My contract officially ran out on Friday. All done.
Not really, of course. There's still a few videos to wrap up and a few loose ends to take care of around the office. I'm hoping to spend the next couple weeks getting to know Tamale a bit better and seeing friends, etc. My time has suddenly become very valuable. Supply and demand.
I've been running a film workshop over the past few weekends. It's Hafiz's dream to eventually set up a film school in Tamale so we've started this class with a few local kids. We have some attendance issues but it's going well overall. We wrapped up the camera lesson today. They're getting it. Hopefully we'll shoot a short narrative film next week. It'll take some supervision but it's exciting too. They're getting it. I feel warm and fuzzy.
The local film scene here is this fantastic grass-roots thing. Making cheap movies for a grand or so and showing them in markets and small communities for a few cents a head. Why can't it be like that in Canada? I miss movies, putting one shot in front of the other. Scenes and scripts instead of budgets and connections. Friends and favours, too. I don't want to be successful or arty, or have a career. I want to tell stories for no money and show them to my friends.
:) Great news about the film workshops- will it be able to continue after you leave?
ReplyDeleteI'm getting mad stressed with this stupid studying thing I'm supposed to be doing. It's definitely a love/ hate thing with the MA and now I'm having anxious dreams about not getting this crafts business going..
Have you left Ghana now? Sad :( What's the plan now?
Eric pursuing the warm and fuzzy? Typhoid must really be getting to you! I hope you don't take the fact that your contract is up to mean that you can stop writing any time soon. For however long you're on the road I think those of us that read this thing want to hear your thoughts and moving through a brightly-coloured foreign landscape.
ReplyDeleteHafiz is definitely hoping to run another workshop after I'm gone, but after the attendance issues we had I think the format will have to be reconfigured a bit. Sad to leave, no plans as of yet. Lots of possibilities though. Going with the first one that pans out.
ReplyDeleteWill try (and thanks!) to write a bit in London too, but we'll see. Seeing you all in person soon enough. Wanna see photos of my vacation?