Produced by Cy Kuckenbaker, Gregory J. Wilson. Directed, edited by Cy Kuckenbaker.
With: Vitumbiko Jacklyn Khunga, Songwe “Chatwa” Nyimbiri, Jake Wilson, Mlawa Khunga. Narrator: Cy Kuckenbaker. (English, Malawian dialogue)
Bush League at Univ. of Redlands
November 8, 2010Bush League screened for the demure photography students at Univ. of Redlands last week.
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Crude Cruisers
November 8, 2010I made this little video for my Brother in Law who builds custom motorcycles. This is the rough cut:
Graphic Love Scene
November 6, 2010
I saw this graphic by Matt Dorfman in the New York Times last week and looked him up. Graphic design is everywhere but seems so un(der) appreciated. I love this stuff. He’s good.
Audio Hack: Mics and Fans
November 3, 2010
I bought this sleeping bag mat for a road trip two years ago and we ended up in hotels every night so I never used it. Now I pull it out when I’m recording voiceover and stand it up around my hard drives to keep some of the fan noise from reaching the mic. With the lower background noise I can sit a little further back off the mic and that helps get rid of all the little mouth noises. It kinda looks like it was specially made for this since it’s got the egg crate surface and all the folds.
Niger ’66
November 2, 2010Here’s a trailer for a new doc film about a group of early Peace Corps volunteers who went to Niger in 1966. It’s amazing to me how different the institution seems. My Peace Corps (2000-02) wasn’t exactly a well oiled machine but they were really good at training. It looks like it was kinda messy back then. I do envy the early volunteers though, they got to blaze the trail for the rest of us.
Afrika Post
November 1, 2010The internet is incredible. An editor from the Afrika Post in Germany found some of my photos from Malawi on flickr and asked to use them in print. It’s really neat to see them printed.
Henry’s Wedding: funny ethics
October 29, 2010Last spring I was a guest in David Fenster‘s editing class at UCSD and as an assignment the students had to cut a short from some of the unused Bush League footage. I gave them two hours of footage from Henry Nyimbiri’s wedding, which they had to cut to five minutes or less (Henry is the captain of the rival team in Bush League).
One of the students, Bryce Kho, did something that illustrates just how much influence the filmmaker/editor can have on the “reality” of a documentary. It’s a great illustration of the function and/or disfunciton of ethics in doc filmmaking and it’s funny.
Variety reviews Bush League
October 28, 2010Bush League got a great write up in Variety this week:
Bush League
by Rob Nelson
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Scoring not just as a sports docu but as an ethnographic study, Cy Kuckenbaker’s “Bush League” is an entertaining, educational and immersive pic that portrays life in the Malawian village of Zolokere through a look at the ups and downs of its soccer team, the Tony Bombers. Shooting and cutting the film himself, Kuckenbaker catches plenty of action, from fiery debates over game play to the everyday struggles of villagers to deal with the specter of HIV/AIDS. If anything, “Bush League” is more interested in Southeast African culture than in soccer, which will frustrate some viewers and stimulate many others.
Shown losing their first game on a ref’s controversial ruling, the Bombers are sponsored by the U.S. Peace Corps, whose hotheaded rep Jake Wilson is building a school in a neighboring village that has its own soccer team. Rivalry between these two clubs is fierce and seems to sandwich Wilson in an uncomfortable middle. The docu’s other indelible subjects include the Bombers’ captain, Chatwa, an economically indebted farmer of maize and tobacco, and its head cheerleader, Jacklyn, an AIDS activist fighting both the disease and its stigmatized status.
Camera (color, DV), Kuckenbaker. Reviewed on DVD, Vancouver, Oct. 7, 2010. (In Vancouver Film Festival.) Running time: 80 MIN.
The Sharma Image!
October 27, 2010Maneesh Sharma who was one year ahead of me in the Film Direction dept at Cal Arts is finishing his first feature in Bollywood. Globalization is awesome and this movie looks awesome. Congratulations Maneesh!
From UNAFF: Indentured Premiere
October 26, 2010
It really shocks me every time an audience sees a film I made but I guess I’m extra shocked about Indentured since it’s so unconventional. It makes me feel really optimistic actually because as films go, Indentured asks a lot from the audience. There are long passages of text, and no sound/picture effects for fun or any moments of levity. So when people respond to it, it’s kind of proof to me that people are smart and that there are audiences with appetites for the tough stuff.
Hopefully, the film will clear the legal obstacles that remain and I can either put it on the web myself or try and get the story picked up by a media organization. UNAFF was really a great place for it to start. Thanks UNAFF, really.
If you saw the film or are interested in the subject matter please join the INDENTURED group on facebook.
If you’re a filmmaker, blogger or citizen journalist dealing with a legal question and you’re unfunded here are two amazing resources you should know about:
New Media Rights (In San Diego)
