Somehow, Someway

I made a promise to myself that I would complete PRODUCING PAMOJA somehow, someway. The path forward is still not clear to me but I'm very gingerly, cautiously returning my attention to the project. I say gingerly and cautiously because the obstacles seem so huge that I can't face the challenge head on. Instead, I'm tiptoeing around and hoping to sneak up on it.

First, I've hammered out a rough outline of the film and figured out how I want to approach the story stylistically. Of course it's subject to change, but at the moment I envision a series of vignettes each focused on a youth trainee who worked as either cast or crew on the production of TOGETHERNESS SUPREME. I imagine each vignette as a separate chapter, strung together like beads on a necklace. Together they will tell a story about the blur between fact and fiction: how the fiction of TOGETHERNESS SUPREME reflects the real lives of youth in Kenya aspiring to a brighter future.

This graphic (designed by Julie Betters) is a good illustration:


I've also been thinking about an outreach strategy for the completed film and how to take audiences from passively watching to actively engaging. Suddenly it struck me: the number one message echoed by every one of the youth trainees in my footage is that what they lack is opportunity -- not talent -- but the resources to exercise their talent. And I think I've come up with a way to deliver opportunity to the youth of Kibera. Strangely, it's possible that the outreach project is my true calling. Certainly something I could happily devote the rest of my life to. When I think about it, I feel the fluttering of butterfly wings...

But, like the film itself, I'm easily overwhelmed by the challenge and I'm trying to figure out how to transcend Mistake #1 on this intriguing list of common blunders:

8 Mistakes that Filmmakers Make