Cysfilm

Ira Glass video

Rachel Jones, who if you don’t know her is a Canadian-American ex-Associated Press journalist turned novelist living in the most dangerous city I’ve ever been to – Caracas, sent me this link, which I love. Thanks Rach:

Bush League is dedicated to Gama

The first time I saw Epton Gama, he was just a few feet away, popping out of the head-high sea of grass that walls the footpath leading into the village of Zolokere. Without a pause he wrapped his arms around me and said “oooohh my brother!” If I felt a little unease in being so far from the world I was familiar with, it evaporated when Gama appeared. Gama worked for Jake (one of the people in Bush League) at his house taking care of all the day-to-day things like carrying water and cooking. This is a normal arrangement for many people in the region and for almost all the Peace Corps volunteers there. As Jake’s visitor, by default, Gama also took care of me during my first two trips to Malawi. He died from AIDS in late 2008.

A few people have asked me why he isn’t in the film, he only appears in a couple shots. The filmmaker part of me will tell you it’s just casting – Gama wasn’t a “character”. He didn’t embody any specific point of view or sector of life in Zolokere like some of the others do. But Gama’s hand really is all over the film. I know that people watching can never know that but when I watch it’s one of the things I see. He is in the film. He was pivotal in making it.

Films (for me) are primarily stories in pictures but they’re also cultural artifacts that belong to specific times and places. I hope that someday Bush League will fall into a canon of western films in which we started to move our narrative of Africa away from the tired tropes and began to see it with more sophistication and respect. But I also know it’s possible that I got things wrong and that in fifty years it may look unsophisticated and uninformed. So I’m dedicating my effort to make the film to Gama not the film itself. Making it has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done and through this labor I wish to express to you Gama that I remember you and I recognize you. Please accept this – it was the very best I could do. It is the least I can do.

Posterized

My innovation for movie posters is to cut tear-off tabs on the sides with a URL to get the screening times. It kind of worked in Vancouver except that they were all covered over with other posters in less than 24 hours. As far as marketing goes, I think my only real shot is to make good films and just tell the truth. Posters are still fun though.

Bush League: Hello Zolokere!

I just got back to San Diego this morning after a really amazing experience at the Vancouver Int. Film Festival. I’ll write more about the festival this week but for now I just want to share this video. It’s the audience at the first screening saying hi to everyone back in Malawi. What an amazing audience, what an amazing experience. This experience will be hard to beat.

There are two extra names in there: Tosi and Judith. I shot lots of material with both of them, which I couldn’t use in the final film but they are still an important part of it.

Bush League Premiere

Bush League opened last night here in Vancouver at the VIFF, what an amazing experience, absolutely amazing.

Vancouver

Vancouver, come see my movie!

tickets: http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2010/xslguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=0917

Printing

Made all these posters and postcards for the Vancouver premiere through psprint. I don’t do much printing but their prices seemed reasonable and the quality is fine. I like making stuff like this, it’s so tangible.

Interview with Dr. Kim Yi Dionne: Part 1 of 5

Dr. Kim Yi Dionne is a political scientist with expertise on Malawi who helped me pull the kinks out of Bush League. The film isn’t about HIV/AIDS but it does touch on it and other complex subjects so it was great to have a real pro look the film over in case there was an error. Among the many interesting things I learned while reading her research was a survey she did among rural Malawians about their development priorities. Here are the results of the survey:

In a survey of 1259 rural villagers in Rumphi district, villagers ranked their preferences with respect to development and health in the following order:

1. Clean Water

2. Agricultural Development

3. Health Services

4. Education

5. HIV/AIDS services

The reason this interests me so much is because I think most of our policy makers would presume that HIV/AIDS is at the top. We’ve got our hearts in the right place and the money too, but I really wonder about the data that guides the whole thing.

Bush League Facebook group

For all the facebookers out there, please join the Bush League group:

https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=146642635369584

Interview with Dr. Kim Dionne: part 2 of 5