The Red Balloon
We are working with a team in Europe to help them develop short films for European audiences. There are specific challenges to creating visual stories without the use of dialoge.
Read more in Tom’s post on MindSoulStory
Tags: European film, training
(originally posted on MindSoulStory)
Zambia-born filmmaker Franco Sacchi discusses Nollywood, Nigeria’s booming film industry (the world’s 3rd largest) in a TED talk in Arusha, Tanzania. He created a documentary that follows a number of Nigerian filmmakers and highlights the unique voice that filmmakers have found in this developing country. His insights into the role and power of visual storytelling are intriguing to me.
“Try to imagine a world where the only goal is food and a shelter, but no stories – no stories around a campfire…It’s meaningless… I think that the key to healthy society is a thriving community of storytellers. And I think that the Nigerian filmmakers really have proved this. Storytelling is a commodity, a staple; there is no life without stories”
Sacchi says the key to a healthy culture is the storyteller. What are we doing to bring stories to our people? What kinds of stories are we telling – stories of despair, complicity, and oppression, or justice, hope, and freedom?
Here’s one of the videos we produced in partnership with Pamoja Ministries and MAPED, a Maasai development organization in Tanzania.
“Bwana Mungu” means Lord God in Swahili. The song speaks of how God is our provider. You can read more about this project in previous posts: Here
Tags: Africa, Maasai, Masai, music video, Pamoja Ministries, training, visual story network
Here is a quick link to our feature film’s web site for a news flash:
The Enemy God film
Tom films Maasai dancers
I have to say that our recent trip to Tanzania was everything we had hoped it would be. We planned, filmed, shot, and edited two complete music videos, with two different groups in two very different settings. And we were able to mentor and train folks there in production techniques that will help them create better media resources in the future.
As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, Pamoja Ministries has a huge vision for using media to make disciples in East Africa. They do this through print media, DVD training for rural pastors, and they want to grow in their ability to use things like film and music video in ways that reach farther than any other tools.
The Sowers Group performing "L'Amour"
We spent the first week planning and filming “L’Amour” with The Sowers Group. These four musicians have amazing faith and tremendous artistic talent. We created a video that will appeal to an African audience with the high quality that also makes it appealing to an international audience. We filmed in a beautiful garden, in a studio, and also using green-screen technology to add creative graphics to the scenes. At the end, everyone was certain that the video will be picked up for broadcast on a major multi-country television network. This means the song’s message from 1st Corinthians 13 will reach a huge audience.
En-Kata Choir performing in the bush
The second video shoot couldn’t have been more different. Instead of filming in a studio, we filmed in the African bush, surrounded by cattle and goats. The En-Kata Choir is a group of Christians from the Maasai tribe. Their choir and community organization want to reach the wider Maasai tribe with their messages of hope, freedom from spirits, and to help stop the spead of HIV/AIDS, and oppressive practices like female circumcision.
Matt Castagna and I had only a day and a half to film with the Maasai, but we were able to capture beautiful footage of the choir singing in their amazing natural surroundings and also their cows (the most beautiful gift God has given, according to the Maasai!)
Tom and Nadine check the shot
In the end, both videos were completed before we flew home – a record for us! We are talking with Pamoja about future collaboration together, perhaps on a feature-length film in partnershp with the Maasai. We’ll keep you posted.
Tags: Africa, Pamoja Ministries, Sowers Group, Tanzania, training, visual story network