Blah Blah Blog....
BY M.K. "GYPSY PUNK" RACINE, TEMPE, AZ - 
Very recently, this is all we’ve heard from Cyndi, in person, through e-mail…”you all need to blog!” I agree with her, we all need to blog a little more. But my last was pretty draining, so I have been avoiding the “pen” as long as possible. Post-production has been a little demanding, in a different way than production was. However, I fully expect to reap the benefits of learning and growth, as I did while in Zambia.
Post-production for the documentary is slow, tedious and timely. With over 80 hours of footage and only three weeks for completion, from the time we arrived home to the Sundance deadline, the task was overwhelming from the beginning. Just how I like it. It’s been great to be around the crew again, to work as a team, but even the team as a whole has diminished some and our task force has lessened a bit. Some of the crew has returned to school full time, others to work. As far as our families, we might as well be back in Zambia, as I see mine very little.
I’m am intrigued by the editing process; I got a taste of it this summer, while working with Cyndi, Robby and Heath, on the China – International Video. But we are not even at that point yet. Still logging and capturing…. I am pleased that we have such a great amount of footage. Better too much than too little. Before we left Phoenix, we had decided on a certain path for the documentary. However, once we arrived in Zambia, Cyndi told us to just let it unfold. It will come out and we’ll go from there. Interestingly enough, a few documentaries have unfolded before us. It has been established, which one will be sent to Sundance. We have one for MCC, and another…what we’ll do with it when completed, I don’t know.
I shared my thoughts about yet another documentary, one that follows the members of the crew over the course of this next year. Its purpose would be to better illustrate the remarkable change this experience propelled in our lives. How it has changed us as individuals…living dreams, finding something inside we didn’t know existed…and how it has changed the course of our lives as a whole. Some of us have been fighting the change since our return, while others are letting it happen and a few are pushing hard towards it. There were a few times, while at home, I felt a doc camera should be there to capture the struggles that have arisen for me, as I tried to assimilate back into the life I had left so briefly. But when you have changed, even a little, you can’t go back to what was, not easily, and not honestly. To do so would be to cheat yourself of the destiny that has fallen upon you - this moment in your life. And also cheat those close to you, from knowing the person you have become.
I’m not sure why I experienced so much change in such little time. Perhaps because I have said no to so many things to this point, that this one yes let in the power of past experiences I missed out on. Who knows? I’m just thinking, just looking for answers...trying to piece things together. I don’t think it will be as easy as putting the documentaries together. If that is the case, I’ll accept that as what was meant to be.
Before I left for Zambia, I thought I had created the path my life was to take. But now, there are questions. As with the documentary, I know the answers will come; it will all unfold before me, and I’ll just go from there.