ricaOur travels have taken us all over central america in the last few years. Currently we are in Costa Rica working on documenting EARTH2O, a sustainable study program on Lake Arenal, Costa Rica. In order to create educational videos, we’ve been researching the top 5 renewable energy resources. Costa Rica is special because they utilize all five of the main renewable resources so its the perfect place to study these new technologies and the country is powered by 99.2% renewable energy.

Something new I’ve learned while working here is that there is a major difference between renewable energy sources are sustainable energy sources.

Renewable energy includes all those sources that do not cause any harm to the environment and have minimal impact on the surrounding environment. The term sustainable is a broader term and includes many types of energy sources. Sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, wave, tidal and hydrogen are renewable as well as sustainable since they have minimum impact on the environment. Nuclear energy or nuclear power is not considered renewable since it is not “clean” due to byproducts that pollute the environment. Solar, wind and hydro both require the use of an incredible amount of material to construct so some argue that they are not truly renewable. A movement that’s really interesting is DIY residential wind power as opposed to getting power from the grid. Also you have to check out Baltimore’s solar powered water wheel which devours 50,000 pounds of harbor trash every day.

Hydroelectric generates the most power, second only to fossil fuels, but dams are incredibly destructive to the ecology and there are very few new large scale dams being built. The future is in Hydrokinetic energy.

“The use of water power dates back thousands of years to the water wheels of Ancient Greece, which used the energy in falling water to generate power to grind wheat. We now are presented with an opportunity to develop a new generation of water power, one that will harness the abundant energy of our oceans and rivers.” – Union of Concerned Scientists

Making the switch from dirty energy to clean is clearly a no brainer. The people who are making billions of dollars on oil and gas are still calling the shots, however. It is possible to break free of the chains, especially in progressive countries like Costa Rica, where we can study the benefits of utilizing renewables with the hope of one day implementing these technologies at the very least, on a small scale (your off the grid home for example).   This is most certainly our future plan! The big question for us is where to build.