Mobile Message

The past five or so months have been a non-stop whirlwind of activity. Between ongoing renovations on our house, freelance commercial production work, and consulting gigs with Ushahidi and FrontlineSMS, this is the first chance I've had to catch my breath. Which is fitting cuz it's (rather perversely) my favorite day of the year: the day after the Winter Solstice, the first in a long succession of days that will be just a little bit lighter than the last.

Of the various projects, I'm most proud to share the "Mobile Message", a guest series that FrontlineSMS is contributing to the National Geographic blog. I'm supervising the project as part of my role as a communications advisor for FrontlineSMS. It feels like a circle completed as I first discovered FrontlineSMS while researching a documentary series I wanted to produce about the impact of mobile phones in the developing world. It's really exciting to be reaching a wide audience through the National Geographic website with inspiring posts like this one that evolved from an email interview that I conducted with one of the founders of Kubatana in Zimbabwe:

"Mobile Technology Gives Zimbabweans a Voice"

I'm also thrilled about the progress we've made with the house but that's more a personal triumph that I'll celebrate privately.



Meanwhile, today is also the tailend of one of the most remarkable rainstorms in my memory. Here in the San Bernardino Mountains the "Pacific Plume" brought unrelenting rain day after day in tropical profusion. 18" in 7 days. Our creek turned from trickle to flood...

The Dangers of Story Overload

Let me start by saying that I believe in the power of a good story...to transcend culture, to spark imagination, to create connections, to engage strangers, to empower the voiceless, to provoke change, to inspire ideas, to nurture understanding, and on and on. But as I witness the proliferation and dominance of story - corporations, politicians, activists, evangelists all out there busking - I'm becoming concerned about the impact on our real lives.

Stories are simple. Stories are constructs that take complex and often messy realities and craft them into a narrative with a beginning middle and end. Just the act of choosing a beginning is artificial. Our daily lives are not linear, orderly progressions. An encounter that holds the promise of future romance or a business partnership can fizzle into nothing at all. Unless you create a life together or launch a product or make a film or a baby or whatever - that storyline just ends. We all have countless dead-ends in our lives. The same is true for history and biology. My concern is that if we constantly see everything in the form of a story, we may lose our capacity to confront - and even embrace - the very real complexities of life, love, politics, business, and nature.

But it's not only the simplification, it's also heightened drama that is a concern. In a recent Wall Street Journal Article about the "stars" of the award-winning documentary STARTUP.COM, both entrepreneurs talk about the difference between their actual experience and the dramatized version that was depicted on screen. One of them eloquently explains:

"They had to sell the story, and they had to pick the pieces that made everything larger than life. And that's part of the brilliance in the work that they did. It's not part of the reflection of reality - it's the reflection of the artistic license to tell a story - an exciting story." - Tom Herman

I'm starting to better understand why innovator and entrepreneur Iqbal Quadir resisted becoming a "character" in the documentary film I wanted to make about him...we were calling it 'Startup.com with a global twist.'

I can give another example. My documentary CATCHING OUT features several contemporary hobos who dissent against mainstream American consumer culture by traveling for free on freight trains. The film has received criticism for not being more dramatic - no encounters with railroad police, not enough actual trainhopping footage. Sure, it's far from a perfect film, but even with hindsight I would not amp up the action. True, you can get a big adrenaline kick when you are scrambling around a train yard, but more often riding the rails is about endlessly waiting and watching. You go nowhere fast. It's boring stuff that involves a lot of napping, reading books, and philosophizing with fellow travelers. The exhilarating part of hopping a train is the existential journey of abandoning social convention and cultural expectation - a more complex and nuanced experience than encountering a bull or a catching a train on the fly.

Or consider my more recent filmmaking adventure: when I went to Kenya to document the making of the feature film TOGETHERNESS SUPREME, I thought I would capture a straightforward story about the trials and tribulations of producing a film in a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi with a local cast and a crew of local youth trainees. But as I started shooting, that story felt shallow, contrived. A more complex and more compelling story presented itself about the interplay between the fictional narrative of the film and the real lives of the cast and crew. There's no question that the more complex story would have been harder to tell and part of the reason that I recently pronounced the project a "Fail" is because I couldn't figure out how to bring it to fruition. But I'd rather not make a film at all then craft a contrived story.

Of course, I want passionate and talented storytellers to continue to create stories that offer us the chance to dream and imagine and visit worlds we would otherwise never know. I particularly want storytellers from distant and diverse places to challenge our standard western narratives. But I also want to encourage the storytellers of our time to experiment with deconstructing stories, breaking them down, pulling them apart, and exposing their simplicity and artifice.

Producing a #Fail

There's a movement afoot to embrace failure as a way to collectively learn from mistakes. A good example is Failfaire which looks at failures in the realm of tech (internet, mobile, communication) for development. And the #Fail hashtag is perennially popular on Twitter. So it's in that spirit that I'm announcing that Producing Pamoja is a #Fail...

Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking this lightly. I've always prided myself on perseverance and creative problem-solving. And it goes against my sense of integrity to give up. My heart is heavy knowing that many supporters believed in me and that my friends in Kibera were counting on me. It was only a couple months ago that I was pronouncing I would finish the film "Somehow, Someway." So, what changed? I've come to believe that the challenges are insurmountable.

These are my lessons:

1) Perfect Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. In the case of Producing Pamoja, I threw caution to the wind and spontaneously embarked on an adventure to capture the making of Togetherness Supreme with less than three weeks to prepare. The truth is that I didn't really know much about the project - only that the story focused on the Post Election Violence that had erupted in Kenya and that the production would employ local youth as cast and crew. When I arrived in Kenya I discovered that many of my assumptions and expectations were false. Do your homework before you start shooting!

2) Money matters. Despite seed funding from Shine Global and the generosity of supporters who contributed via The Point I struggled to capture the footage I needed. I embarked on a wing and a prayer but the project stalled due to lack of resources once I returned from Kenya. While I believe in taking leaps of faith, it helps to have a safety net. Lack of a sound financial foundation can undermine a project.

3) Don't go it alone. Perhaps the biggest challenge I've faced in this endeavor has been not finding a creative partner / team to help sustain the project. Collaboration is a key to success.

To my friends in Kibera: I'm humbled and grateful that you shared your stories with me. I believe in you and your capacity to create a better future in Kenya. Bahati njema!

Insider / Outsider

A recent tweet from @whiteafrican aka Erik Hersman, one of the co-founders of Ushahidi, triggered a dialog that sparked my thoughts about insiders vs outsiders in development and documentary. The dichotomy is central to choices I've made in my life so I thought I'd share.

Way back when, I was working as the interim director of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania, a local NGO that used a profoundly "insider" approach. Rather than go into communities and tell them how to improve environmental sustainability, we launched a campaign to publicize our grant program. We encouraged local communities to apply for funding for their own projects. The only real criteria were 1) demonstrate broad community support and 2) improve sustainability. I was blown away by the creativity and ingenuity of the projects that were proposed, and I was also struck by the contrast between our work and the work that international NGOs were doing. I loved our "insider" approach.

Later in my life, I made a documentary about modern-day hobos. The journey of making the film became another unexpected lesson in insider vs outsider dichotomy. I started out with grand plans and ambitions only to learn that many trainhoppers had very legitimate concerns about how their pastime was portrayed. For example, I was careful not include any specific information about how to hop a freight train in the final film (much to the dismay of many critics and viewers). I believe that CATCHING OUT reflects an "insider" perspective.

The insider approach is a grassroots, bottom-up approach, but are the terms synonymous? When we speak of insiders, we speak of their knowledge. Insiders know the local landscape -- social and environmental -- and how to navigate it. They recognize boundaries established by history and culture. They understand hearts and minds. They know secrets and superstitions, habits and traditions. They can anticipate what people will protect and what they are willing to expose.

In my experience, these common pitfalls are true for both documentary and development:

• Outsiders fail to listen to / solicit insight from local stakeholders / subjects
• Outsiders come w/ assumptions (ambitions) that cloud their perceptions of local realities
  
• Outsiders aim to do something (make a movie; start a project) FOR rather than WITH the local people. Better to consider how the process can engage and empower the local people.

This isn't to say that outsiders have no role! I was an outsider in Tanzania and in the hobo community. Outsiders can bring fresh eyes to a problem or a story. They can provide a broader context and bring a wider scope of experience. Outsiders may have access to expertise and resources that are locally scarce. So, I think the question is: how can outsiders and insiders work together?

The concept of "creative coopportunity" that I'm currently exploring and developing is very much focused on transcending the insider / outsider dichotomy by infusing local inspiration and creativity with the diverse resources of a crowd of collaborators!

Creative Co-Opportunity

A couple months ago I started thinking about developing an initiative for delivering creative opportunities to aspiring and emerging filmmakers, photographers, musicians, writers, and other artists in places like Kibera, a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya.

I spent several weeks in Kibera last year, documenting the making of the feature film TOGETHERNESS SUPREME (see prior posts about the doc Producing Pamoja), and I heard a constant refrain from the local youth: we don't lack talent; we lack opportunity. The idea for "Creative Co-Opportunity" is an outgrowth of this experience, but it's not limited to Kibera.

At first, I thought of an online platform like Kiva where people would provide micro-loans to artists and their projects. But creative projects are not always income-generating so these loans would not necessarily be repaid. Instead, contributions could be structured as micro-grants and -- unlike a cow or other micro-enterprise -- the final product could be shared with the community online and/or in the form of a book, print or DVD.

But as the concept evolved, I realized that the biggest incentive would be the opportunity to engage. I imagine Creative Co-Opportunity as a network that connects artists and creators w/ patrons and others who can provide needed resources both locally and globally. Not only to support the making of the work, but also ensuring that it is seen and enjoyed. This means more than simple fundraising. Ideally, the network will promote the exchange of ideas, suggestions, contacts, feedback, expertise, moral support and other essentials for success other than just plain money. It could potentially evolve into something like the Unreasonable Institute or the Sundance Institute Lab programs.

Also, the concept of co-opportunity would mean that each artist that receives support would agree to "reciprocate" (a concept I borrowed from Butterflyworks). After completing their own projects, artists become talent scouts and mentors for the next round of artists.

I'm very much inspired by Butterflyworks and also by the mission of the Prince Claus Fund in The Netherlands which views culture as a basic need. My other sources of inspiration include:

• Africa Knows
  
• Picha Mtaani
• Just a Band
• Kuweni Serious
  
• The Mwelu Foundation
• Hot Sun Foundation
• Film Aid
• Project Diaspora

And I found new inspiration this week. CNN profiled award-winning Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu and NPR produced a story about Kenyan writer Stanley Gazemba who won the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for literature. Both struggle to find the support they need in Kenya.

Now I feel like it's time to get to work.

Luckily, I don't need to design the online platform from scratch. On my recent visit to Holland, I met with the 1% Club and discussed posting a handful of pilot projects to their existing online platform. They also suggested that I could use the iLab as a base to work from in Nairobi. But still, there's a lot of pieces to put together to make the concept work....

Please, share your thoughts and suggestions. I specifically welcome any insights and recommendations for:

- an organizational structure in Kenya
- advisors and partners both locally and globally
- organizations and individuals to act as talent scouts, identifying emerging talent
- funding!!!

Home from Holland

Home after a month spent in Holland soaking up good, quality time with family and friends. I also had fun networking with some awesome folks doing inspiring stuff: unexpectedly attended Media For Heroes conference where I had the pleasure to meet both Hapee (Hivos) and Wendy (Oxfam Novib), enjoyed lunch with the team behind 1% Club, visited Press Now to discuss their potential Ushahidi implementation, and connected with Emer, one of the amazing founders of Butterflyworks, (our meeting turned into a caffeine-fueled totally non-linear marathon conversation about a bunch of different projects).

It's no accident that so many cool people and projects are based in Holland with its cosmopolitan culture of innovation and outward engagement. Plus the Ministry of Foreign Affairs provides significant financial support. I'm envious: most of my tax dollars spent overseas are going to hi-tech weaponry and soldiers.

Anyway, I'm back in beautiful (but insular) Blue Jay and wondering what now? Practically speaking, I need to find work. But more than anything I'd love to immerse myself in the three creative projects that I've got in the works: Producing Pamoja, Trading Faces and an initiative for crowdsourcing creative expression in developing countries. Hoping the universe will intervene...

Meanwhile, I'm a huge fan of the photo blog Africa Knows and I want to share this stunning image of a graffiti mural in Muthare, one of several slums in and around Nairobi.

One last clip!

Over the past few days I've shared a few video clips that offer a glimpse into the talent and spirit of the young Kenyans who worked as cast / crew on TOGETHERNESS SUPREME and will appear in PRODUCING PAMOJA. I posted one last clip of behind-the-scenes crowd control below...

I still need to edit clips of Geoffrey, the actor who plays the role of Otieno, and Owino, the aspiring politician who plays the role of a political organizer in the film. I also want to share colorful clips of a local musician and a group of dancers, but I'm out of time for editing, and I need a little technical help with some of the footage!

In other news, I've reapplied to Chicken & Egg Pictures for funding that would allow me to spend some crucial time with my editor - to craft a real fundraising sample and create a rough outline of footage / scenes for the film. I'm also actively exploring the outreach strategy for the film and during my upcoming trip to Holland I will meet with the amazing organization Butterfly Works to discuss!

Introducing Chemaiah

Wrapping up the introductions (for now) with Chemaiah. (Please see this post for background)

In this clip, the star of TOGETHERNESS SUPREME is feeling down after shooting a scene where an anti-Kikuyu mob burns down the home of his character, Kamau. The scene reminds Chemaiah of the actual events that took place in Kibera when his grandmother was threatened and forced to flee her home permanently. We also have an interview (in Kikuyu) with his aging grandmother.

Introducing Chris

As I explained in my previous post, I'm posting a series of short video clips to introduce several of the young Kenyans who will appear in PRODUCING PAMOJA.

Today I'm introducing Chris, who plays the role of Masher in TOGETHERNESS SUPREME. Masher is a Luo thug who hates Kikuyus and leads a mob to burn the house of the main character, Kamau, at the end of the film. In this clip, Chris talks about how he is similar to the character he plays, and he shares a story about an event that changed his life. We also have footage of him reenacting the event near his childhood home.

Kibera Rap!

Taking a break from introductions today...

While filming in Kibera, these local kids wanted to perform this rap on camera. It's a little overexposed, but I hope you enjoy!

Introducing Faith

Continuing the series of video clips that I announced here...meet Faith!

Working as a trainee in the DIT department, Faith impressed everyone with her determination and dedication. She is a shining example of what can be achieved by the youth of Kibera when opportunity is offered. In this clip, she describes how a mob scene in the movie feels very real to her and reminds her of her own experience during the post-election violence.

Introducing Jahill

As I explained my last post here's the next video, introducing Jahill!

A sound trainee during production of TOGETHERNESS SUPREME, Jahill is also a DJ on the community radio station Pamoja FM and an aspiring musician. In this clip he takes us on a journey through the winding, narrow passageways of Kibera while he shares his thoughts on the film and life in Kibera.

Introducing....

Over the next week, in a series of short video clips, I'm going to introduce several of the young Kenyans who will appear in PRODUCING PAMOJA. The clips also offer a glimpse into production of the feature film TOGETHERNESS SUPREME which was filmed entirely in Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa, located on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. (Click here to visit TOGETHERNESS SUPREME blog)

“Pamoja” means "together" in Swahili, and in PRODUCING PAMOJA, we follow local youth – from different ethnic backgrounds – as they work together to produce the film and give Kenya a brighter future.

Please watch these clips with the understanding that they are intended as character sketches and should not be viewed as trailers for the film. I have very limited editing skills so these clips reflect what is easiest for me to cut together and not necessarily the best material in terms of content. They also do not represent what the completed film will look like, and I don't even have clips of everyone who will appear in the film!

First up is Martha who is the lead actress in TOGETHERNESS SUPREME (and recently nominated for an African Academy Award). She plays a volunteer nurse and the love interest of both the film's main character, Kamau, and his friend, Otieno. Martha is very dedicated to community empowerment, and her quiet passion is apparent in this clip. We also have footage of her rehearsing a poetry performance with a community theater group.

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

Haiti

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, shockwaves of pain spread around the globe, and like millions of others, I felt the need to the help. I texted HAITI to 90999 and gave $10 to Red Cross Relief -- a campaign that has since raise millions of dollars. But I made my real contribution by helping to spread the word about http://haiti.ushahidi.com.

Ushahidi, which is Swahili for “testimony,” is an innovative platform that crowd-sources crisis information and was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Since then, the United Nations OCHA/Colombia branch has used Ushahidi for coordinating humanitarian response during the Bogota earthquake simulation. Other notable deployments of the free crowd-sourcing platform are election monitoring in India, Lebanon, Mexico and Afghanistan among others. And now Haiti -- where the tool is already having an impact on the ground!

2010

Since we have crossed the threshold of a brand new year, I thought it would be an appropriate time for me to write.

For me, 2009 was not easy to characterize. It held so much promise early on when I embarked on my adventure in Kibera. But I encountered some unexpected obstacles during production and then the project seemed to lose it's momentum and awkwardly stall. I'm deeply indebted to my family, friends, and other angels for providing early support to get me to Kenya, and I want to provide more than a karmic return for this outpouring of generosity. I also feel a strong sense of responsibility to the cast and crew of TOGETHERNESS SUPREME who shared their stories with me. I want to make sure their voices are heard. So, I'm determined that 2010 will see the fruition of PRODUCING PAMOJA. Somehow, someway.

I'm also determined to launch a documentary project called MOBILIZING THE MASSES. Not yet sure what form it will take but I want to share stories about the amazing mobile innovations springing up at the grassroots level around the developing world. And meanwhile, I've been thrilled to transition from being a big fan of Ushahidi to playing a (very minor but super rewarding) role on the team.

2009 was also consumed by renovations on our house (a couple photos posted below). We lived at times without exterior walls, without a roof, without heat as winter descended and managed five months without a faucet or a drain in the kitchen! We made significant progress and learned many lessons along the way. Dare I hope to finish the work in 2010???

Fingers firmly crossed.