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burundi film center
July 26, 2010
Everywhere a Sign
I’ve been looking for warning signs since I got here. Something to tell me that we’re on the right track, or that the project is headed for disaster. In many ways we were successful in 2007, but assumptions and wishful thinking often plagued us along the way. For example, we thought we’d teach in English and the students believed we had more means than we actually did. This time, however, everyone has a better understanding of the realities.
I think the extended intermission actually built a certain respect for the project after the initial confusion and impatience led to an understanding that the BFC can’t happen without support. I’ve recently received a number of emails and phone calls from past students saying how much they appreciate what we did. They came to realize that the project is both vulnerable and valuable.
When we left in 2007, a lot of questions and confusion followed us. We had armed the students with hope, but failed to find them an ongoing means to produce films. So for the past three years, they’ve watched online as the BFC has gained exposure and waited on the ground for that to translate into equipment, structure, or further training. Now, on the day before our first class, we’re getting all the right signs that our last students will do whatever they can to make those future opportunities happen.
See I may have come to Burundi alone, but I’m definitely not on my own. Before I arrived, all the prep work was basically done in terms of getting a space, getting permissions and getting students. I went around to sign some papers, shake some hands, pay some bills and either approve decisions or appeal for some last minute items. But overall, the first steps to start training had already been taken. What’s left is all the teaching, plus of course a ton of logistical details to shoot the films and hold our festival.
Luckily, a core group of students from 2007 are helping me and at least a half-dozen more have offered to volunteer. On top of that, our celebrity Gospel singer Apollinaire, BFC Legal Representative, is making deals for us behind-the-scenes and the unstoppable Papy Jamaica, BFC Technical Director, is making sure we find everyone and everything we need – despite the fact he’s getting married in just a few days. Papy also found us not one, but two teaching spaces to use while we’re here. The main space we’ll be teaching is the Centre Culturel Français – or CCF. Our room has a built in projector, sound system, cushioned seats and air conditioning. As Rudy (writer of BFC film Bigger Plans) put it, this year the BFC’s gone “V.I.P.”. Maybe that should be the new sign outside the building written in empty AK-47 magazine shells.
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civicus
In a historic vote last Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly declared water a fundamental human right. The resolution was introduced by Pablo Solon, Bolivia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, and was supported by 122 countries, not including Canada. The vote was applauded by civil society organizations and water activists from across the globe, including Maude Barlow, co-founder of the Blue Planet project and board chair of Food and Water Watch, who saw the resolution as addressing a long-standing omission in the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights. Despite articles in the Declaration addressing the right to food, the right to health, the right to education and the right to shelter, among other things, the right to water is not mentioned. Barlow further praised the action in an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, noting that
“…basically, for the first time, the United Nations General Assembly debated the right to water and sanitation—it’s very important both were included—and acknowledged and recognized the right of every human being on earth to water and sanitation. And this matters because…we are a planet running out of water. A brand new World Bank study says that the demand is going to exceed supply by 40 percent in twenty years. It’s just a phenomenal statement.”
This can be considered a significant, if symbolic victory in the fight for universal and free access to water, especially for countries where water privatization is a major issue, like CIVICUS‘ host country, South Africa, and Solon’s native Bolivia, which successfully toppled Bechtel’s water privatization bid ten years ago. Yet, in another case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing, major news outlets, on that very same Wednesday (July 28, 2010) started breaking news reports of another oil leak, this time in a creek that flows into the Kalamazoo River and Lake Michigan, following on the heels of the greasy stain left in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year. The spill was so intense that some area residents reportedly fell ill simply from inhaling noxious oil fumes, not to speak of the substantial damage inflicted on local wildlife and the water supply. The Canadian company behind the leaky pipeline, Enbridge Inc., has already been cited for 30 enforcement actions since 2002 by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, according to a CBC News report. In other words, this tragedy was entirely preventable - the company had been warned in January that it may have “violated safety codes by improperly monitoring corrosion” in the said pipeline and did nothing to remedy the situation.
If anything, this month’s events should give Canada more incentive than ever to support the universal right to clean water and sanitation. Yet - and this is indicative of the political apathy mentioned by my colleagues on this blog and elsewhere - Canada was one of the over 40 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, that chose to ‘abstain’ from voting in this historic resolution. As Barlow explained, the reasons behind this apparent apathy are not hard to guess:
“…they’re hardly going to support something that says that water, you know, is a human right, when they’ve commodified it and said it’s a market commodity. So, really, what you’re seeing is a split between those countries that see water as a public trust, although that wasn’t in the language of the legislation, but that see water as a public trust and a human right and that should belong to all, as opposed to those who are going to move to a market model. And I think that’s the truth behind what happened.
And it’s very important for you to know that they did not allow the inclusion of the words “access to,” and that was one of the demands. I think some of those countries would have said yes to something that said “access to.” And it’s very important. It’s not semantic, because if you say you have access to it, then all the country—all the government has to do is provide you access. Then they can charge you, or they can have a private company come in and deliver it and charge you. And if you can’t afford it, they provided you access, it’s not their fault if you can’t pay it. So it’s very important that Bolivia and the other sponsoring countries held on to the language of the human right to drinking water and sanitation. They wouldn’t drop sanitation. They wouldn’t add the words “access to.” And those were the sticking points.”
Photographer Jane Fulton Alt has recently released a series of portraits, entitled Crude Awakening, of beachgoers slathered in crude oil, a powerful statement on the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which she considers “highlights a much larger problem that has inflicted untold suffering as we exploit the earth’s resources worldwide.”
Are we going to have to get neck-deep in petrol before oil companies and industrialized nations stand up and take action on this issue?
Download the Draft of the UN Resolution here.
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rendezvous
CitizenShift, Parole citoyenne, the Institut du nouveau monde (INM), Media@McGill, Alternatives and Communautique invite bloggers, engaged filmmakers, photographers, citizen journalists, media experts, independent media practitioners and others to the 2nd Citizen Media Rendez-Vous on Monday, August 23, 2010 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal. This international event begins at 8:30 am and runs until 6:00 pm, with networking sessions, 2 panel discussions, a Cinema Politica Rendez-Vous screening room and a multimedia exhibit of posters from 40 years of social movements in Québec related to media. The event is open to the public and will provide a venue for discussing topics such as content creation using diverse technology platforms and applying collaborative models for citizen media.
Participatory media projects that include multiple platforms, genres and issues are adding diversity to conversations at a speed and across distances that are changing the way people communicate with one another. A goal of the Citizen Media Rendez-Vous is to encourage a collaborative exchange to learn about, and advance the practices of, citizen media that cultivate inclusive participation and social justice.
Panelists, moderators and participants will discuss the central question: How is citizen media being used by civil society, independent journalists, media practitioners and others to better inform the public, and to what effect? To review this question from multiple angles the 2010 Citizen Media Rendez-Vous is divided into two central panel discussions. The morning panelists will consider how accessing and appropriating citizen media can better inform and mobilize the public. Panelists include: Norman Cohn, co-founder IsumaTV; Tim McSorley, editor Media Co-operative; Georgia Popplewell, Managing Director Global Voices; Craig Silverman, Managing Editor MediaShift & Digital Journalism Director OpenFile. Discussions will be encouraged between panelists and the audience by moderator, Patricia Bergeron.
The afternoon discussion will focus on the citizen use of new media for the defense of human rights. Panelists include: Jaroslav Valuch, Haiti Project Manager Ushahidi; Priscila Néri, Program Coordinator, Witness; Shubhranshu Choudhary, CGNet Swara. Discussions will be encouraged between panelists and the audience by moderator, Frédéric Dubois.
The event is bilingual and simultaneous translation will be available in English and French. For more details about this not-to-be-missed event visit the Citizen Media Rendez-Vous website. Online registration is free but mandatory.
This independent one-day conference is being held in parallel to CIVICUS’ 9th World Assembly from Aug. 20-23. The World Assembly is a place for information exchange and debate to best identify practices that will attain a wider global social justice. Benefit from a 3 for 1 registration offer for Canadian civil society organizations until July 30.
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burundi film center
July 26, 2010
Hotel Bujumbura
I felt a strange comfort crossing into Burundi yesterday. It caught me by surprise, and I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the first national flag painted on a small, rundown building. There’s been so much uncertainty leading to this point that part of what I felt was definitely relief, but there is also a sense of attachment to the country.
Since the BFC started, I’ve often felt like an unofficial Burundian spokesperson. And the films themselves, having played in so many festivals, undoubtedly gave thousands of people their first look at the country. So being here again reminded me of what’s unique about this place and worth sharing with the world.
Still, a number of people asked me before my trip if it’s safe in Burundi. I asked my friends on the ground here that same question many times before deciding to come this year. The country is still dealing with the first national elections since the civil war ended – highly contested elections that ended up with only the incumbent’s name on the ballot. Then two weeks ago, al-Shabab vowed to bomb Bujumbura for having African Union troops in Somalia. The threat came after an attack killed 70 people in Uganda (watching the World Cup final) for the same reasons. So clearly conditions are not ideal, and security has noticeably been ramped up since I was here in 2007.
To that point, tonight I was stopped by police and held on the side of the road for an entire hour until I could get someone to retrieve my passport. Sounds like a rookie mistake, I know, but in the four times I’ve been to Africa, my white skin has usually given me a free pass from undo scrutiny. It was also usually safer to keep our passports locked up than on us at all times. Not anymore.
Another nuisance has been the fact that none of the living options were very convenient locations and so I’m currently staying in a hotel. If I’m not able to walk between where I’m staying and training (right downtown), life gets a bit complicated. So until we can find a better solution, I’m stuck living like a tourist just when I was starting to feel more at home here.
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burundi film center
July 24, 2010
Life in a Day of Kigali
Tinseltown took their shot at tackling the Rwanda Genocide in the highly celebrated film Hotel Rwanda (2004). That portrayal, however, is still contentious among Rwandans. Most people appreciate the attention it brought, but say they resent the way the story was “Hollywood-ized” to create a hero out of a shrewd businessman while sidestepping the actual horrors that occurred. But today, a handful of Rwandan youth got the chance to make their own Hollywood movie.
Life in a Day is a collaborative film project directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) and produced by Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator). Video submissions from around the world will be stitched together to create a portrait of one random day on planet earth – July 24, 2010. Sundance has already agreed to premiere the film, and you can be sure that thousands of filmmakers were salivating over their chance to participate. I definitely was, and communicated as much in some strategic emails to the production company when asking for cameras to bring to Rwanda. Within days, I had three HD capable digital cameras mailed to my home in Ottawa.
In order to provide some structure to the footage, the director asked that everyone do four things – tell him what makes them scared, what makes them laugh, what they love, and show him whatever is in your pockets. Beyond that, the goal was to film whatever was happening in your life that day. That, and fill out a small mountain of paperwork to clear the rights for everything.
I asked six students from my advertising class to participate. The cameras provided 16 minutes of HD footage, so each student had to chose their words and images wisely. The B-roll footage won’t win any awards, but the confessionals should definitely attract attention. Some examples of what made them scared - running out of money, al-Qaeda and homosexuals.
Unfortunately, connection speeds won’t allow me to upload any of the footage to share, but I’ll be mailing out the memory cards a.s.a.p. for consideration. So while the Rwanda Film Festival has now ended, if we’re lucky, next year we might help “Hillywood” live up to its name.
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