What a Difference a Year Makes!
BY CYNDI GREENING, ARIZONA, USA – Today, we finished editing the Trailer for BAD TIMING, the Zambian feature film. We finished the Documentary Trailer early in the week. Sometimes, it seems like we've been working on these films forever. Yesterday, I started thinking about when and how this all got started. Of course, it all started with Jabbes Mvula. The conversation started in January with a request for a camera, but by mid-March, we were searching for the means to take a small production crew. I was going through old emails and found that it was a year ago, almost to the day, that I applied for an Innovative Project Grant to fund the flights for a six-person crew to Zambia.
Jabbes wanted to return to his home country to shoot the FIRST Zambian cast full-length, dramatic narrative feature film ever. He wanted to strengthen the film industry in Zambia. We all hoped to share our skills and experience with aspiring Zambian filmmakers. And, most importantly, we wanted to get an authentic, contemporary Zambian story into the global cinema. So, a year ago at this time, I was hoping to go to Zambia, making plans to maybe go to Zambia, but it sure seemed like one heckuva long shot. I was reading everything I could find on Zambia, just in case.
Further research in my email archive revealed that the grant announcment was made on May 2nd. Holy cow, May 2nd. With that announcement, we knew that a six-person crew could go but, by that point, we had 18 students who wanted to spend an unpaid work experience month in Africa helping to shoot the feature (and companion documentary). We pushed our shoot date back to give ourselves more time for fundraising. To be honest, last summer was just a blur. And yet, the pace of the summer seems GLACIAL in comparison to how quickly the time passed in Zambia. That month simply evaporated.
When we got back, time played a gruesome trick. It slowed down to a crawl and then seemed to stop altogether. It seemed to take a Herculean effort to move things the tiniest amount. I guess it took a bit to bounce back. Now, I'm happy to report, time is moving forward again at a normal pace. There are times I can't believe we ever went to Zambia. Then I look at the footage and I go flying back in time. Jeniece says the same thing happens to her. I'm hoping that we can create that sense of immediacy for the audience. That they can have half the fun we did and laugh as easily (and as often.) Stay tuned! Soon you'll be able to decide for yourself.