Our trip ended in a jolt. Actually, I was heading back to our hotel to get the USB drive that I had put our final blogs. I didn't get to post that last blog.

Bottom line for the documentary is that we got AMAZING footage! A lot of it too. I don't want to give away any surprises, but just trust me, you will be awed when we're finished. When will that be? Not for a while. The data and footage we need to go through, and the editing itself, will take months. Right now we're shooting for this early summer to have it ready for film festivals.

We're just getting back into it. I needed some recovery time, and Matto needed to start his new producer job. We don't have the studio set up, or even all the equipment to handle this project, but we'll start on our personal machines to get the framework built at least. Then we'll get the rest of the editing equipment when I pay off some of this debt!

Speaking of that. I want to thank all the people who contributed to this project so far. You Rock :)

~A

PS - I'm severely post-dating this entry to save face. Lets say January 1st

We've been very busy, extremely even, so much so that Adam said that this is the most amount of work he's ever done in such a short amount of time. Makin films baby, good times. But We both realized our kryptonites.

Mine are shananagans. Those are things that aren't organized, and random or chaotic without an overarching goal. I would characterize a good amount of the way of life here as shanana-licuos. Our team is fantastic and amazing, but the culture here is so different from the US, and well, shananagans are my kryptonite. The other day I told adam that my shananagan meter exploded, so besides being tired, busy, stressed, I've also been sometimes frustrated with the culture shock.

Adam's Kryptonite he joking said a minute ago, is slow internet. I'm a bit accustomed to that, but the infrastructure here is very different too. For example, the number key on this keyboard, between digits 5 and 7, doesn't work. Yesterday, we shot 5+1 interviews, and a lot of B-roll.

Our real krypotine beyond superficial frustrations, is the situation we're witnessing in Mathare. Yesterday was our toughest day yet I'd say, physically and mentally. It was a full on slum-hike, and we came back wrecked and disgusted, stinky and filthy. I don't think I've ever taken a hotter shower, needed to burn it off. For us, we're so unaccustomed to things that we're pansies in comparison. The people that live there, LIVE THERE. I don't know, but yesterday, a single day really did a number on us.

The good news is that almost all of our work is done now, and today is a light but busy day. Wed. and thurs. we'll be finishing up digitizing and packing, no word yet on how much footage, but its a lot. Ok, we'll give one more update Thursday before we fly out, but I can say we're both pretty happy about going home soon.

-Matt

This whole trip is far too surreal to be real. Ok, today, we woke up after digitizing tapes until 1:30 am – that’s an early night for us actually. Hit up Nairobi Coffee and ate Pria bars for breakfast. Rode to Mathare as usual, and started by taping a garbage pile complete with the requisite dead rat, dead duck, and dead chick (as in chicken). Then on to interviews, a group meeting, and lunch for a lot of the Roots Group (at our treat) in a Somali refugee community. We took a matatu from Mathare about 4 feet down the road to walk for 10 minutes through a middle-eastern market that was more nuts than you could ever imagine without being there and using all your energy to keep your eye on the person you are following in front of you that gets further and further in front, and the person behind you that is thinking the same thing. On to an Ethiopian restaurant. All meat. Hmmm… Matto says it was like a sloppy joe with a lot of little bones. I’ll have to take his word for it. Matt has completely lost all his tolerance for shenanigans, and I’m working to keep all balls rolling and everyone happy. The blur is not necessarily bad, but we’ve both realized that whatever processors we have in our heads, they are unable to assimilate the information we are bombarded with every day. 700,000 people: struggle, hope, fear, death, love, anger... just fried a million more neurons.

Now we just work, often half numb to the city of garbage, to make this project real for a hope at change. We’ve got another 6 hours of digitizing tonight before our biggest day tomorrow – I best get on with it to try and get some sleep.

-Adam

Tuesday evening update:

Well, things are too crazy and busy to go into detail on everything, but here’s a quick rundown so far:

5 days so far
2 tired filmmakers
Lots of Fanta and Coca Cola Light
A million crazy Matatus (mini buses loaded to bursting with people)
1 pickpocket attempt
2 funny Santa Claus’s:
1) mechanical, white, and half sized, singing very poorly to American songs
2) Real life, African Santa, who said that Santa was hungry and likes yogurt.
-Both at the Nakumat, (like a mini-walmart)

Anyway…
A youth group working on their 2nd anniversary
1 giant slum
700,000 people, (up from a half million in previous research)
Lots of new friends
A bunch of really good footage
…and a compelling story trying to get told.


So that’s where we are so far. The project has grown, but not in depth of field, it is still focused. I am working with members of the youth group as crew, as there was interest, and I’ve been teaching some basic camera operation. Today was the first time that they shot some footage, and the plan is to continue working with them to augment the footage I shoot and let them grow with the project as they help make it come to fruition. I hope to incorporate much of what they shoot into the story, this is allowing me to really pursue the story, and direct the whole operation. Hopefully these skills can help them if they decide to pursue a job in journalism, Africa has a large portion of news coverage filled by freelancers.

We’ve got about 25-30 interviews we want to conduct, and we’ve got only about 4 done. The planning and strategy is now there, its just a matter of working hard for the next week and a half! Wow, it is so long and so short at the same time. We’ve got a very hectic schedule, and each day is turning into a blur, but we will do it!

Ok, that’s it for now,
Love from Nairobi - Matt

Things are going really well. Africa is frustrating in a lot of ways, but it is more than made up for by the super great people here and the rhythm of living that I can’t explain. I hope Matt is having an OK time. He’s basically been thrown into a whole pile of crap and asked to work his ass off on something that is REALLY hard technically, physically, and of course emotionally. So far, he’s rocking it. We’re a good team. I work well with people to ‘fix’ things and make everyone work together as part of the team, and Matto has the crazy artistic vision and hard-driving demand for success – we execute without alienating. We have new ideas every day and the Roots are more helpful and engaged than I ever imagined they would be. They are driven by something that is almost foreign in the U.S. They are younger than me and yet they surprise me by being more organized and detail oriented than professionals twice my age. So with them backing us up and guiding us through the valley, we won’t fail.

-Adam