August 2009
2 posts
live at five
For anyone loyal enough to return after a week of silence, we made it back in eight pieces. Four of those- ourselves- have fully recovered from jetlag at home. The other four- our luggage- has just been delivered to Mari’s house exactly one week late. Given that one of the bags contained all 120 hours of footage from this summer, it’s safe to we finally feel like we’ve pulled it...
1 tag
the right exposure
During our last two weeks in Nomba the cameras changed hands so quickly we had very little time to get our palms on a keyboard. With the advent of a first generation of filmmakers, the sights and sounds in Nomba became much more alluring than a night with qwerty. So here’s the belated climax of the summer that you’ve all been waiting for, replete with an epic battle over western...
July 2009
12 posts
2 tags
intact
“I will break rocks until I die.”
At the rock yard in Lichinga there is no retirement. There is only an eternal showdown between mountains of granite and women made of steel.
When Mari and I visited it was hard to tell the difference between rock-hard human and mountain. In spite of more than their fair share of hard knocks, neither has lost its voice. The stone sang along in an accompaniment of...
1 tag
stimulus outsources stimulation
During a recent visit to Estamos, a Lichinga non-profit working in community health, I was offered a box of mints which, flavored or not, turned out to be condoms. The laugh needed no translation. Knowing they were from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), I took one as a gift from my parents’ tax dollars.
You get your Alabama pride where you can. And today, it was in...
1 tag
Malo Ga Kujilana
The smell of the composting toilet is enough to confirm to us that until now, we’ve been living in a vacuum. The dust in Nomba doesn’t cloud our senses, either; in fact, here at MGK we’re being reconciled to the dirt.
At Malo Ga Kujilana we’ve learned that it is good to know where your food comes from and where it goes. MGK is made up of gardens full of medicinal plants, pens of chickens and...
1 tag
The Lord's Army
Books as vehicles sometimes take you places you’d rather not go. In our reading up on Mozambique’s civil war we recently came across strange intersections of conservative American culture and Mozambique’s devastating civil war. What should have been a no-passing zone became a chance for misguided heroics on the part of American Christians via their subscription to conscription and a paper trail...
1 tag
what you hear is what you get
Not only do the Yao speak a different language, they think one too. Moving a question from the interview list to the interviewee’s mind takes two translations: one from English to Yao, and one from the abstract to the concrete. “Why is storytelling important to culture?” becomes “Why do you tell your children Yao stories?” and “Do you feel globalization’s import of image-saturation is eroding the...
1 tag
open hands
On Friday we were contracted by the Minister of Education to film the opening ceremonies of the high school sporting championships… we think. Negotiations began the day before in the Holton’s backyard, sitting on the ground where, Feliciano Dos Santos informed us, all deals are made in Mozambique. Laid out on the grass was the chance to document history—Niassa’s first hosting of the...
1 tag
101
The dust finally settled from the Festival of Health and gave us time to get our project in Nomba underway. After watching the Yao filmmaker’s footage from the Festival of Health, we’ve pieced together a four-day film school to prepare them for their projects. We’ll cover aesthetics, technical aspects of the camera, interviewing and storytelling.
I kicked off the week teaching the basics of...
Pictures of Health
Varied spectators at the Festival of Health.
Feliciano dos Santos of Massukos picking heartstrings.
Lucia, one of the filmmakers, follows her camera across the soccer field early in the day.
Tayo’s prerogative is front and center while completing his filming assignment.
Dancers shake their limbs and our stereotypes at the Day of Health.
A cast of characters, one in a blue...
1 tag
120/80
Washing their hands of doom-and-gloom approaches to rural African life, the people of Lichinga and its surrounding areas drank a toast to their health last Saturday at the Feira de Saude, or Festival of Health. The events proved the Niassan pulse is throbbing at a lively pace. It looks like the African renaissance is real and it is sweeping. In fact, in the words of Lucia, one of the local...
1 tag
curtain call
Perhaps it’s our genetic makeup, or the side of Mozambique that feels like watered-down communism, but we’re still asking for permission rather than forgiveness when it comes to filming in public. From declaring our equipment in Pemba, fighting to get it back in Nampula and applying to use it in Lichinga, these government offices all resemble sets from Lawrence of Arabia and reek of...
1 tag
five w's
Yesterday we arrived in Nomba to stay, not-so-fresh from Mandimba, a midsize town near the Malawi border. This city is a frequent stop for truckers whose calling cards often spell HIV/AIDS, as well as creative comebacks like the play we filmed whose theme was HIV prevention. In Mandimba we met Legion, a local who is the director, writer, and actor for his theater troupe. Legion’s homecoming in...
resurfacing
After two weeks in dead zones, we’ve finally found wireless in Nomba Village. You’ll be able to feel our presence via the blog. We plan on making up for lost posts.
Here’s a backlogged post from Nampula:
When globalization comes a’knocking, you’d better have something on the table. Gito Antonio has rice, homegrown on his machamba. Gito is a rice farmer and culture blogger in...
June 2009
5 posts
3 tags
bumps in the road
The African stereotype may be easily confirmed when you’re jolting past it, viewing the passing scenes from the lofty heights of your personal metal elephant.
All sorts of ironies reside in Pemba, including but not limited to ponytailed Russian game hunters and metal elephants and African children in Lakers jerseys and a guard with a bow and arrow, and then, of course, the Kujilana team.
We...
1 tag
through
The South African flag is the only flag in the world with six different colors. Perhaps this represents the vibrancy of her people or the variety of struggles and triumphs in her past—or both.
I’m not sure what stories will find us this summer, but I do know that like South Africa’s flag, violent stains of red are often followed by the rich greens and blues that make up a fertile land and a...
1 tag
no static
Billboards across Johannesburg proclaim the 2010 World Cup and this city as its perfect host. While driving through the city today I heard (over the rain’s drip-drop) a poster that read, “Africa makes a lot of noise.”
Cup your ears for now, everyone on the other side, because her voice sounds like Zse-Zse’s who dances so that her feet strike the match that lights up...
into africa
Now that we’ve officially touched down with no more damage than airline food inflicts, we’re ready to start our engines.
I expect this summer will take pace with the plane. Moving 500 miles an hour never felt so slow.
On the menu for Johannesburg:
lion petting zoo
filming Gumboots (children’s dance presentation)
apartheid museum
interviews with various NGOs and...
under construction
forgive us if things aren’t tidy for a few days. we’re outfitting the blog for better readability in preparation for our departure.
May 2009
7 posts
harding student film puts africans in frame →
Samantha Friedman and the Arkansas Democrat Gazette gave our project a treatment worth waking up on a Saturday to read.
project diaspora
We recently had an envigorating conversation on responsible involvement in African affairs with TMS Ruge and Tracy Pell, co-founders of Project Diaspora. They’ve put out a call to Mozambican diaspora members in hopes of connecting us with some expat interviews.
“The continent is too vast to be described. It is a true ocean, a planet on its...”
– Ryszard Kapuscinski
in The Shadow of the Sun
media = mission →
We dropped by the loft at Bedouins International today for some final pointers, equipment dreaming and solid conversation about “refocusing the heart of media.” We’re definitely tuned in.
1 tag
the ethics of global aid: one kenyan's perspective →
A provocative Krista Tippet interview with Binyavanga Wainaina.
April 2009
2 posts
“It’s a revoluntionary time to be practicing the craft of journalism. One the one hand we see major media conglomerates seemingly focused purely on profit, downsizing every possible media ounce and in the process homogenizing storytelling to the lowest common denominator. On the other hand there’s an explosion of self-publishing on the Web with niche viewpoints empowered to share...
how to write about africa →
click above for an amazing satire of african cliches by Kenyan man of letters Binyavanga Wainaina. it says everything we’d rather not about africa.
March 2009
6 posts
the life in language →
In “Sharing Language, Sustaining Meaning” comes the story of the first attempt to document the Ojibwe language and the realization that our spoken symbols carry more than our conversations—they transport our lives.
1 tag
“…Their own governments, the Islamist extremists and the outside world...”
– Robin Wright on the Muslim world’s soft revolutionaries in Time.
afrigadget.com
This could be our new favorite website. Afrigadget.com is all about innovative development by Africans and for Africans. And if you’ll notice, they have a Grassroots Reporting Project which equips locals with cellphones, cameras and laptops so that Africa can publicize herself. There’s a big wind blowing, and it’s carrying bits and bytes.
the former optimist →
As new admirers of the former optimist, we like the way Tim Cowley looks through cameras and are excited about working with him in Mozambique.
message from a kitchen table
February 2009
5 posts
2 tags
WatchThis is a little trailer we put together for your viewing pleasure. Don’t bother with the popcorn as it’s only a meager four and a half minutes long. However by the time it’s over, we’re confident you’ll be feeling good, even a little African.
For a larger screen and the glamour of high-def, commute to vimeo.
2 tags
echolite media
I heard about echolite media through a friend of a friend of a friend…on a radio show. Echolite provides low cost media solutions for foreign missionaries and missions based organizations. I shot them an email last week with a copy of the brochure and got some really positive feedback.
“Looks super cool. I dig it. You guys are doin it right. I’m interested. I want to hear more about it for...
Watcha teaser for the trailer
2 tags
Tonight, perhaps for the first time, I saw the project outside of myself. I saw it as someone who might be passing by and see the images and, as I did, stop and want to invest. Seeing the next-to-final brochure and the first streaming edits of the trailer (thanks to Zac) made me want to listen. Made me want to go.
1 tag
project pedal →
Zac introduced me to the Mike Ambs documentary “For Thousands of Miles” about a cross-country bike trip. Their approach is really effective and, basically, I think we can learn/steal a lot from them. We will definitely be filming non-linear episodes similar to their “64 Days” clips. Check it out. All of it.
January 2009
6 posts
1 tag
the yir-yoront
The Yir-Yoront are a stone-age, Aboriginal people group. Tribal power hierarchies were based around a stone ax which the elders kept and lent out to members of the community on a merit-basis. Unaware, settlers equipped women and children with steel axes and effectively liquidated the Yir-Yoront’s power structure. In a meeting last Wednesday, Oneal Tankersly referenced this story as an example of...
1 tag
the caldwells
I’m uploading an email from the Caldwells which includes their new MGK site, check it out.
Hello everybody. I know it’s a rare occasion to hear from us and I’m sorry it comes in the form of a mass email. But we’ve just finished designing a new website that will explain in detail the work of Malo Ga Kujilana. The website will serve as a constant reference to those who want to learn and share...
“The conversation, if it’s good, is not about ideas. It’s about people. We’ve got...”
– Kyle Holton
As An Atheist, I Truly Believe Africa Needs God →
supplied by our PR guru Dr. Jim Miller
1 tag
new news
Charlayne Hunter-Gault is world-class journalist and author. She has an immaculate track record with civil right crusades, from desegregation in the American South to anti-apartheid efforts in South Africa. As the one of the two first black students to cross race lines at the University of Georgia, she brings a unique perspective to post-apartheid Africa, its lingering inequities, power coups,...
December 2008
5 posts
1 tag
Massukos e Musica
When we last talked to Kyle, he told us about his connection with Feliciano Dos Santos, leader of the international music group Massukos. Their album “Bumping” is featured on iTunes and Feliciano has been doing some very interesting projects focusing on “empowerment through music” in regards to sanitation in the Niassa province.
We are going to try and arrange for...
Apparently there’s some precedent for this empowerment-through-film concept. Where the Water Meets the Sky follows a team of rural Zambian women through a crash course in film-making.
1 tag
“There is a great need for African filmmakers to tell their own stories, in all...”
– South African filmmakers Nodi Murphy and Steven Markovitz in Beyond Despair
