The goat movie
Comments(6) …is finally online.. I’ve had so many problems with this for the past few weeks that I’m really glad the whole thing is over (well, I still need to do some backing up before the project is truly finished). To start with, I didn’t have enough disk space to capture the tapes, then the stupid mac started pulling weird things out of the hat, then it started crashing, then, as it was time to start encoding, I realized I was missing some codecs and other stuff… and on and on it went. The editing itself was finished two weeks ago. That alone should give you a clue about how much trouble I’ve had with encoding…
video copyright: Archipelagos
Thanks to ENSAR team from AgroCampus Rennes for doing the interviews & all the work in the field… and putting up with me tagging along everywhere. Certainly a huge thank you to everyone at Archipelagos involved with translations and other stuff that needed to be done during and after filming. And let’s not forget the people in front of the camera. Not all of them made it into the finished movie (or the photo album) but I assure you the contributions were all very helpful.
I watched it to a point near the middle where it froze. I will try to watch it again tomorrow. What I saw speaks of a future professional. You were able to follow the action, predict what was going to happen after 2″, which way the persons would move and that’s more than 50% of the art of the video-camera man. I work with such people so I know.
I have linked to your work somewhere inside the row of comments under my photo of Radi forest in Flickr (stated in “website”). Thank you very much!
p.s. Nothing will be done about the problem, I am afraid. But it’s great to have some solid documentation.
Well, since a EU program started this whole nonsense it just may be that another EU directive could partially solve it. They have to reduce the number of animals by 30% over the next couple of years but the first step towards that has yet to be taken. They were “about to start” building a slaughterhouse on the road from Kosikia over the top to Manganistis but since they planned on building it right next to the forest and in the process cutting down even more of the trees (some were actually cut) they, after some pressuring from different parties, decided to reconsider the location. Eventually you may see some progress but I can’t tell you when or how exactly.
Oh, and there’s also a plan to fence the entire forest as an intermediate step towards a final solution. But something drastic definitely has to happen. The first time I went up Ammoudia I thought there was a forest fire only a year ago or so. Only after a while I realized it was goat damage.
(linking to my friend’s blog in ‘website’ may filter this off to spam, but I will take the risk)
Thank you for answering. These half measures are to laugh at. Nothing will be done about the problem when (read the blog entry scrolling down for the English Newspaper article)Prince Charles is a ‘farmer’ and one of the biggest European fund subsidiaries!
We hikers of Ikaria who who work our guts to be able to enjoy an as long as possible sejourn on the island, are cross to see not only the destruction of the environment the goat owners create, but also how easy life is for them. They drive to the mountain at 11 am, empty bags of broken corn and ‘cotton pie’ in 2-3 spots, then they get back home at 1 pm. That’s all their day’s work! Driving around for 3 hours in 4×4 mini trucks! Some people would call this fun and sport and would pay hard to be able to do it!
These people have found the secret of living for free, and I can’t see that anybody stops this.
p.s. yet, there is a weak point. There is an [x] in the equation. No woman ever wants to marry one of them. Not even the poorest immigrant stripteaser is attracted by their way of life and attitude and keep off from their male offsprings. The species will (hopefully soon) disappear by Darwinian law of natural selection.
Eleni,
you should chill out a little! Your bad tension can be sensed in every remark that you give here. What is your problem? Give the guy a credit, he came there, got involved, did a good thing, edited a good video, gave you an opinion. Now, you stop.
@Jernej…You have an interesting blog and faboulus pics;) enjoy your travelling!
@ ‘karlita’ : Read my 1st comment. Wasn’t it enough credit of me to call Jernej an almost finished professional documentarist? But if you think that discussing the issues his material brings about is ‘bad tension’, I will stop. I hate to be in the way and bother people.
ladies… stop fighting :)
Eleni, I understand where your frustration is coming from but what you don’t see in the movie is that even shepherds directly responsible for having freegrazing goats in sensitive areas agree that this nonsense should stop and some of them are even slowly reducing the number of livestock on their own initiative. Many of the interviews were not filmed for one reason or another so this is not censorship on our part or something like it. But what I’m trying to say is that pretty much everyone involved agrees that freegrazing should end as soon as possible but at the same time, it’s not easy for some of them to give up a relatively large amount of money just like that. That’s why I suggested that maybe another EU directive could be the key, paying people to give up animals would help the matter considerably. But of course that’s not the only solution to the problem. It’s a complex issue that needs decisive action but don’t expect it to come from the local government. And as with every government, complex issues take time.