Bush League at Third Goal IFF

Just back from Columbia, Missouri where Bush League headlined the Third Goal Int Film Fest at the University of Missouri. What a community of the people we met there - no joke, Columbia has got something really special going on. Let me say thanks one more time to the Third Goal Int Film Fest, The Central Missouri RPCV group and Columbia Access Television for bringing Jake, the film and myself out to be part of it.Here's Jake and I with a few of the RPCVs who organized the festival:

And the audience greeting the people back in Malawi in Chitumbuka:

http://vimeo.com/36262443

Bush League at the Third Goal Int. Film Fest

From a scorching hot San Diego (it's January?) I'm happy to report that Bush League will headline this year's Third Goal Int. Film Fest in Columbia, MO. Jake Wilson who is featured in the film and myself will join the Central Missouri Returned Peace Corps Volunteers group who put the fest together for the screening Feb 4th.

It will be my first time in Missouri and I will be doing everything I can to summon the spirit of my all time fave - Mark Twain. Is anyone in San Diego free on Feb 4th? I have a picket fence that needs some paint.

 

Twitter feeds about Malawi in anticipation of Aug 17th protests

I'm re-posting from Dr. Kim Yi Dionne's blog: For those interested in following events in Malawi associated with demonstrations against government slated to begin on August 17, here is a list of Twitter feeds from Malawi and the abroad:

The Invisible Cure

I got to thinking about Helen Epstein last night on my drive back from LA. She wrote The Invisible Cure, which is a remarkable book about HIV/AIDS in Africa. For anyone interested in the nitty gritty of this subject or just in Africa in general, this is a very good resource. It’s full of insight but she’s also a very good story teller.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFVCwEnFTjI

News from Malawi by way of New Jersey

I I talked with Jake for a little while this weekend. For those who’ve seen Bush League, if you don’t remember, he’s the Peace Corps volunteer in the film. Above is a picture of him from last month with his forth graders on Crazy Hat Day. He’s now in his second year of study for a Masters at Rutgers and a fulltime fourth grade teacher. The guy is BUSY! He spoke with Chatwa back in Zolokere, Malawi this week and here’s the latest from the village:

Chatwa (the farmer and team captain in Bush League) is having trouble with elephants trampling his crops at night. It’s very unusual to see an elephant in that area, Chatwa thinks it’s because the elephants are increasing in population that they’re moving out of the Vwaza Game Reserve, which encloses a large wetland south of the village. They’re chasing the elephants away by banging on plastic tubs with sticks. Chatwa also reports that his fifth child and first son is doing well and is “very strong” like his father.

Jacklyn is doing fine and her health appears to be good.

Issac, who appears in Bush League several times but is never named got a serious head injury during a recent football game. He was unconscious for several minutes before coming to.

Tough Gong, the artist and sign painter who made the maps in Bush League (he lives in Mzuzu several hours from the village) is doing well and has a new girlfriend. TG always has a new girlfriend.

No word on Mlawa the soft-spoken young father in Bush League but no news is good news.

The other big news is that the Malawian Government is at work constructing an irrigation system in the Hewe Valley. Chatwa says that they’ll be able to grow vegetables year round once the system is built. Right now fresh vegetables are only available during the rainy/growing season. If this is really happening, it’s a really big deal.

Afrika Post

The 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.

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.

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. http://vimeo.com/15763162

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.

Interview with Dr. Kim Yi Dionne: part 3 of 5

If I could go back in time and give myself some advice before shooting Bush League I would say, “Take the traditional system of authority (chiefs, subchiefs, village headman etc.) seriously because when the soccer games come to a halt and the imported rules of the game stop working, it’s that system that’s going to kick in, that’s what you’ll actually be filming, that’s what you’re seeing.” For Wednesday Dr. Kim Yi Dionne reflects on the importance of traditional systems in many sub-Saharan nations:

http://vimeo.com/15273552

Unpacking Bush League

The worst thing about finishing Bush League is knowing 98% of the footage will never be seen so over the next few weeks (months) I'll to pull out and post a few things that work independently. Below are three more songs from one of the church choirs in Zolokere. I posted one song from this group a few years ago and it got a really strong response, I just didn't have time to get these others sorted out, but here they are. In addition to the music, I got a kick out of the little boy in the pink shirt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3rrSOaYIqQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek8M3jLNO2s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJfEY7jOpjU

Bush League: New Shots from Malawi - Vmbuza

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cykuck/3013532141/ Vmbuza is a healing dance. It happens at the traditional healer's compound once a week, usually on a Friday night and lasts all night.

The women play a rhythm with wooden sticks. A couple guys play a second rhythm with hand drums. It's LOUD and it's POWERFUL. The traditional healer led the songs, which I think are partly or wholly improvised and can last 15 or 20 minutes.

The patients dance until they can't dance any more. I have no doubt that it makes people feel better. It makes me feel better every time I go!

Bush League: Film Music

I heard this guys music a couple years ago in the Bush. Jacqueline, one of the main characters in the film, was listening to it in her shop. During the editing process I've gone back through the footage just to hear the music. I've been hoping I could find out who the guy is and get some of his music for the film. Got an email this morning from Malawi Jake pointing me a website that's selling Malawian mp3s (www.malawianmp3.com) and there he is: Lawrence Mbenjere! Got his name, now I can try to find him. He's got this video on YouTube. I love these videos, but I LOVE the music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj8NlVQgaY&feature=playerembedded

Bush League: Before Mobile Tech

This is just an aside from the film, but I wanted to put this together and put it out there. I'm really curious to see what happens when a place has a communication revolution that's never had an industrial revolution. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pP5aDCWGzU&feature=player_embedded

Bush League: The Warm Heart, Mr. Muntale

Receiving a hand written letter from a friend in Malawi is a huge treat. From Mr. Muntale, a shop keeper and local chief in the Hewe valley: "Dear Cy Kuckenbaker

First and foremost, I would like to know your life. How are you treated there?

With me here and the family, I am doing fine.

Sir, I have thought it wise to write you a letter because since you left Malawi, no communications with Mkwinda (that's him). You have been here in Malawi, chatted with us, to me that was a very good thing.

I know traveling is money. For you to come to your friend Jake. It means you really love one another.

The next thing is that you have been with us here (in his shop), so I should apologize if in any way myself or other people have done anything bad to you.

Nothing more to prolong. May God allow us to communicate once more in letters or physically.

Your Loving Brother"

What an amazing way to write.

Bush League: Honesty the Dog

Getting some work done on Bush League this week. Here's a shot of Honesty the Malawian village dog going toe to toe with a baby goat. Cracks me up cause Edward, one of the soccer players, is laughing so hard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xwEiu-UFgw

Bush League: Words on Reggae Fitzgerald

Man I love Fitz. I've been sending him a few bucks now and then to work on his third record. He names all of his records Kadandulu. He told me it's the name of a special bird that cries if its nest is destroyed. The last money I sent, he took half and bought a mountain bike. Makes me smile so much cause he was definitely sneaking, but I don't mind at all. Glad to help the guy, and glad he's not buying beer with the money. I met him in Mzuzu, Malawi in 2004. He was walking around selling his cassettes out of a box. He had dreads back then and a knit Rasta cap. I bought a couple of tapes, but to be honest, never listened to them because I didn't have a cassette player. When I was back in Malawi last year, he caught me on the street and started hitting me up for a trip to America cause he thought he could do better there with his music. After that, I was dodging him for a little while cause I was scared of his full court press for a round trip ticket, then I don't know what happened, a few weeks later it hit me that I could help the guy out somehow. He wanted to promote his music and I had all my camera stuff, so we started planning for a video.

We needed to pick a song, so we walked down to a bar that had a tape player and put his tape in. His music started, and it rocked my brain. I didn't know his songs were that good till then. Edson, a local who's always around and can be seen wearing a yellow shirt in the video, started dancing. I was kind of impressed, but didn't know if it was really good, or maybe I was just wanting it to be good and liking the moment.

In the video, the room he wakes up in, is actually his sisters room. The little boy is dancing on his front porch. The big group of kids surrounding him, that's at a little school up the street. The bicycles are bicycle taxis. I paid them three or four bucks to peddle us around and I'm sitting backwards shooting off the back of one. The crowd in the street, those are the neighbors who were around and wanted to jump in. The night stuff indoors, that's all shot across the street from his house at a lodge/hotel. Some drunk guys made that difficult. The gold boom box I rented for ten bucks. The whole thing cost about 25 dollars to make, which is important cause film/video work is far too often about money. This is folk art to me. Both the music and the video. It's about the common person. Deep inside, this is really the filmmaker I want to be. People always say things like, "Oh, you could be the next Spielberg", That's who everybody thinks of when you say filmmaker, and I like Spielberg, but I want to be like Mark Twain or Woody Guthrie. I think about Hemingway's adventures all the time, and Steinbeck's endings. I also think about Emily Dickenson, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen a lot, but mainly I just think about being free. Free from the obsession that it's no good if it doesn't make money. That's is lame if 12 to 15 year old boys don't go to see it twice. That's is lame if agents don't call you when you're done.

It's been a long day; I'm tired and rambling.

I'm now a full blown fan of Fitz's music. He has another song called 'Penya' that I listen to all the time when I drive over here in Baghdad. I don't know what it means, but I yell along with it.

Today I received this new email from Fitz:

"cy how are you, about me am just so fine.I want to tell u that the ulbum is finished.now i need to put in CDs for promotion ,and journey to radio stations Blantyre and lilongwe .Pliz help me anything little . Yewo tisanganenge. Fitz."

Congratulations to you Fitz. I know its not easy to make a record in Malawi.

Bush League: Brother Gama

Our friend Epton Gama passed away last week. It happened so fast, I feel confused. When I left he was fine, but I guess he was HIV positive. I couldn't have shot my films without him. I couldn't have even eaten without him, or have lit a fire without him. He really took care of me in a place where I was otherwise helpless.

The first time I met him was at the end of the long trail through the grass to the village. He appeared out of nowhere, welcomed me with a hug and called me brother.

His body was probably sick long before I met him, but his spirit certainly was not. He was a kind, joyous person who could lift your burdens with one of his broad smiles. He was a man of great humor and simple wisdom and I'll remember him with gratitude.

My deepest sympathies to his friends and family in Malawi and in America. Though far away, his death is very deeply and very sadly felt.

Cy

Bush League: Words from Fitz

Finally heard back from Fitz the Reggae musician, I'm using some of his music in the film: "apolology for long silence

how are you me iam just cool aand busy in studio

five songs recorded 5 songs remaining,it is promising to be a hot one let me know where you are. Iam looking for your hand to finish paying the studio for the remaining 5 songs

i greatly miss you cy

i will interpret for yopu penya son.

Fitz & Edo

Yewo tisanganenge"

Good timing, I'm out of Baghdad tomorrow morning. Just in time, I'm feeling really tired.