Wednesday, April 18, 2012

350 South - an American journey

Most of the web series I write about are scripted, but of course there are also unscripted web series out there. One I find particularly interesting and inspirational is called 350 South: an American journey. It's produced by international production company beActive Entertainment and is described as a “fully participatory documentary experience” following Irish and American environmentalists on their year-long journey from Alaska to Argentina.

How did they come up with this idea? On their website http://350south.org/ you can read that Irish guy Ian Lacey moved to Denver, Colorado in 2010 to work for an environmental non-profit organisation called The Wilderness Society. There, he was recommended a book by Swedish adventurer Goran Kropp – a man who cycled from Stockholm to Mt. Everest in Nepal, climbed it without the aid of bottled oxygen, came back down and cycled home again. Ian just knew he had to take on a similar human powered journey.  And within minutes, after looking at the National Geographic map on his bedroom wall, it seemed that cycling down the Americas could be a pretty nice way to spend a year. Ian had recently met Lee, a friend who worked in a coffee shop during the week and went rock climbing and snowboarding in the Rocky Mountains on the weekends. After chatting about the idea, they both realised it was about time they did something that matched their adventurous spirits. There and then, they decided to cycle the length of the Americas in 350 days.

They will cycle through 15 countries in total – USA, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. And you can follow Ian and Lee on Facebook, Twitter and watch their video diaries on YouTube or their website. Extended versions of the diaries are now also showing on Setanta Sports Ireland.

Here is Episode 1 of their video diary:  

 

And of couse, they are not doing it just for fun. They want to raise €100,000 for the Carer's Association of Ireland. So, if you wanna support them, please donate here http://www.mycharity.ie/event/350south

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