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Alan Toth
United States
เข้าร่วมเมื่อ 6 มี.ค. 2015
I'm a writer and filmmaker based in San Francisco. My short film Mining Phosphorus was screened at film festivals around the United States and a version of the film was broadcast on PBS Newshour. My feature documentary Posh Corps chronicled the experiences of Peace Corps Volunteers in South Africa as they struggled to be helpful in a rapidly changing country.
My non-fiction work has been been published by The Atlantic, KQED, Mission Local, The Sacramento Bee, Kjarninn, Stanford University, UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. My fiction has appeared in literary journals.
I have a Master in Journalism from UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Science in Multimedia from the Art Institute of Portland. I also studied media and communications at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and fine art at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming.
I've shot and produced films in South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, Jamaica, New Zealand, Fiji, Kiribati and the United States.
My non-fiction work has been been published by The Atlantic, KQED, Mission Local, The Sacramento Bee, Kjarninn, Stanford University, UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. My fiction has appeared in literary journals.
I have a Master in Journalism from UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Science in Multimedia from the Art Institute of Portland. I also studied media and communications at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and fine art at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming.
I've shot and produced films in South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, Jamaica, New Zealand, Fiji, Kiribati and the United States.
Graffiti Writer Nite Owl Paints a Piece
I met Nite Owl after a trip into an underground tunnel in the East Bay. The walls of a massive drainage tunnel were covered in graffiti for miles. Inside, I found a piece by Nite Owl. It was his signature owl, but distorted like a grotesque mutation. It was beautiful work, but the next time I entered the tunnels, it was covered by a manic amateur tag.
“It hurts when that happens, but that’s just part of the game,” said Nite Owl. “Nobody asked me to put it there, I can’t get too upset if someone comes and takes it off.”
Nite Owl’s work appears all over the world. A former architect-turned street-artist, Nite Owl makes a living selling art directly to clients. He says it took him about 10 years to build his local reputation and develop a client base.
I met Nite Owl at his studio in Oakland. Yellow owl-eyes watched me from hundreds of canvases lining the walls. Every speck of wall or floor was covered in paint or canvas. I set up a camera and focused on the parliament of owls on the wall. I sat down with Nite Owl and asked him about the Bay Area graffiti scene.
“The scene in San Francisco is definitely not what it used to be,” said Nite Owl. “There’s a lot of corporate and city-backed pieces, so you’re not getting a real cross-section of city artists doing them, only the safe artists. It’s a sham.”
Since 2004, when San Francisco passed a graffiti removal ordinance requiring property owners to remove graffiti promptly or pay steep fines, spontaneous street art has been vigorously targeted for removal by the city.
Only planned murals, with content approved by property owners or the San Francisco Arts Commission, are safe from destruction. Non-approved pieces are considered graffiti and vandalism. And for street artists like Nite Owl, controversy is the whole point.
“Anything done illegally is probably better,” said Nite Owl. “Well, I don’t want to say better, but at least it represents the people who live there.”
I was hoping to produce a documentary about the evolution of street art in the Bay Area. I wanted to follow the art as it was slowly chased out of Oakland, just as it had been chased out of San Francisco years earlier. I needed a scene with Nite Owl, so I asked him to let me shoot video as he painted. He invited me to meet him at a small wall in North Oakland.
The wall was in a garbage nook wedged between an apartment building and a commercial space. Nite Owl said he knew the owner, and was commissioned to paint the wall every so often. His work, and that of two other graffiti writers, was already on the wall. That day, he painted over the wall and created a new piece.
I watched his large owl take shape through the camera’s viewfinder. A haze of paint particles filled the air. I was a bit lightheaded by the end. I could see why Nite Owl wore a heavy-duty mask. I was so dizzy that I had to leave just before he finished. I came back the next morning to see the finished piece.
It was early November 2016. A week later, the election changed everything. The media became the Trump show, and no one cared to hear much about the nuances of street art verses vandalism.
“It hurts when that happens, but that’s just part of the game,” said Nite Owl. “Nobody asked me to put it there, I can’t get too upset if someone comes and takes it off.”
Nite Owl’s work appears all over the world. A former architect-turned street-artist, Nite Owl makes a living selling art directly to clients. He says it took him about 10 years to build his local reputation and develop a client base.
I met Nite Owl at his studio in Oakland. Yellow owl-eyes watched me from hundreds of canvases lining the walls. Every speck of wall or floor was covered in paint or canvas. I set up a camera and focused on the parliament of owls on the wall. I sat down with Nite Owl and asked him about the Bay Area graffiti scene.
“The scene in San Francisco is definitely not what it used to be,” said Nite Owl. “There’s a lot of corporate and city-backed pieces, so you’re not getting a real cross-section of city artists doing them, only the safe artists. It’s a sham.”
Since 2004, when San Francisco passed a graffiti removal ordinance requiring property owners to remove graffiti promptly or pay steep fines, spontaneous street art has been vigorously targeted for removal by the city.
Only planned murals, with content approved by property owners or the San Francisco Arts Commission, are safe from destruction. Non-approved pieces are considered graffiti and vandalism. And for street artists like Nite Owl, controversy is the whole point.
“Anything done illegally is probably better,” said Nite Owl. “Well, I don’t want to say better, but at least it represents the people who live there.”
I was hoping to produce a documentary about the evolution of street art in the Bay Area. I wanted to follow the art as it was slowly chased out of Oakland, just as it had been chased out of San Francisco years earlier. I needed a scene with Nite Owl, so I asked him to let me shoot video as he painted. He invited me to meet him at a small wall in North Oakland.
The wall was in a garbage nook wedged between an apartment building and a commercial space. Nite Owl said he knew the owner, and was commissioned to paint the wall every so often. His work, and that of two other graffiti writers, was already on the wall. That day, he painted over the wall and created a new piece.
I watched his large owl take shape through the camera’s viewfinder. A haze of paint particles filled the air. I was a bit lightheaded by the end. I could see why Nite Owl wore a heavy-duty mask. I was so dizzy that I had to leave just before he finished. I came back the next morning to see the finished piece.
It was early November 2016. A week later, the election changed everything. The media became the Trump show, and no one cared to hear much about the nuances of street art verses vandalism.
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Mining Phosphorus - Florida Phosphate Film
มุมมอง 160K4 ปีที่แล้ว
Phosphorus, the most critical element in modern agriculture, has been acquired through phosphate strip mining in Florida for over a century, but Florida’s phosphate is quickly running out. When it is gone, the United States will be dependent on phosphate imports. A new source of phosphate is discovered in North Florida. Local land owners are determined to mine it, but environmentalists vow to s...
Ghost Ship vigil at Lake Merritt
มุมมอง 235 ปีที่แล้ว
Some 5000 mourners gathered for a vigil at Lake Merritt on Monday to remember victims of Oakland's "Ghost Ship" fire, which claimed 36 lives on the night of December 2nd. It was the deadliest fire in California in over 100 years. I reported on this story with Rachel Cassandra, Khaled Sayed
Kiribati Land Purchase
มุมมอง 1.3K5 ปีที่แล้ว
I visited the village of Naviavia in Fiji. It’s a relatively unremarkable little village, not unlike most others on the island of Vanua Levu. But, when the island nation of Kiribati purchased 20 square kilometers of land across the river, the village was plucked from obscurity, and placed right at the center of an international controversy. Further Reading: www.alantoth.net/alan-toth-films/2017...
Trump Piñatas in San Francisco's Mission
มุมมอง 1775 ปีที่แล้ว
Deport Trump. That’s the statement that stops pedestrians in front of Casa Bonampak at 1051 Valencia St. But it’s not just the sign that catches the eye. All day long, people are stopping outside the Mexican art and craft store to gawk at Trump piñatas. With their tiny hands and oversized empty heads, the Trump piñatas are a perfect likeness of the Republican candidate who says he’ll build a wa...
Mining Phosphorus Trailer
มุมมอง 1.1K6 ปีที่แล้ว
mining-p.com A Finalist for the 2018 Student Academy Awards. Phosphorus, the most critical element in modern agriculture, has been acquired through phosphate mining in Florida for over a century, but Florida’s phosphate is quickly running out. When it is gone, the United States will be dependent on phosphate imports. A new source of phosphate is discovered in North Florida that could extend Ame...
Human-Lion Conflict in Kenya
มุมมอง 1.3K6 ปีที่แล้ว
In the spring of 2017, armed men burned several lodges at conservation ranches in Laikipia County, Kenya. The men were pastoralists from Northern Kenya. Some 10,000 traditional pastoralists drove over 100,000 head of cattle into private conservancies seeking grass for their animals. Grazing lands in Northern Kenya were severely stressed due to over-grazing and an extended drought. For Steve Ekw...
San Francisco Considers Lombard Street Toll
มุมมอง 717 ปีที่แล้ว
San Francisco city officials are considering placing a toll on Lombard Street, otherwise known as "The Crooked Street." With over two million visitors per year, the traffic is often backed up for blocks, and some of the street's residents say they have had enough. The city finished its latest study, which suggested placing an unprecedented toll in about two years. However, some tourists and tou...
Artist Explores SF Bay’s Hidden Tunnel Art
มุมมอง 8K7 ปีที่แล้ว
Way out in the East Bay, hidden in thick trees and brush, there’s a portal to another world. It’s down below the streets in a creek bed, where the mouth of a storm sewer opens up like a cavern. Inside, crawdads scuttle in ankle-deep pools, and ominous booming sounds echo throughout the vaulted interior. A menagerie of fantastic paintings cover almost every inch of wall inside the half-mile tunn...
Humboldt County Reacts to Prop 64
มุมมอง 2.9K7 ปีที่แล้ว
n Humboldt County, California they say that the last hippy died when marijuana began to fetch more than a $1,000 a pound. If that is true, Tuesday’s vote to legalize adult recreational cannabis use in the state might be the final nail in the flower-power coffin. Most of the local growers, who some might think stand to gain the most from their businesses becoming legal, are either skeptical or c...
I believe what he forgets to mention is that he needs to get approved for it by the county seat which means he doesn't have full property rights like he thinks he does. As well even if they approved that doesn't mean he's allowed to do whatever to his property if it then results in damaging neighboring properties. Under Riparian rights he is subject legally to maintain water quality within the bigs of his property, so if he doesn't add that leaks into a neighboring property he has now violated neighboring property rights.
I'm old and I don't care about the next generation so they might have to some radioactive stuff they have to take care of. It's not my problem cuz I'm going to not live very long and die anyways.
No, when people think of Florida they think of drunk karens and meth heads
I wanted to see some mining. Fail.
When I here Africans been alleged they’re encroaching wildlife habitats it’s westerner’s mind game. The arrow should be pointing at the few whites, remnants of colonisers, who still holds vast land for agricultural food for Western Market, conservation parks for tourism bush hunting. We have over 500 airstrip and most of them are used by a class of foreigners who jets in for bush hunting, yes to kill our lions, cheaters, elephants, and then jets out. Including the British royals! Now who’s the problem 😔we perish due to narrow mind. As a Kenyan, have you ever had an interest in an elephant ivory 🤷🏽♀️
00:10 "Water Bird " Anhinga... NAC Native American Church symbol.
The government should be able to tell you what you can do with your land when your activities will forever scar the land and contaminate the entire area in pollution. Be a good neighbor or get the fuk out.
MOVE GETS UP IN ALOT OF TUNNELS
Fantastic quality doc, popped up on my feed and watched the whole thing. Whoever made this is knows what theyre doing
Greed is the only reason old men have for destroying the environment, not altruism.
wow. polk county. as crappy then as it is today.
As a mining engineer, it’s important to remember: if it can’t be grown, it has to be mined. Even the things we grow need mined resources (like fertilizers containing phosphate). The crops go into feeding our livestock, and both go on your dinner plate at night. There’s nothing you touch daily that is not a direct result of mining. Unfortunately for some, minerals are not abundant everywhere. Geologic formations make rich ore bodies in specific locations, and that’s where we need to mine to collect the resources we need. If the ore could be surgically removed from the earth, great! But it cannot. It’s not feasible - we’d be paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for a single bag of fertilizer, or cement. Let’s be realistic for all the naysayers - unless you want to become mountain people and live hand and foot off the land- making your own tools and forfeiting cars, phones, electricity - you’re supporting mining. If you eat food - which I’m pretty sure we all do - you’re supporting mining. The food needs nutrients to grow to provide us nutrients, and that comes from mining fertilizers. Furthermore, all the equipment used to harvest/process/package, and the packaging itself - where do these people think those materials come from? MINES! 🎉
The neighborhoods were built by the mines by greedy land development. Mining in Florida has existed in the bone Valley region and others for roughly 150 years
People are stupid! Prese look up what phosphate is used for. Then explain to me how would you grow crops to feed everyone the food we eat??? Get an education about are resources so we don't have to buy it from other countries and rely on them. Plus it's his land, he can mine what he wants too.
Big corporations don't care about local ppl, Never, they care about Money only. Poor old man has been fooled.
First she lies by saying no one wants the phosphorous mine, then she lies by saying the trailer is 5-10 feet from the fence when can clearly see its like 50 feet, and then she's stupid for saying how she dont want to go visit a grave yard and see a phosphorous mine in the distance.
The not in my back yard syndrome. If they do it in other countries no problem right? Americans want to act like they are pro environment yet they just export all the pollution elsewhere. Phosphate is a necessary thing for the world we live in.
how close will they be mining to the pro miners' residences?
We need phosphate, but not nearly what we apply to the land, which is less than 1% utilized by plants. Mosaic is not only destroying the land P is mined from, but everywhere else we overapply it and destroy soils.
You have to wonder why someone as old as Jack would want to engage in such behavior at his age. Most people, the left they get the more respect for the world and ample enjoyment they have. Not Jack, he want mass destruction, annihilation of his property, and devastation to everyone he will soon leave behind. Because he’s like 109 years old. How does one become compassionate about mining for phosphate at 109?
That old dude needs to be put out to pasture. Youve got that much "wealth" and old af about to die and yet you want to sacrifice the environment for more money.
Crystal river here. I just recently found out just how my mining goes on in Florida, and the amount of environmental issues we're having not just from it but what that'll did to the everglades with building channels to dry out land for farming.
Hydroflouricsylisicacid, toxic byproduct, but it's great dripped in your drinking water
Every material and energy source that has built the prosperous country we live in is now under attack. If life were fair, all these environmental alarmists would have every modern convenience taken away from them. Electric power, affordable food, automobiles, internet access. All of it. They put maximum effort to block any new project that in the past has already made their life so much better.
Does it sound like undrinkable water and unmanaged mining dust is a real lifestyle bonus for these people? I swear to god, you talk out of one side of your mouth, and the minute something like this is going down in your back yard, you're the first to start screaming out of the other side of your mouth. Mind if I put a 200 ft wind turbine on my property next to yours? Here's a wild thought - maybe, just maybe, it's possible to do business responsibly - but no, that would shave a couple of points of the mining company's quarterly statements. In the meantime, we'll just have to keep cleaning up after the "plunder and move on" business models of these companies, like at Piney Point in Manatee County.
@47f0 Very common that low priced land is sold because it has a negative aspect about its location. Then once the savings are in place, protest the very thing that got you the discount. It's like buying a house next to a busy street and then lobbying to have the street re-routed. If every public project were blocked we wouldn't even be able to have these comments posted. We're all very fortunate that short-sighted people like you get told to shut up.
Mosaic is evil. They say that they have no plans to develop into Charlotte County but for the past few years they've been funding more and more charities buildings and most importantly political organizations and candidates in the area.
Don't move to Starke, if you want to know why let me know. A non-native moving to that town will regret it really REALLY fast. It's not NOT a safe town in any way and to make things worse the corruption is extremely high.
Jax rejects who got lost trying to find some good Gainesville meth - what could possibly go wrong?
I remember my parents moving to Florida in 1969 . I came with them and the family and went to look for work, I was 19 at the time, the union hall sent me to a place where they mined phosphate, I remember one of the older workers telling me not to breathe and shut the window of the truck when I seen a cloud roll by, I didn’t think much about it until I got home. My tee shirt had little holes in it, between that and the hot weather, which I wasn’t use to, I packed my motorcycle and headed back to New Hampshire, as I recall, it was called the Bonny Mines
My work for the same exact mine, they don’t dig no more but use it has a warehouse to store phosphate. Just nasty. You did the smart thing.
Talk is cheap. If you want to eat meat and or plants then we NEED Phosphate. Everyone pays for modern living.
People need it. So it will be mined. End of story.
People need it - therefore the mining companies should get to operate any way they want, leaving messes like Piney Point, FL to clean up. Maybe if Florida phosphate mine operators had a better track record in the state, the opposition would have a little less wind in their sails. Maybe, and I'm just spitballing here, it's possible to peel off a couple points from the $2-3 billion industry quarterly statements to provide mitigation and minimize impact to the community. Nah - that's just crazy talk. Every corporation everywhere will scream that if you make them act responsibly. They'll go out of business and that will ruin everybody. The cost to fix a few-dollar tailpipe bracket that made Ford Pinto's explode on impact was just too much. And for these mining companies, dust mitigation and proper handling of their waste is just too much.
@@47f0 perhaps you did not understand me. You are a slave. Your politicians answer to Israel not you.
Phosphate mines(ancient sea floor) give us megalodon teeth. They make me happy. I’ve worked at phosphate mines in Florida, and North Carolina. Neat facilities.
You can only put mines where the resource to be mined is.
My whole family mined phosphate in Florida including myself. This state was built on it. Many many many families raised on it.
And this old dude can get bent.
The root cause of all problems...overpopulation.
The US has the absolute strategic necessity to feed over 300 million Americans. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, but those affected should be paid nicely and well over the value of their property to relocate. It's really all about money so solve it with money. There is ample identical land in better locations to move to.
I have never thought of Florida as swamps and beaches. I’ve always thought of it as artifice. It is fake, and grift and decadence. As a southerner, it is not southern to me. It’s a disgusting display of waste and abuse and depravity and human waste.
What's going to happen when we stop mining phosphates in this country that America has in abundance is we will become dependent on foreign resources (China) just like what happened with the oil industry. The food we grow to feed America needs the fertilizer that comes from phosphates and food prices will probably go much higher is we are dependent on foreign sources for this mineral. Again the same as happened to the reliance on foreign oil.
This is a very difficult issue. Mining throughout the United States, of any minerals we need, will have issues just like this. We have to decide whether or not we want to have food, or drive our cars (Or make car batteries) or build houses, have electricity etc etc. Because all of the things we do, or have, probably involve mining of some sort. We can demand substantially stiffer environmental safeguards but are we willing to pay the massive increase in costs to the consumer that will entail? If not, the mining will probably just move to other countries where the regulations don't exist - killing American jobs just like American manufacturing moving to Asia did. I fear, at some point, entire swaths of America will just be abandoned and given over to the destruction seen in Polk county because we really aren't willing to pay the extra cost associated with doing anything else.
Mr. Hazen is what is wrong with this country..."I will do what I want, and everybody else has to suffer the consequences. I will make money, and I will leave the land a toxic mess".
"they can't stop us from mining"....... oh yes they did 🤣
I used to freedive caves and spring rivers. On the way we would pass these huge dirt piles surrounding something on the dirt roads adjacent to the highway. I once climbed up to see what was on the other side. I couldnt believe the color of the water retained. It was like a fluorescent turquoise which at the time i thought was amazing, but now looking back that probably wasnt the smartest thing ive done with no protective gear.
You can move. The phosphorus can't.
Perhaps if the phosphate miners in Florida didn't have such a sorry history of "plunder and move on", leaving a toxic mess for someone else to clean up, the opposition would be less incentivized.
humans are lame... its dangerous and my kids have a third eye, but im not moving... progress is a mfer
THIS WORLD AN YOU IN IT WILL BE TERMINATED
Linder Airport in Lakeland!!!
Piney Point, was the big spill, Ron Desantis told them to release the acid
The crazy part is this area, i live 2 miles from Moasic New Whales, the largest Phosphate chilcal plant in Florida, i have 10 washers and Float plants that seperate the tailings from the minerals,,, this place iv never heard of, seriously!!!!
Take a look at the politicians that are being paid off
The best way to stop mining and drilling,,... well is don't have kids and remove yourself from the earth. The folks that are complaining are the same ones who never question how their plastic kayak was made and the damage to rivers eles where that the kayak was made near. Stop using things, eating and breathing.