So much of the news from Africa is depressing: famine, aids, wars, orphans, despots, you name it. It’s not just the mainstream media; I’ve been hit recently by a kind of “year-end giving blitz” when relief agencies scramble for your 2009 tax planning largesse. Lots of hungry kids with flies in their eyes. I’m told by my non-profit friends that this is because people only give to tragedy not joy.
I understand this. I don’t blame them, and I don’t think they overstate or outright lie just to raise money, at least as far as I can tell.
What’s lost in that reportage, and in mainstream imagery, is how crazy wonderful the people and place is. Since mid-July, I’ve spent a month in Africa, enmeshed in a couple of pretty serious issues but there’s a great deal of joy.
I don’t want to downplay the problems or fetishize smiling kids. But I get a little tired of how we often fetishize starving kids with flies in their eyes.
The following video is just some videographic ballast. Read More…
Having just returned from Africa and being deep in post-production on this film, I wanted to share a few clips. The following is some random broll footage from the current documentary project on a group of women in Mchinji, Malawi (the MaiMwana Project) who organized to begin solving the various health issues in their villages, and who are remaking their own health care and, subsequently, their villages.
One of the best times of the year to be in Montana. The heat and crowds haven’t descended. The world is green. The mountains are starting to give up their captive snows. Just goofing off with my camera (and the girls) on a hike in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness.
in HD on Vimeo.or a better version in HD (quicktime) I didn’t realize until recently that Vimeo doesn’t properly display HD video content. So, it’s choppy here. Use the Quicktime for better experience.
I shot this using my Canon 5d Mark2 SLR camera which happens to shoot video. The first shot is from the front porch. The rest are from the trail.
God Bless our wild public lands. Perhaps the greatest legacy our country has.
