| Welcome at Kambisa! |
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Kambisa!BeHeard. ('SpeakUp!BeHeard.') is an international arts & civic media movement to create dialogue with the underrepresented in non-Western countries. Our Project In Zambia Has Started!!
First Week Main Lusaka: Welcome to Zambia bazungu! This is our fifth day at Lusaka backpackers hostel in Zambia. The introduction week is about to end and there’s still much to be done. The last few days we spend tasting a little bit of the Zambian way of life and having a cultural tour through the city. Getting to know the culture here was not an ordinary thing. No museums and well known statues for us. The first day we arrived at Lusaka airport at eleven o’clock. We purchased our visa and collected our luggage. Dash, Jorrit and other people of Kambisa! Were waiting for us outside the airport. We drove to our hostel by car. This was our first impression of Zambia. We saw a lot of kids students in uniforms walking to school. The road is ok, but there are no pavements, so all the children are walking on the rocky, sandy sides of the road. The nearer we get to the centre of Lusaka, the more chaotic the traffic seems to get. The next day we went to the city centre and get some other useful stuff like new simcards. Also everybody goes to the internet café to mail the parents everything is ok. We were invited to the national radio and tv studio (ZNTV) of Lusaka. The head of the studio, Marvin, gave us a nice tour through the whole facility.
Day Three. We woke up around ten, had our breakfast and went straight for the compounds. Desh took us to the poorest place of Lusaka. First the marked then to a small neighbourhood. Within fifteen minutes we where surrounded by dozens of children. It was like we landed in a documentary. The kids came out of every corner and every house. They stopped whatever they where doing to look at us and follow us around. We were an attraction for them, they had probably almost never seen real bazungu’s (white people) After an hour we went to a local school. It was very small, but still there were like eighty kids inside. They sang us a very nice song. One could immediately feel the African gospel take effect. With big smiles on our faces we went outside to play a small game of football with the kids. This was a day none of us will ever forget. The fourth day. Two new guy’s for Kambisa Online landed this day. We got up at seven to drop off the technical guys at the recording studio. Joe, a Zambian celebrity, was driving us the whole day. After the studio, we drove to the airport, to pick up the Kambisa! Online guys. We got back to the hostel to drop of the new guys. Then we drove to the supermarket to get some food, drove to the studio to give the food to the people there. In the meantime time was flying and it was near five pm. All we did this day was driving around Lusaka and talk to Jo and Desh. Not what we had planned, but real fun nonetheless. Today, the fifth day we are preparing us for this weekend. What will be the trainee weekend. The department OnStage is mixing a song for Desh. We hope it will overwhelm him! See you next time! Greetings, Martijn en Karin First Week Lusaka (OnScreen!): After tasting a little bit of the culture in Lusaka we started preparing our workshop that we gave on last Saturday 06-06-09 and Sunday 07-06-09 . On Saturday the workshop was for the locals and everyone who had signed up and we mainly focused on the aspect of fiction films, but on Sunday it was for the 3rd years students of Journalism where our aim was to teach them something about documentaries. With these workshops we wanted to learn them about the mature aspects of the process of filmmaking. Therefore we developed a theory in which a film vision, Script writing, Camera, Sound and the difference between fiction and non-fiction were included. After explaining all of this we did a small assignment with them, so they could practise their basic knowledge of what they had learned from the theory into a short film. For the students on Saturday we came up with an assignment in which they could use six shots to tell a story about someone who was being scared by somebody. We did this because then they were forced to think about a decoupage, which helps translating a script/idea into images. For the students of journalism we had a different practical assignment. They had to make a short item about a recent event in Lusaka. In theory we explained that there were six models for making a documentary, and with this assignment they learned to choose a model, which they thought, would fit best to their idea. We were a little afraid that our program was already a head of their knowledge and thereby to specific for them, but as we were standing before the big classes we noticed that they picked up everything quit easily. They were very eager to learn from the ‘Bazungu’ (the white men) and they were very motivated when doing the practical assignment. At the end of the workshop the students could give us their idea for a possible short film, which we as in Kambisa On Screen, would support them making it. As we described before the students were very eager to learn from us and at the end of the two days we had more then over 50 idea’s. Because we could only pick out two ideas we got together on the Monday. We all felt like if we were some Idols jury making, with the difference that we felt sorry if we had to disappoint someone. After some heavy discussions we selected eight idea’s that we wanted to know more about. The next day we invited the eight people for the idea’s and we had a small conversation with them about their vision of the film and their motivation. Based on that conversation we sat together again and finally picked out two ideas, which we thought would fit the most for the Kambisa visions. One idea is that of Lovely (that is his Zambian name translated into English and which he uses in English) and Peter. They are both students at the Evelyn College in Lusaka. On beforehand you would think they are part of the higher society, which maybe is true, but even for them there are some problems. Every day they have to live with the idea that maybe the next day they can’t go to school because lack of finance. A lot of students are being sponsored by their parents and sometimes even brothers and sisters, but what if they can’t manage to support them anymore? Our aim is to make a portret of a part of Lovely’s life in which this aspect is being highlighted. The other idea was that of Brian. Brian is a boy who comes from the compounds and who has a tough background. After working one day with Brian, the group who was helping him found out that he was lying about some things and suddenly he wasn’t very motivated anymore. Besides that his only aim with this film was to become famous and to record a CD. A vision that wouldn’t fit into the idea’s of Kambisa. Although somewhere he was a very sweet and fragile boy we had to disappoint them. The group has already found a new candidate and with him they are working very hard on his idea. Because of very little time, this week will be very hectic, but very much fun. I hope you are more aware of what we are doing in Lusaka and we will keep you updated very soon! Greetings, Rosanne and Viktor from OnScreen! First Week Lusaka (OnLine!): The first week in Lusaka for the OnLine team was relatively short. We arrived on Thursday because of school exams that had to be taken care of first. On our day of arrival, the group took us to the city of Lusaka. When we were there we withdrew local money called "Kwacha" from a nearby bank and purchased a local simcard. The first couple of days after our arrival we have analysed and configured the available equipment and facilities. In these days we also explored the city to find out what the internet possibilities were. It was a challenge to find an internet café with a stable connection to the internet, but we found one at Mandahill Shoppingcenter. We concluded that the internet speed was very poor but could be put to use. Later on, we did some research on how well zambia was developed in the computer business. Later on, Desh and OnLine composed a plan for the new Kambisa Website. In the spare time that we had, we went to see some spots in the capital city of Zambia, Lusaka. The city is very Nice!! Second Week Lusaka (Online!): In the second week of Lusaka, we have made a deal with a library in the compounds to rent their computers and give trainings to the local students in exchange. Much like what we expected, we first had to show the students on how to operate the computer. They never used one before so it took a while to get the hang of it but they were improving quickly. We handed out a document with instructions where each individual had to write something about him/her self including their name, age, hobbies and more. We also took a portret picture of every student so we could place them on top of each document. Later on when everyone had finished their assignment, we made them edit their pictures in paint. We noticed their good sense of humor when we drew mustaches on the girls. In the next training, we decided to teach them more advanced things like Microsoft Powerpoint. It started slowly because of the exercising day they had that day. We were concerned that perhaps this was too difficult for them to keep up with, but the students proved to be quick learners. The assignment was to create a presentation about something for example: flowers, dogs, football and more. After the slides were all done, and there was spare time, we showed them how to create transitions, effects and adding backgrounds between and on each slide. They got the clue of why the software comes in handy when we showed them a preview of what they had made. Some things we noticed is that the mouse is the most difficult part of the computer to operate, that every body likes to sing and study as their hobbies. First Week Livingstone (OnScreen week 4) After three heavy weeks, probably described in the blogs before, we travelled towards Livingstone. The new adventure started with a long bus travel. Travelling in a really crowded bus, where it smells like sweat on sandy and bumpy roads for almost 8 hours can make you annoyed. Especially when the tv’s are on with some typical Zambian songs about religion and baby’s screaming and crying while you are trying to sleep. But afterwards even this experience had his charm.
We reached Livingstone in the
middle of the night, where Mitch (our guide) picked us up and brought
us to ‘Wilma’s Guesthouse’. When we arrived we all headed
towards our beds, because of the long journey. The next day when we
woke up, we realized that we had some real nice rooms, compared to
our first place in which we slept with 8 guys on the same room.
Finally a little privacy. That day we took it quite relaxed. We went
to do some shopping, because we had and still have our own kitchen
and we went to the Internet to let our worried parents know that
everything is all right. The next day Mitch took us to the crocodile
farm. Here we got to see some real big African crocodiles. Reptiles
who can become more then 150 years old probably without wondering
even once about some esthetical questions but instead just lying long
out in the sun. Day after day. Later on that day, we went to the
Victoria Waterfalls. To be honest I totally forgot about the
crocodiles because of a truly wonder from our planet. When you see
the falls from a distance it looks like looking at some clouds. The
sound makes you realize that in reality your are starring at a
waterfall. Imagine what mr. Livingstone himself must have been
trough. Walking trough the jungle, with an knife to create his own
path and then suddenly hearing this great sound which he probably
couldn’t identify. As getting closer the sound got louder and when
he finally arrived he probably must have thought he was in heaven.
Clouds that covered the view of the waterfall, with the only prove
that you are standing in front of a huge waterfall, getting socked.
The power in which the water falls down, is so strong that it makes
it able to get back up (for at least a 100 meters) and to create a
earth made shower. Later we decided to walk down, towards the river
that the Falls are lying at. When walking downwards, we walked trough
a wonderful Jungle. A jungle, which I thought they only made on
Hollywood sets for films like Indiana Jones. Truly amazing. Funny to
think that you pay 35 Euro’s in Holland to see a fake jungle in the
Burgers Bush (Arnhem) and you pay (exclusive your ticket of course,
but still) 10 dollars to see a jungle in a place that is known as one
of the 8 miracles of the Earth. Anyways enough about this, the next day we started working again. We prepared our workshop and discussed about the way we should prepare ourselves for this project, as the other projects in Lusaka went quite difficult. The day after that we gave the workshop and made again some nice short fiction films with the people who had applied. They all handed us their idea’s and in the evening we started our Idols Jury battle again. Finally we picked out two good ideas on which we until now our working on. There is one thing I forgot to mention, which is the fact that one of the night we also celebrated Desh (our supervisor) his birthday. Because he is still a famous artist in Zambia we gave him a birthday present by making a funny rap about him. Some of us were beatboxing, some dancing and some rapping. Probably all of this last isn’t really funny when describing it in words, but it’s something you had to witness. We will keep you posted on our next adventures. Greetings Viktor van der Valk
Kambisa! On Screen 29-06-2009
Today, we split our film crew, Marijn, Aziz, Viktor and me into two groups. This morning, Viktor and Martijn went to their appointment with our Zambian directors. They finished the script and putted the beautiful poem written by our directors together with the scene descriptions in a film script.
A little part of the poem our directors wrote:
In a day I was born. With a bright new sun shining upon me. I gave joy to my father and mother, as I walked into the journey of life.
As we continued to move, the lights went of. Was it the darkness on my mind, or was it happening?
I cried loud to my mother on the left, But she couldn’t answer me. I cried loud to my father on the right, But he couldn’t answer me.
How could I find my way to destiny alone in a dark path like this?
This last question is actually the main subject of the film. It goes about the fights an orphan has to go through in Zambia to reach his or her dreams.
After that, Viktor, Martijn and our directors went to a school to arrange an audition there. We were looking for a 14 years old girl that could play the orphan in our film. Trough the phone, I heard that there was lots of attention, there were more then 100 girls interested to act in our film. So the casting directors selected the best girls and did a film scene with them. I don’t know yet who’s the final actress but tomorrow we’ll inform you about that.
Some audition pictures:
Aziz and me stayed in the guesthouse to arrange some technical stuff. Of course we don’t choose immediately for the most easy film to make a film, so this time we’re going to record our film in the dark. That’s difficult without the lamps we normally use in the Netherlands. Therefore we arranged two oil lamps today, and that’s already difficult to find here. Tomorrow we’re going to arrange 50 candles. When we’re going to record the movie, we’ll also use lots of flashlights.
ear to that, we finished an edit compilation of our documentary in Lusaka. Because we’re going to have a viewing tonight for all the Kambisa! people. In the afternoon, we worked on translating our script into a storyboard.
I’m going to finish my blog for today, we’ll keep you informed!
Greetz,
Karlijn. |
