Voice of an African Nation

BY CYNDI GREENING, PHOENIX, USA – We've been working day and night on the Zambian documentary and feature as we're closing in on the Sundance deadline. While we can be very serious in our pursuits, sometimes we can't help but kick our heels up! (Fortunately, Jeniece "Gidget" Toranzo is tiny or my bed would be a shambles after she bounces her tension away!)

Last night, Jeniece and M.K. played "soap hockey" in my tub. Their excuse was that their feet were dirty. I think they just needed to kick the living daylights out of something. The same thing happened to the guys. For inspiration, they decided to watch the editing in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM and MAN ON FIRE. (Rarely a clever idea to try to exceed the qualities a multimillion dollar film.) They had to go out and shoot pool for a few hours. Again, the simple need to smack something hard.

I find Post-Production to be more difficult than either pre-production or production. All I want to do is smack myself in the head for the things I didn't think of doing while we were in Zambia. Why didn't I have them do more of those interviews? Smack. Why didn't we get more street footage? Smack. How could we not notice there was a costume change? Smack, smack, smack. It's funny. Pre-production is all sweetness and light. Grandiose plans of what can be accomplished. Production is a bit less sunny. It's more of a runaway train that flies by all of those plans to find a rhythm and destiny of its own choosing. Post is nothing but trying to accommodate all of the wayward moments that occurred on set. So, we rejoice when we find wonderful solutions (see photo above) and smack things around when we're struggling. In spite of the suffering, I can hardly wait to do this again.

Photograph by Mike Montesa