It’s day six of the workshop. The challenge, creating a film with 20 people in one week who have never made a documentary in their lives, is working itself out.  To watch in one week what a group of dedicated students can achieve has been incredible.  Days one and two, we cast for the principle and secondary characters. We imagined scenes, got the permissions and set up a schedule.  Days 3,4 and 5 we shot 2 or 3 sessions a day.  In between we critiqued the footage and kept hammering home basic principles of documentary filmmaking.  

We began to imagine how the film might open (Sun rise Voodoo ceremony) and close (woman sweeping the streets).  The excitement is building in the town.  Tomorrow is the Carnival.  We’re going to have fantastic material for this film.

I’m off to Haiti this coming weekend to lead a documentary workshop for 16 young men and women.  The goal is to not only to teach them the skills required, but to make an actual film.  Our topic is Carnival in Jacmel.

I believe in the power of the collective and know that 16 relatively inexperienced young people who are enthusiastic, dedicated, open minded and intelligent can do in a week what one experienced filmmaker could not accomplished in a month.  So we set out to tell the story of Carnival in a country that had the only successful slave revolt in the world.  Toussaint L’Ouverture, a freed slave, guided Haiti to independence in 1805, becoming the second country in the Western Hemisphere to create its own independent nation.  Carnival in Haiti is filled with all kinds of symbolism that will emerge without doubt over the course of the production.  All of the students have begun tracking down characters to follow during the week and all were guided by my friend and fellow filmmaker, Annie Nocenti.  She sent back photos and they’re pretty amazing.

My conclusion?  My life’s trajectory continues to unfold in unexpected ways.  Angola Prison, named for slaves that were brought over from Africa.  Liberia, a nation founded by freed slaves in West Africa.  And now Haiti.  There are no accidents or coincidences in life.