Sbeen's films

How to cross a road in Bengaluru!

2012-02-04T15:57:00.000Z

So, 3 days now we have been savoring the greatest food in India, rediscovering Rasmalai, Masala Dosa, Rava idli and Mango lassi... the list continues! All the raw adventures of the last months seem like a long gone memory. I'm sure I need a proper detox as I ingested tons of poisoning dust particles with the meals, when walking along the super busy roads or riding through the traffic stream in a rickshaw.

The last days were filled with research, list writing, phone calls and crazy search for a sim-card! Today was our lucky day and we didn't even need a passport, nor a proof of address (unlike in the polished vodaphone palace, which requested just that, while not accepting a proper council tax letter, but wanting a British driving license which of course I don't have, being German..). I'm not surprised anymore how unlogical and high the Indian hurdles of bureaucracy can be!

More adventures in rickshaw gambling awaited us! If the meter works, suddenly the driver has no change! A new trick to get a few extra rupees. Surprisingly some drivers used the meter without much hassle, were chatty and helpful and we had our pleasures in tipping those lucky honest ones.

I still can't figure out how Bangalore really works, I miss Pahar Ganj and its many cheap fabric shops. A delight to find FABINDIA again, my favorite garment retailer! The city is much more glitzy, posh and modern as I thought, no wonder, we are in IT city full of IT students, IT businesses and internet cafe's. Today we checked out the coolest hot spot in cafe culture: Matteo! A leather-sofa freezer-like air-conditioned smooth cafe with pumping techno schnulz and Bangalore hipsters galore! The trendy folks in jeans and t-shirt (it's 30 degrees Celsius by the way) are smoking elegantly outside while sipping their ice-cream mocha-shakes. A few meters further some shopping temples are crumbling apart under huge advertising banners and the broken sewer covers are releasing their typical stenches while the dust swirls around a honking brigade of mopeds who are fighting their way through the tight bustling streets. Fascinating to watch the clockwork machinery of traffic in Bangalore. Crossing a street became our adrenaline rush of the day! St. Marks road is a constant stream of traffic stuffed with buses, huge lorries, rickshaws, cars, mopeds, the odd cyclist and us standing dumb folded trying to figure how to cross this bloody road! Thanks god we are not the only ones and with a group of Indians we figured out how to sneak in between the stinky exhaust clouds of rushing traffic! Crazy! I'm glad my parents don't see this!

Todays past time of the afternoon was the visit to the Lalbagh Botanical Garden, a monster of a park stuffed with crazy huge trees, a rose garden, some sculpted shrubs and a huge artificial lake at its edge.
This little adventure in a lovely green space without the deafening honking for 1 hour was much needed and followed by another classic, a delightful meal at the Maravelli Tiffin Rooms. As much of an Indian institution as it gets, bright pink, lime green or baby blue painted rooms with cheap red plastic chairs stuffed with locals waiting for their rava idli, dosa and chai tea. Of course this place is busy and there is a waiting room outside where you sit with the families and couples until your name is called. The friendly doorman then showed us how to best eat our rava idli, and oh what a flavour those cashew nuts and coriander leaves were unfolding!

Stuffed to the brim we had some horrible rickshaw experience followed by a very nice one, now home, in our quiet apartment winding down.
One more day of city buzz and then we'll be off to the BR Hills and hopefully the adventures are then infused by new discoveries of tribal life, plants and wildlife in one of India's great forests! I'm keen to check out the tribals shade grown coffee beans too! Bring it on!

Greetings from Bengaluru - The research trip begins

2012-02-02T14:14:00.000Z

Long ago seems this last blog entry, and like yesterday it seems I was in India. Last time it was the autumn trip me and Tove went on in 2010. Being here not even for 24 hours I feel like home in an instant, thanks to the welcoming honks, dust, Kannada chatter on the corners, the flapping of the ceiling fan and the sight of huge bats on the evening sky turning pink.

We arrived late last night at our "serviced apartment" in Lavelle Road right of big MG Road in the centre of Bangalore. Great place to stay as it is sooo quiet compared to anything else closer to the roads!

Our first mission was getting a permission to go into the BRT Sanctuary, something that felt absolutely crucial in our mission to research a documentary about tigers and tribals in the dense lush forests in the south of Karnataka. Our mission failed and still succeeded in many ways. We met with the Chief Conservator of Forests, Mr. Singh and his friend Dr. Ullas Karanth, a tiger expert for many years with big achievements in tiger research. We had a good chat, got some very helpful advice and are now searching for other ways to approach the tribals, sanctuary etc... more info coming soon.

But what is far more stunning is how quickly I adjusted to the Indian bustle! Getting a riksha with a working meter is still an art, but surprisingly achievable with lots of smiles. Even better to get the smiles returned when paying a bit more than the meter price.
We first walked around quite a bit, through a huge park (Cubban Park) to Karnataka Government Forest Department, then with a rikshah to another subdivision forest department somewhere far outside and still in the middle of town, on the bustling Sampige road of Seshadripuram. Our riksha dropped us off at some 18th cross directly in front of a coconut stall. Brilliant! My first fresh coconut in such a long time! It went down like oil (as we Germans say) and tasted sooo delicious.

We found the huge shopping mall (Mantri Square) with any European money-spending institution you can imagine from Adidas, via Marks & Spencer to Plus and Puma.. they had them all plus a great cardamom coffee, much needed to fight the dawning afternoon tiredness! What a lovely coincidence, a bunch of smiley westerners walked passed, and suddenly I recognized them! Our stewardesses from flight AF 0192! So different they look without their blue costume and strict hair-do's.
Though it was much more fascinating to walk around; all the wee shops, the chai wallahs, towers of bright red and yellow turmeric powders (kum kum, or sindoor for married woman's forehead spot), flower garlands, poori stalls, jewellery and sari shops, posh phone shops (that don't sell sim cards.. still haven't found our sim cards), sleeping street dogs and a rare sighting of a cow in the corner. We went into a bustling self service food place where we got a filling masala dosa, made from scratch. How much I missed the spicy coconut chutney! Crossing even the smallest side road was a mission slightly impossible! Honks everywhere, dust and dirty exhaust fumes in your face. Trip hazards with every second step and yet this place is just so cool! Now the brain is unwinding from a first day of wondering around, sucking it all in, that crazy place India can be (amongst so many other things). The bats showed up on time at 7pm like they used to do in Mysore, swinging their huge wings (1m wingspan) across the bright yellow pinkish evening sky, back in our lovely wee guest house, back in lovely big India!

More stories and some pics soon.. the (re) search continues...

Summer: Barista vs. Filmmaker

2011-07-15T22:40:00.001+01:00

Hui, long time no post. What better opportunity to continue writing a few thoughts than when sitting in the middle of nowhere in Sweden working in the Peter's Yard partner cafe Kafferost near Malmö. I find it quite interesting how my life is pretty much split between filming career and the cafe job at Peter's Yard (that gave me the amazing opportunity to work in Sweden for a week, overseeing the roasting of coffee and working on V60 filter brewing technique as well as on latte art). And even though one might think that at some point in my beginning 30ies I would want to push a career in what I have studied so thoroughly over the last years, I cannot imagine not to pull shots of great coffee, chatting with the regulars at table 8 or rocking the dishwasher. Ok, it is only a part time job and the memories of doing this 5 days a week are rather unpleasant, but for the 2-3 days this is a great way to be in touch with amazing people (collegues and customers alike) and get away from daunting editing jobs and complicated filmprojects. Nevertheless I also managed to be part of amazing projects this summer and planning films for the autumn is in full swing, especially after watching some rather inspiring gems at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Despite it being dissed from so many angles, I had a good time, met amazing people and saw great films!

Just recently I was able to do some sound recording for my collegue and friend Anne Milne's latest project. And so we ventured to the remote Black Isle in the North of Scotland to film two wonderful ladies in their sixties, who despite being diagnosed with dementia, live a life fuller than many younger people I know! Again it struck me how lucky and priviliged I am to be able to get a glimpse of the many facets of life through the struggles and smiles of so many different people. Those two ladies welcomed us with open arms, let us be part of their daily activities: hacking wood (with 66 years!), cooking, gardening, laughing, making mohitos, watching old photographs while trying to piece together the matching names and events. This cottage dream life with a huge herb garden is definately on my list of achievements within the next 10/20 years! Rummaging through Nancies herbal medicine books gave me yet another idea for a career change that has been haunting me since early days of fascination with the fauna around us.

From happy Black Isle days we drove back to Edinburgh city life with it's many luring distractions. Meeting old friends from happy India travels last winter and enjoying the pleasure of a room of dancing friends while trying to find the best odd rhythmic concoctions my music-memory could eject while adding more and more to that playlist = good times.

Soon the festival season in Edinburgh will start and then the peace in Peter's Yard will be over, but also new adventures filmwise are waiting in Ireland and India and need to be shaped into more concrete visions. Until then I hope to pour many more great coffee's :)

Venturing into Spring

2011-04-20T02:19:00.002+01:00

The new year has been running away fast and it's time to let you know of the latest ongoings in my life and projects.
I just returned from something that may be called an epic journey into the wilderness of Glen Etive in the Highlands of Scotland. Here I was not only enjoying the scenery, but also became part of a great team of young adventurers that I was priviliged to film on their outdoor trip with Venture Scotland. My new documentary will explore nature's influence on our wellbeing by looking at those that struggle in concrete jungles like Edinburgh and Glasgow, those that have/had a rather hard, if not unpleasant upbringing, who need some structure, motivation and most of all a change of scenery in order to get a new perspective on their futures. Read more about the fantastic work of Venture Scotland here.

This is now the second trip with Chris and the team of volunteers and participants. The first journey took me first on a canoeing trip along the canal near Linlithgow where, for the first time, I saw an aquaduct and walked over it! It was one of the most impressive structures I have ever seen! A bridge for a river over a magnificent valley. A massive, huge stone bridge, ancient and stabil!
The next day I went with Katie (my loyal sound recordist) to Stanhope in the Borders, a tiny bothy in a valley of dried grass, crooked trees and happy sheep munching away. I got to know Stevie, Andy, Damian, Jason, Steven, Heather and more and spent a great weekend exploring the countryside. Map reading, cooking, games, and finally a trip to a high rope park were part of the programme and I happily filmed the folks as often as was possible. At night we were gazing to the stars at a campfire roasting marshmellows, listening to stories in weegie accent that I could hardly understand, not to mention the dirty jokes that were cracked non stop.

It almost felt too short, that time we spend at the gurgling river that went past our bothy. But Edinburgh life was calling, Peter's Yard T-shirt needed ordering and the tapes digitizing.

After a few weeks of thinking, proposal writing and questioning the ongoings in my life I went to Glen Etive last Friday morning, again with Katie and her many layers (which came in handy when deciding to take a plunge in Loch Etive after filming the brave swimmers in the glistening sunshine).
Glen Etive is enormous, the hills, the river, the wideness, the sky. It all looks like a skillfully painted film set of a Scottish western, almost surreal how we sat in the evening sun looking over Madonna's breasts (the rather pointy tops of two outstanding mountains in the hazy distance).
Driving up to the green Wellie Stop, me and Katie were gobsmacked by the most weird coincident, when in a random roundabout near Stirling the Venture Scotland bus suddenly appeared right in front of us and I instinctively set the indicators, following the bus to Stirling train station to pick up the Edinburgh part of the team. Surprised to seeing us so early on I was well happy to recognise some known faces from last trip, Andy and Andy came again, though I was rather sad that Stevie didn't make it. Those are the uncertainties of Venture Scotland's programme and my wee headaches in trying to figure out how to tell the story.

From Stirling I followed the bus with the massive trailer and 6 canoes all the way up to the Glen. Deer were suddenly standing in the middle of the road, looking funnily unamused at us staring guests. I must say with music by Pantha du Prince the journey through those mountains in the evening light was one of the most wonderful I enjoyed in my life! (At this point I shall mention a few others of those epic car drives: Ulli and me through the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland listening to UNKLE; with Julian across a bumpy Malawian dirtroad listening to Jeremy Jay & co; or with Hannah, Jake and Gill through the rocky mountains and wide almond valleys of a Mallorca in May listening to a great beat-infested radiostation!)

After a short stop at the Devil's Staircase, meeting Chris' lovely dog, having had a superb hot chocolate in her campervan, we arrived at the lakeside of Loch Etive, a wee camping spot that soon saw a big Tipi rising up in the deep blue evening sky. Pots with water were put on the wee gas-cylinders, tortellinis soon danced in the boiling soup, our tent went up quick and the first raindrops chased us inside rather early. It was nice catching up with the Andy's and getting to know Stacey, Shayne, Stuart, Stephen, Linzi, Cabbage, another Andy and John. Freezing it was, that first night in the tent, the wind bashing without warning against its thin walls, the toes were dead with coldness and yet I managed to sleep somewhat and wake up to a rather greyish stormy morning by the loch. Canoeing across to bring all kinds of stuff to the other side near the bothy was the first task of the day. We filmed with damp fingers, standing in the wind, the hairy microphone cover braving the breeze. After lunch we quickly packed up, the canoeists returned safely from the rough waves and we got ready to head to the bothy via a slightly dryer route.
The main obstacle was a massive river and no comfi footbridge anywhere in sight. Wellies were the footwear in fashion. Waterproof bags around our baby (the Canon XLH1 I used for filming) and lots of Fingerspitzengefuehl (in this case toe-tip feeling) were needed to balance through the stream at its lowest point, 20 meters across the pebbles. We all made it relatively dry, marching through the marshy grass of a slightly beaten path towards the bothy, our home for the amazing days to come.
We girls ended up in the Byre (?), an extension built not too long ago from massive rocks and wooden beams topped off by a straw roof. The boys found their mattresses in the main house where the fire got heated and oh wonder the hot water tank switched on! Our bothy was truely luxurious with a working toilet flush and hot water at certain times of the day.


The Bothy! Photo from Venture Scotland website, my own will follow!

The evening was near, exhaustion written in the faces, and hunger! The food was amazing every day, we cut the veg for some nice pasta with sauce. A big meal, followed by planning chats and the weekend favourite games of Mafia and Telepathy brought some fun and laughter. Sponge cake with vanilla custard brought even more pleasure to the exhausted faces! A great day went by.
The next came with an early wakeup call. The kitchen bustling with fry-up and tired creatures. We filmed the morning games of trust building and me and Katie ended up falling backwards into the arms of our protagonists. We couldn't just stand by and film, we were always included in any activity and totally enjoyed the team spirit embracing us through the many different happenings.
The afternoon brought on the conservation work in the area. Andy mended a broken stone wall, Stephen and another Andy rebuilt the spiral herb-garden wall and Cabs, Shayne and Peter went off to plant some trees on the hillside. There it stands now, the wee Rowan tree called Gary, in memory of the participant who left that afternoon. Dropping out of the journey does happen, it is sad and unexpected but necessary when people become careless and neglect the rules that make it a safe place for all.
We were sitting on the hill side watching Madonna's Breasts changing colors, clouds ripping open, blue rags on the grey sky appearing, sun finally stroking our hillside, painting it even more golden than the dried grass. Fresh air and the stream happily splashing nearby: what an evening. Chatting to the boys (I call them lovingly, no matter how old they are), finding out some stories of life that are not comparable to my easy upbringing. And then the enthusiams is sprawling over again and the happiness of the mild evening outweighs the worries of home. Home is now the bothy, and not that city place far away.
This night it was a lovely curry that was proudly made with Andy's help. Good stuff after a day of dragging the tripod up marshy hillsides (I'm always so surprised how wet and marshy a steep hill can be, the heather and grass sucking up so much moisture like a sponge). Another night of fun games, this time mastering my murder techniques in the mafia game. A chess lesson at candle light, shouts and laughter due to Johns hilarious geeky comments as the game supervisor of Telepathy and off to our Byre into cosy sleeping bags.

What a morning was waiting! Sun streaming across the vast valley, more golden light and hazy morning dust lingering around the hills. The last long day at the bothy begins with a treat! After breakfast everybody runs out quickly, wheelbarrows are fixed and off they go bumping over the rocky layers that sprawl over the marsh, towards the Loch. Today is seaweed harvest but also fire wood collection day. The clay oven is waiting to be heated to make some great homemade pizza, outside in the garden. Surprisingly hot the day becomes with a burning sun, peeling off the layers of jackets and cardis. Hacking the wood, piling sticks or wading through the loch picking seaweed, all done in beautiful summery weather, topless (the boys) and cheerful. Then it was time to leave the wheelbarrows behind, the loch was luring: off they went splashing away.. and I couldn't stand by much longer and tested the salty waters. FREEZING! Practicing good old Kneipp's wading technique I quickly came out again.. but was even more so tempted. Feet heating up quickly after the first shock and off again and splashing started and soon I was all wet and could dive into the cooling loch. Wow, I survived with a beating heart and the shivering subdueing quickly thanks to Katie's stripey layer (one of her 5! I had lots to learn about dressing for Scottish spring!).
The afternoon brought more games, and I succumbed and played with the group, blindfolded stumbling around in the field with the others. Our lunch we enjoyed in same beaming sunlight outside, slurping with happy faces a great warming soup.
Not long and the massive egg shaped clayoven got heated! The pizza dough was beaten and kneaded into perfection and vegetables got cut. We all gathered around the egg-oven out in a corner of the garden, the fire crackling and the pizza masters stepping up one after another. Cheesy crust, hawaiian pineapple concoctions, garlic-pizza twists and more variations emerged from the busy hands. Everytime one came out of the stone oven, the excitement was written on hungry faces. Munching in the evening light, again and again praising that magic view over the wide valley burned into my mind till the last day it shall work! To eat dinner with this view, that strange surreal film set around us, what a moment to be shared with such fun people, friends they became so quickly over the last days.

Happy days, ended with more games, with loud singing (oh Oasis and the Jefferson Jet plane echoeing through the valley!) and marshmellow stuffed cheeks. Warm the air, and a surprise storyteller emerged to perform the white stags tale at its best by the crackling fire in the hut.

Packing in sunshine on the last morning in the valley, sweeping, brushing, bustling and off we went after amazing pancakes were served up for the last bothy breakfast. Again river crossing action survived well and hello to the abandoned car, that waited by the lonely red phone booth at the lonely white house across the river.

Crossing the river. Photo from VS website

The last adventure was yet to come, rock pool jumping in the very same river we just crossed with care. Deep it carved the stone a few miles down the windy road. Everyone in wet suits jumped with joy or with fear, some were brave, others took their time, beating the devils of fear, but all hitting the splashing dark wet at the bottom of the rocky cliffs! What an achievement to jump into this icy soup! This time the film team stayed film team, capturing the shivering bodies, the proud faces, handclaps and girly screams! The last remaining battery survived nicely until the last boy dared to jump. Too quickly the last meal was served on those mossy rocks, patched with grass, surrounded by that dark still river. The clouds seamed to now start chasing us out of Glen Etive, the came in big piles creeping over the hills. Time to say good bye! Our new friends and us, laughing and joking and parting by the river bend slowly stearing the big car around the corner and loosing sight of the team awaiting their own journey back home to their rough lives.

It amazes me to learn from them so much about myself and my own doubts and fears, remembering my youth, the troubles and concerns I had that seem so distant now. Being able to face them through other souls again makes me grow more and calms me down more and also makes me sad when finding out how hard and unfair life must be for many out there. It feels amazing to inspire those rough boys, the see their soft sides and their careful manners. It's all not always easy but the emotions of this journey appeared so clearly in that hazy valley, it gives me shivers of thankfulness that I could be part of it!

My new website!

2011-03-18T20:47:00.000Z

Finally I created my own little website with some pictures, films and impressions of my graphic design work. It will be updated constantly with new work.
Hope you enjoy!
Sbeenie's website

JANEEMO display in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh!

2011-03-03T00:11:00.003Z

I'm very pleased to announce that a display for the Janeemo project will be launched in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh from Monday 7th of March! Visitors of the John Hope Gateway will get insights into the uses of the three plants, Jatropha, Neem and Moringa, growing in Malawi. I designed the display and even built a clay stove with the help of Philip Revell, a potter from Dunbar, to demonstrate the uses of the plants.

The Janeemo film will be running on a screen and contains interviews with farmers and demonstrations. This film and the accompanying short Joseph's Road were made by Julian Krubasik and myself during 2009/2010 in cooperation with the Janeemo project and the Edinburgh College of Art.

The exhibit in the Botanic Gardens will be accompanied by school visits of Scottish schools who will be using the Janeemo films in their curriculum to learn about sustainable energy, climate change and life in Malawi. A DVD as part of a teachers pack has been recently handed out to over 60 schools.

Both films were screened at the Africa in Motion Film Festival in October 2010.

You can watch the exhibit until the end of May in the John Hope Gateway visitor centre at the West Gate of the Royal Botanic Gardens. I'm looking forward to your comments! Images following soon!

INDIA in pictures

2011-01-20T16:30:00.000Z

I finally got all my 12 films developed and have sorted through the vast amount of photographs that I took during my time in India last autumn. Please find a broad selection of personal impressions here: Album 1 and here Album 2.

India's cows and amazingly decorated but crumbling buildings.

Festival News

2011-01-20T11:35:00.003Z

TURNING, my first year MA film, is selected as teachers material for One World in Schools in Czech Republic.

My friend/colleques' Anna Ewert's film Into the Middle of Nowhere will be shown at Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival end of February and I have the honour to go to Pamplona and present her film in her absence. I was the sound recordist and little helper for this gem of a documentary. I'm very excited to meet fellow filmmakers in Spain and wish Anna best of luck on her New Zealand journey!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-04T16:43:00.000Z

I hope everybody had a lovely time with their families and made it well into 2011!
I'm very excited for the new year to start off! New film ideas lurking at every lamppost but also some graphic design works are in the making and planning! Some visual updates shall follow soon.
I finished the year, helping at Suzie Enoch's shoot "My husband's daughter" as a sound recordist and enjoyed fiddling with mixer and microphone again. I finished a booklet design for the Janeemo Project and hope it will be printed soon for the farmer's in Malawi to use!

The highlight of December was the most amazing trip to the Isle of Mull to go hiking up Ben More and enjoying cosy dinners with a bunch of very cool people in a warm cottage. The whiskey was flowing nicely and the sun caressed the wintry hills of Mull!

I made it to the top!

Now I try to keep warm in our cold flat overlooking the Firth of Forth and Carlton Hill and I also enjoy the neighborhood of Artisan Roast coffee and Real Foods goods! New flat and new start into my freelance career! Any collaborations most welcome! Let's make films together!

BACK from India (first draft)

2010-11-21T16:56:00.000Z

Hello home!
I arrived in freezing Edinburgh on Tuesday, 16th of November. My attempt to write some stories on the way in India failed. Our one month stay in Mysore was accompanied by uncomfortable internet cafe's with half-working keyboards that are a writer's nightmare. When we travelled on to the Sivananda Ashram, to Varkala Beach and Fort Kochi there was not much time to spent in front of an electric box. The sun was luring us out, or in the Sivananda Ashram it was the neverending daily schedule of Satsang (singing repetitive Hindu songs), Asana classes, food intake breaks and meditation that kept us busy or bored.
Looking back now while sitting in a cold room with dark clouds passing by the shivering windows I'm filled with strange memories that could well be of a dream. But the time was real! The sun was real, my skin is brown! The colors were real and I brought stacks of shawls with me home to wrap up in an array of rainbows to sink back into warm memories. The sounds were real and I get sentimental hearing Kedars (my flatmate from India) Bollywood tunes.

Now it's time to tell the stories that me and Tove encountered during the rest of our travel, after we survived the monsoon in the Himalayas and escaped back to Delhi and from there jumped on a 33 hour trainjourney to Bangalore with the Shatabdi Express. Torkeling out of the station to hitch the first bus that crossed our way with a man screaming MYSORE MYSORE MYSORE!

Finally we arrived in the yogi capital for Ashtanga students. The city of palaces with the loudest honks in India. We arrived at the Patanjali Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga shala of Sheshadri and opened the heavy blue gates to wait for our guru. On a bicycle he came, jumped off and was a head smaller than me! A tiny robust man with a strong grip and sparkling piercing eyes welcomed us to PAVY shala. We looked at our wee apartment, nice big kitchen, a big room with a big bed covered with a massive mosquito net and a tiny bathroom out the back. Luckily Diego just finished his pranayama class when we settled down in our new comfi simple abode and he took us out to the local restaurant, Mahesh Prasad, then to the local vegetable stall that doesn't cheat with tourist prices (papaya for 10 rupees..yes) and the nearest supermarket, Big Bazaar. This was our home quarter, Krishnamurtipuram, for the next month.

Proud puri maker at Mahesh Prasad, the best local restaurant! Veg Thali for 35 rupees, free refills and yummygoodness!

Unfortunately I caught a massive flu on the AC train ride and was pretty much bed-bound the next days and missed the first yoga classes. Tove came back sparkling and superhappy and thus made me recover quickly with ginger and tulsi brew. Finally I could join her when my nose stopped dripping and my head pounding.
Amazing teaching by Sheshadri! My bones hurt for days before the muscles adjusted and the hips were opened. I couldn't believe how much I was able to bend, and how good a daily 2 hour intense practice felt. But my body wasn't used to so much work out and my cold returned with another week of running nose. Meanwhile we learned some new breathing techniques in our overpriced pranayama class and laughed our heads of in tiger breath pose.

Sellers making long flower ribbons very fast.

Mysore city centre was not our favourite destination, too loud, too busy. But when we made it and entered the maze of markets with all the colors and smells of millions of blossoms, colored powders, fruits and spices we were just overwhelmed!

During Dasara Festival we finally saw the massive palace lighted by some 80000 lightbulbs and enjoyed free Sitar concerts in front of the Maharashtras home!

Sitar band with all females! Super good!

We extended our originally planned two week stay to a proper month and in that time met great people, explored the region and got well into our yoga stretches with Sheshadri and his shy son Harish.

Highlights of our stay include our occasional balcony dance nights with Yoyo and Karine, our neighbors, or imitating the street vendours in their way to early shouts of OOOHH SAAAPOI! Very memorable are visits to Chamundi hill and Nandi the massive stone cow as well as shopping sprees to Fabindia. We managed to hitch a bus to get to Brindavan Gardens where Bollywood films are shot regularly and the nightly lightshow with all the fountains is quite magic. We also ventured to a nearby birdsanctuary to watch the crocodiles swimming around our boats and the massive bats hanging in the trees. The best trip out of town was to Srirangapatna, an old fort/island with the Tippu Sultans summer palace and the Cauvery river where we watched Hindu ceremonials by the ghats (steps that lead into the water). It was a magic atmosphere and people were completely hypnotized by their ceremonies, preparing little floats of banana leafs filled with coconutshaves, red and yellow powders, yasmin flowers and incense sticks. Monkeys were fighting in the trees while women were bathing in full dress. It's hard to put in words. To be able to observe those ancient traditions so close by was completely stunning.

Suddenly a calm month in Mysore was over and we had to say good bye to many dear friends that we found along the way. Valeria from Spain who is volunteering with a community of sex workers, Kfir who played amazing guitar tunes on our terrace with Yoyo from Indonesia. Karine and Anaelle stayed a little longer with Sheshadri but we met our crazy French girls in Varkala again.

Off we went on the day the colorful elephant parade was scheduled in Mysore. We had to give it a miss, our bus was leaving from the brand new bus terminal, 13 hours of mountain drives through the western ghats all the way down to Thiruvanantapuram or in short Trivandrum. The night was accompanied by some 80ies bollywood film and snoring Indian guys. The first thing we managed to do upon arrival was a proper filling with dosa and awakening coffee at the quirky Indian Coffee House in an old red brick twisted tower. On the road again to the Sivananda Ashram to get our heads into meditation and our legs into knots without pain. We entered the mountains again, forests of palm trees and banana trees as far as the eye can see. Magic magic! But also crazy busdrivers as usual, it seems as if mountains attract a suicidal breed of drivers.
Kerala is plastered with Hammer and Sickle signs, the communist party is ruling the county! But it was only one week to the next election. The lamp posts, walls and trees were plastered in posters, with a surprising high amount of women trying to catch peoples votes for the election. I liked Kerala already. Childhood memories of my communist pasts were digged out but the colorscheme of murals was much more up to date and a proper neon rainbow overdose.

Election days outside the ashram (c)Tove

Ashram life was strange for us after our lazy Mysore days. Suddenly we had a strict daily plan that started at 6am with singing and ended at ca. 10pm with, yes, singing! Inbetween an array of asana classes, lessons (or more singing) and a short period of Health Hut niceness with fresh fruitsalad and the best banana lassi. Though the regime had it's pro's we were just not made up for it and I especially felt uncomfortable and observed to obay their partly overstrict rules. I felt treated like a stubborn child if I chose to miss a class in order to read a book on yoga. The western people that were running the ashram at that time seemed almost paranoid if someone missed a Satsang.
We decided to leave earlier than planned and said goodbuy to some lovely new friends. The only thing we would miss was the stunning gardens/forests of greenery with massive jackfruit trees. The silent walks in the morning or evening (with full moon beaming) were the highlight of our stay and we take some meditation advice with us, knowing for myself that crosslegged awkwardness is not my way to enlightenment nor am I sure I actually want to be enlightened at all.

THE BEACH WAS WAITING! Karine who was supposed to meet us in the Ashram changed her mind after exchanging some poignant text messages that we managed to send from the no-mobile-prison aka ashram! So she waited for us on the golden sandy beach besides Varkala cliff and waved from the wavy waters of the Arabic Sea.

A week of splashing fun, pineapples, Lassi's, Baracuda, Butterfish and Kingprawns was ahead of us! Starry nights at a tiny fishing village beach with scared speedy crabs running around. Lightning from thunderclouds in the distance, swaying palmleaves and a cold Kingfisher beer. We were in paradise! We lived in a cheap second floor bungalow with Karine as our neighbor again and we went swimming after our healthy fruity breakfast and went swimming after momo lunch and before fish dinner. Inbetween a lot of bargaining with the local shops, jewellery, shawls and FINALLY skirts and shoulder free shirts! This was maybe not the real India but it was a necessary time of peace, fun and sunshine nearing the end of our journey.

View from our terrace (c)Tove

Again we met great folks to hang out with, got lots of tips from the holland guys Harm and Camille, swimming with Sanjin and Niccolo our italian friend we met at Navdanya farm in the north. Banter with the ashram girls that followed our escape! Blue sea endless, thin horizon with a pearl necklace of fisherboats, dreamy purple pink skies and low fi indian tunes. A trip to the maze of the backwaters was equally stunning and relaxing, on a canoo passing the normal Indian lives of farmers and fishermen, housewifes and schoolchildren.

We ignored the rats that ventured through our hut at night. By the end of the week we were glad to leave them behind though. A new place waited for us to be discovered! Post Portugese Kochi was next on the list and the most stunning train journey yet was ahead of us!
Train journeys are like nothing else in India. Staring Indian guys, shy colorful Indian women, the interior wonkiness of age old trains, old school wind fans, chai vendors shouting and shuffling through the corridors, naked feet dangling from luggage racks that are used by people to sleep on! The trains are a different universe and one of the experiences that make India the India I love!

Train journey to Cochin through forests of palm trees!

Ernakulam Town was our station but the place looked more like Manhattan after an earthquake. Glitzi glassfront towers next to brittle shags, next to rikshas, next to posh cars. Ernakulam is bustling with business opportunities and is as dirty as the rest of India. We left quickly into our overpriced riksha and escaped to the calm oasis, a walled maze of family homes and tropical gardens called Fort Kochin.
Our homestay with the christian Jojie-family welcomed us warmly with sparkling clean rooms and the poshest shower I ever encountered on the sub continent. The water was still as cold as everywhere else. But who cares about that if the temperatures are reaching 30 degrees every day!

The biggest surprise was that we met some Swedish friends again which we have last seen in Varkala Beach. Soon the next days were planned together and it was great to fall back to some group activities in a new place.

Ginger market in Fort Kochi

Fort Kochin is beautiful with it's many cute spice shops, antique shops and the ever looming cheaky kashmiri fabric shops. European look mixed with Indian traditions, Christian churches with Hindu temples, cows with crazy busses. No matter were you go in India, some things just always stay the same!

A trip to Munnars teaplantation was another highlight of Kerala. Lush green hills with fingerprint-look alike labyrinth's of teaplants, high up in what looked like Scottish Highlands Indian style. We hiked up to 2000 meters and watched the wild elephants below in awe! Unfortunately we were the unlucky ones to experience the not so lush monthly spraying of pesticides which refrained us from shopping Munnar tea in the thousands of stalls. The beauty of the place got spoiled when realising that after all this is a highly industrialised monoculture, kept alive by cheap workers who spray the chemicals without any protective gear.

tbc...
The end of our trip is near but now I need some food first!

INDIA! First impressions..

2010-09-11T18:40:00.000+01:00

Since 11 days I'm roaming through India, Uttarakhant just now, with Tove!
It has been an amazing journey so far. 2 days in Delhi to get the Main Bazaar overkill: too many people, too many honks, too many shops, too much rain/dust. Left north to Rishikesh. Wow, what a place.. two huge hanging bridges over the fast flowing massive Ganges, Laxman Jhula and Ram Jhula (sorry for misspelling), pilgrims in colorful raincoats everywhere and tempting stalls with necklaces, singing bowls, fabrics etc. A cosy place to stay at Mount Valley Mama Cottage where Mama made delicious Talis and Chai.In her living room the travelers gathered, meeting new people, meeting with life in India too! A hike next day to the woods near town, finding a waterfall, a cool shower in the sweaty heat. Walking back to town getting hit by a KRASS monsoon shower that soaked us thoroughly within seconds. Survived with Chai at the Cafe (and one of the many German Bakeries) overlooking Laxman Jhula.
Further to Navdanya Farm with bus and vikram. All of a sudden: SILENCE! no honks, no smells, just green colors of amounts of different plants that grow so plentiful here! Learning about all those crops, growing together: Okras, Amaranth, Sesame, lots of rice, turmeric, ginger and many more. Eating guavas all the time. Dinner bell rings promptly at 8am, 1pm and 8pm. We work with the women in the fields, mounding the gingerplants or harvesting okras for seed keeping. The seed bank here is a work of magic! More than 500 rice varieties are grown here to keep to many traditional indian varieties from dying out under corporate monocrop systems. Having just met Vandana Shiva for a few seconds before she ran off, I was still so happy having seen her at all! What a charisma this woman shines out! To be here and see all those achievements, talk to Jeet and Chandra about neem and millet varieties, about suicide farmers in India, monsanto madness and wild chickens in the nearby forest, I feel like being in the perfect place!
To make our stay a bit more exciting we spontaneously joined William (a fellow film maker and great soul!), Kumiko and Nicolo on a 2 day trip (well, not quite in the end) into the mountains, Shivalik mountain range along the ganges, Devprayag, Srivalik, Souri - the small village where Chandra grew up and lives with his wife and two kids, Tipika and Deepak. Off we went in a Jeep with a young and crazy driver who send numerous shivers down our spines, potholes AND the death-fear causing overtaking maneuvers on the snaily road that was carved into the mountains. Up to 500 or more meters deep on the right side of the jeep, and more than 2000 meters up they go on the left, those green oasis' of humid and warm mountains, some are terraced with rice patties, some are hosting amazing colorful cities, houses like lego-stones attached to the steep mountain fassade, all embraced by numerous trees and bushes, a jungle of all things green. We survived the trip well, arrived after more than 250km and 10 hours later (not the proposed 5) in the tiny village with a much slimmer yet still furious Ganges gurgling passed, so loud that it was impossible to sleep without my BELOVED earplugs! Chandras wife served food and hot chai, great to arrive there! All night rain, so heavy that the river swell even more, so heavy that the mountain came sliding down! Like avalanges the stones and mud crushed streets all over the area. We heard about school children that were swept away by an outburst of water from the sky! Scotlands rains are nothing compared to the intensity of the monsoon. Delhi has now a serious flood problem!
But we got up despite the continuous drums of water splashes, had a lovely breakfast and more sweet chai, and decided after all to hike up to some tiny villages that are now using the organic farming methods of Navdanya, selling their surplus produce to the Navdanya organization who have shops in Bombay, Delhi and other big towns all over India. We managed the slippery tiny rock-stairs, riverbeds that watered our feet, cooling wet and arrived far up with departing clouds. Rain stopped after 12 hours.
The women were curious, smiling, asking me about my piercing in sign-language, showing us their fields of intercropped varieties of millet, rice, ladyfingers and other crops. The houses were beautiful, a big central doorframe with carvings mostly in a bright red or green, a symbol of shiva or ganesha in the middle on top. Balconies that act as outdoor hallways are connected to stairs leading up and down. Succulents are growing in pots on the flat roofs. Chandra the coordinator in this area talks to the women, all of them are farmers whose husbands are working in the towns in the daytime, some are gone for weeks on end. We see beautiful old ladies with curious eyes and warm smiles. Sari's in bright colors, jewellery in gold and plastic flip flops all over the place. We then learned to make chapaties, taught by the old giggling women sitting around a woodfire in a tiny cramped stuffy room. Clapping and flapping the dough in our hands to make round flat disks that got fried in the pan. WOW! so amazing! And we did not too bad for our first trial but oh my, those hands of the woman were fast and precise in forming perfect circles of millet chapaties.
Walking around the mountains we finally saw the snowcovered Himalayas above the green peaks shining through the clouds, how high they must be! Still a while away the reach over the already 3000 meters of our village in the distance, 20 km away from the Chinese border we were.
Evening meal and another night in our little room and the terraced house, talking to Lovely, a sweet young girl who studies botany and geology in a nearby college who lives with her family next door. Every day she wore a new Salva Kameez in bright colors with amazing details woven into the fabric.
Another day arrived, time to leave! Chandra asked us to stay on but William needed to go home and the rainfall was so intense the last days, that we feared the roads will be getting worse. So we got a jeep despite knowing that we might have trouble getting through to Rishikesh. We hoped that by the time we get to Devprayag, the roads would be cleared of the rubble.
We got to Srinagar without problems, there we jumped on another bus to Rishikesh, crossed the bridge and soon found a massive traffic jam in front of us. Slowely the message triggered through that more landslides came down and the road will be closed for DAYS! We were stuck! We got off the bus who couldn't turn around there, walked a bit to finally hitch another bus back into town. William happened to sit next to a man with a blue turban (?). Few minutes later he asked us if we were alright staying at a Sikh temple for the night! Of course we were! Through the streets we marched following the santa-clause-lookalike but with a turban instead of a red hat and with a friendly smile, all the way to the temple. We covered our heads with the shawl we are now so used wearing over our shoulders all the time. Looking curiously around, being looked at even more curiously by all the Sikh-men with their turbans, beards, silver bracelets, wee swords and long robes. Oh dear. Bit weird this all felt but soon it became so normal to walk around in the temple. We shared a room with a few mattrasses with Mr. Singh and his wife, went downstairs, sitting cross legged to receive chapaties and dalh, a bit of pickle and veg curry, water and chai flowing. An amazing hospitality and an interesting new experience in my life to hear from the kind man about the Sikh traditions, their history in India, their ideals of protecting the poor from the powerful. After our splendid meal we went out to the streets once more, discovering a much less busy, less loud town, roaming in sari-shops, book shops and finally finding a decent umbrella for 75 Rupees (one pound) to prevent any further monsoon-soakings on my travels!
Back at the temple in the evening we went to the hall to listen to the praying and mostly music they played. WOOOOWWW!! I can't put in words the atmosphere of all the women and men that gathered there watching and listening to the men singing, drumming and using this strange mini-organ/harmonium-instrument. Every two or three songs the musicians changed and suddenly a wee boy appeared amongst the bearded men with their orange, blue or white turbans and he started singing in the most emotional, most clear voice every Heintje fan would dream of! I was so touched by his grace and emotion he carried in his young voice! We watched the holy book being opened, listened to prayers we couldn't understand, imitating the habits we encountered.
Sleeping peacefully in the temple, waking up at 5/6ish without a trace of tiredness, seeing clouds crouching around the morning mountains, lifting mists revealing blue sky. Relieved about the fact that it hadn't rained more, hopeful for an open road home.
Enjoying the hustle and bustle of temple morning life, women giggling, trying to talk to us with hands and feet, lots of smiles and still some staring curiosity anywhere we went. After breakfast we tried our luck, back to the main road, found a bus, hopped on, waited. And waited. And waited. chatted with the so called tourist police who again said the roads are closed. BUT our friendly Sikh-man came to look for us and found out that a detour through Pouri could work to bring us to Haridwar and from there to Dehradun. So we tried our luck finding a Jeep that would take us via Pouri through a different valley. Finally an Indian IT-youngster who also needed to get to Delhi was willing to share a jeep with us. Off we went, crossing fingers and toes and looking in awe across the mountains where so many landslides blocked roads or covered houses. I found plenty of Jatropha bushes on the way, memories of Malawi. We saw more mountain villages in their colorful lego-optic scattered over the hillsides, we saw the cruel devastation of rocks and sand that crushed down from the steep hills, covering the roads, our breath stopped several times when the tires slitted along the very edge of hundred-meter deep cliffs, honking before each curve. This time our driver drove calmly and stable, no need to fear much and by the end of this amazing sunny valley tour we reached the town that had the bus to Haridwar ready to leave! Happy we were! Home almost in sight, we thought! How wrong! The driver must have been an ill-natured maniac who besides his skills of driving curvy had the most ridiculous notions of attempting suicide with our bus. Not only did we take a detour through a bumpy dirtroad/mudpuddle of at least 1km length that nearly broke our spine and sit-bones, but also drove this bus at a speed that was absolutely terrifying! When we reached the main road again the fun wasn't over! Over-taking maneuvers were creepy! Big trucks we passed in the darkening evening light, vikrams and motorcycles we sent into ditches while racing past the TATA trucks with millimeter-precision! I was so so scared for an hour and a half. I tried not to look out of the front window and I was screaming most of the time! We did experience some crazy driving in India already but this was topnotch idiocy! Finally at 10pm we knocked on the gates of Navdanya farm, lightning around us, no rain this time, just blackness, heat and flashlights in the sky. WE WERE SO HAPPY! with last powers me and Tove enjoyed another bucket shower washing of the dirt and SMELL of 4 days traveling in the mountains with only 2 t-shirts (guys it is so hot and sweaty that two t-shirts are soaked within hours! imagine the lovely stench! haha).
Today, after having slept deeply a nice yoga-morning on our wee roofed terrace was waking us up, watching the big turmeric leafs in the breeze, the clouds over the mountains that we escaped bravely!
We did some not so tough okra-harvesting, chatted with Bindu, one of the farming-ladies, chatted more with William, the greatest American I have met so far, I should add he is from California and I know of some lovely souls from that part of the world. More inspiration floating in my humble veins and relaxation of another 4 days at Navdanya setting in! Tomorrow I want to find the herbal specialist here to chat more about Neem and its healing properties, about Moringa and other plants. I will do more yoga on the terrace, paint a few more leaves, write down more names of spices and plants and read another few pages in exciting Shantaram.
I'm so happy I came here and soon it is time to leave and learn some proper yoga lessons with Sheshadri and his son Harish in Mysore, before that a 40 hour train journey in a nice sleeper AC class will await us!

I hope to post more news from down south, Karnataka or Kerala!
Please take all best care of yourselves and please go travel and see the world! This is such an amazing adventure and was one of the best decisions I made while running crazily around a coffee machine and cinnamon buns. How far away this world is now. So normal India seems already that it is hard to believe 11 days have past.

Good luck on all your life's adventures!
Namaste!

A day in the life...

2010-08-12T00:37:00.000+01:00

Dear people,
today I had one day off of my cafe-job at Peter's Yard. A great opportunity to organise many important things. And as the day unfolded, I realised how many great moments it contained. Those I think are share-worthy!
First I pedaled down to 66 Rose Street to apply for my Visa to India! That was exciting though I had to pay more than I thought. A funny poster of a tiger reminded of not so friendly Indians. mmh, we'll see if they only mean the tiger with that ;)
Then I caught some raindrops on my way to 5 Rose Street, the Melting Pot, to meet friends to chat about Malawi and how our film about Joseph is going to be shown in the coming months! An exciting opportunity arose to decorate an installation in the Botanic Gardens about the Janeemo project. I hope I will find the time in the coming weeks to create a rough plan for that.
On my way to ECA I again managed to just escape more raindrops, cycling through busy roads with dirty busses and too many visitors of our festive town. At ECA I got all my tapes and DVDs of all the films I have made there including a big production file that will now start to catch dust on my shelf for 2 weeks before I have to move out. Strange memories of times in confined editing suites came up!

Back in fresh air, rainy autumn air, I went on my bike, this time to Napier University's Screen Academy to get a digiBeta copy of Joseph's Road for the Africa in Motion festival, where the film will be shown in October.
Before I reached the university I bumped into Simone and had a lovely chat about herbal medicines to take to India. Napiers (not the university) is a lovely place where I get my tinctures and ointments, all hand made in Edinburgh!
After copying the tape on a ancient looking machinery in the Screen Academy with lots of humming and blinking I travelled down Bruntsfield to stop at the Chocolate Tree to again escape one of the many rainshowers. Here I indulged on a vegan orange-ganache-truffel and a delicious vegan hot chocolate. I was using this bit of free time to write a letter to Joseph who will soon get a visitor to his village that will bring the letter. I miss the heat and dusty air of Malawi, the colorful village-women with the heavy water-cans balancing on their heads. I hope Joseph and Manuel are well and are not struggling too much in the upcoming dry season. I also hope Joseph will finally get a new bike sponsored by us, so he can travel to his school much easier.

Fast fast home, down hill, up hill, packing the yoga mat quickly and back on the bike to the West end. This time I was not lucky at all, a downpour! I arrived drenched in water but the calmness and thick carpets of Mulberry House made up for the struggle through stormy rain. Susan's class was another yogi's delight! Flowing from breath to breath into stretch to twist. No more rain could bother me after this class. And so I was lucky to arrive home dry and happy.

Now is time for sleep but my heart is beating in excitement of having finally written an email to the most amazing woman on this planet! Lets cross fingers and hope that my journey to India will be a fruitful one! 2 1/2 weeks to go and I have no idea how to manage packing, moving out, designing a logo and an exhibition stall, writing numerous letters, working full time and enjoying the tiny pleasures of life in this short time!

Here some impressions of my window decorations for Q5, the take-away unit for Peter's Yard.

Flying cups.


Coffee spill

Tea time.

Crispbread and Fig jam.

Heavenly cookies

Hanging cones.

Turning in Bratislava in October!!!

2010-08-02T22:21:00.002+01:00

I just received a mail from Robert who organises a film festival in Bratislava:
"I would like to inform you, that your film "Turning" has been selected for the contest of 37th International Festival of Sustainable Development Films - ekotopfilm 2010, that will be held from 11. October to 15. October 2010 in Bratislava, Slovak Republic."
Check www.ekotopfilm.sk at the end of September for updates of the screening times.

I'm very happy about this! I'm now waiting to hear from the Roshd Film Festival in Iran! Exciting times!
More news will be posted here before I head off to India in September!

Festival News

2010-07-20T17:26:00.001+01:00

Joseph's Road and the Janeemo Project will be presented at the Big Tent Festival, Saturday, July 25th from 12am to 1pm at the Solar Cinema! Come along and join us for a chat, me and Charlie from Janeemo will be there!
Turning has been shown at the Rhodes International Environmental Film Festival end of June 2010.
Here is a link to an interview with the director (me). Great to be part of this festival though I couldn't attend (in lovely summery Greece)

Production stills for Tali Yankelevich's new documentary

2010-07-16T20:00:00.013+01:00

I had the great opportunity to take production stills for Tali's MA documentary "The Girls and the Mirror" (working title). Using a Canon 5D (by courtesy of Lukasz) it was pure joy to follow the girls while filming!

Summer in Edinburgh

2010-07-16T19:33:00.001+01:00

I currently try to enjoy the summer inbetween the rainshowers. The Janeemo-project will have a stall at the Big Tent Festival, where I will be heading at the 23rd of July. I currently design the windows for the new Peter's Yard Take-away unit. Check it out end of July in the Quartermile: flying ice-cream cones, crispbread-frisbies and lovely tea/coffee displays.The next month will be filled with preparations for my India-journey, full-time-cafe-work at Peter's Yard and my first tax-return!
Meanwhile the orientation for post-India work-life is in full force and several interesting projects are lurking. Updates on new Festival appearances of Turning or Joseph's Road will follow...
If you have an idea for a film/project: Get in touch! Now is the best time to start planning!

Janeemo DVD on the way

2010-06-23T17:12:00.002+01:00

On Wednesday the 30th of June the Janeemo DVD with both films, Joseph's Road and the Janeemo Film will be launched at the ECA. Many people will come to this event, including my parents and two friends from Germany. But maybe that has rather to do with my birthday that day?

From autumn the DVD will be used as teacher material in Scottish schools to educate children about Malawian culture and climate change.

ECA degree show finished

2010-06-23T17:09:00.002+01:00

Joseph's Road was shown at the ECA degree show until June 20th.

JANEEMO Project - Making a film in Malawi

2010-02-13T21:44:00.011Z

After finishing the first year of my MA course I went straight to Malawi with Julian to shoot two documentaries, one informational film and one character driven story about Joseph, a secondary school boy from a small village in Southern Malawi.

When we won the competition to go to Africa we had no idea what to expect!
We went for a two week journey in July and then for a whole month in September. We met many interesting people, lived in a village without electricity, running water and pavements. It was the most basic living and as such had its beautiful and also harsh sides. The weather was mostly warm and sunny. But in September, the dry season, it was often unbearably hot to go out of the house during noon time. It felt like our brains were instantly cooked with the sun burning into our pale skin. Nice tan though after one month!
During our stay we were hiking in the Thyolo mountains to find a band that played on self-build instruments, a guitar made from a huge olive-oil can, drums made with goatskin and a didgeridoo made from a pipe. Also the school-life was great to observe. Nearly all the kids have a mobile phone by now and their little pocket money is invested in credit for the phone or for charging it in a nearby town that has electricity. Every morning they gathered in their blue shirts, some are worn out and hastily stitched together.

Joseph with his sister on his uncles motorbike

The means of transport are basic too, local bike-taxis bring you to Fatima, the nearest town with electricity. The huge old-school cycles had a nice cushioned seat on the back and some footrests by the wheels. Hilarious how many people and goods can fit on a single bike! Even goats, pigs and massive sacks are tied to the front or back of the bike. Not very animal friendly sometimes. The usual public transport are trucks, loaded with goods from the many farmers in the valley, they stop at hitchhiking people and are crammed!
I was particularly stunned by the markets! An overwhelming spectrum of colours and goods, e.g. tomatoes piled in neat order on mats or stalls. People sitting patiently, young kids running around with large woven trays filled with nut-cookies or fried breads. The women wear the most colorful skirts, large pieces of fabric skillfully knotted around their waists and heads. Yelling kids with their frozen juice-ice sticks, smiling sellers behind piles of pulses, beans, rice, sweet potatoes, millet..., the butcher, dried-fish smell, goats screaming, sewing mashines rattling away, the cracking noise of a movie theatre that plays kung-fu films and is only visible by the large soundsystem piled up outside of one of the houses. Meat is being cooked in dented metal bowls, plastic bags flutter from a stall, chicken sit in the shade, breathing fast in the hot air. It's a quirky atmosphere and of course the attention you get as an Azungu (a white person) is a bit overwhelming at times. Though people everywhere are super friendly and welcoming! Everybody wants to know who you are, where you are from and they want to share their maize cobs, nsima or papaya (popo) but mostly they want to sell their goods and often we discovered that there are Azungu-prices too ;)

our neighbours, the goats, early morning

At home Maxwell was preparing dinner for us every night, waiting eagerly for our arrival. Often we came late. The tour from Taboa to our home took longer than an hour. And the roads are not made for fast driving, very bumpy. After one month we knew the bumps, dry riverbeds, curves and rocks by heart. It was fun driving at night, but creepy to see the hillside burning, a long line of fire eating through the undergrowth along 40/50 km of the Thyolo mountains.
A welcoming distraction was the Obama Bar, loud blaring sounds awaiting us, a few drunkards torkeling around and a cold carlsberg at hand. Still in a t-shirt at night, the sound of the crickets was surrounding us. It was mostly pitch black after 6pm. Small lights peaked through tiny windows from village houses. But when the moon was full, it was like a lantern hanging high up above us. The light so bright you could see shadows, the milky way, usually clear and bright was swallowed from the pale face of the moon.

kids watching the dancing, Thyolo mountains

Looking back now it has been an amazing adventure, getting to know beautiful people, learning about the environment, different cultures, African village life and music!

filming at Manuels house, Nyangu Village

Now the two films are almost finished. Editing is in its final stage and soon both films will be used in Scottish schools to teach children about different cultures and climate change!

The film about Joseph will hopefully be screened at several festivals and you'll find out here where to see it!
The informational film about the Janeemo Project was already screened at the COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen in December 2009 in an accompanying film festival.

The Janeemo project itself is explained in detail here. It is a great project and I hope the villagers will use their knowledge and training to benefit from the plants.

"Turning" finished in August 2009

2010-02-13T21:39:00.005Z

My MA film "Turning" was finished in August 2009. It was screened at the MA-exhibition at ECA end of August. In December it was also shown at the Film festival accompanying the COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen. Now other festivals will be conquered! Watch this space for more news.

Synopsis:
Sabine Hellmann sets out on a journey of discovery into the Lammermuir Hills of East Lothian to explore the recent hype of wind farm constructions in Scotland. Infecting us with her passion towards environmental issues we are challenged to question our mindsets and, by accompanying her on her cycle journey, we will discover life in the countryside between a nuclear power station and a newly constructed wind farm. But is the wind farm as eco-friendly as the industry and government want to make us believe? Sabine soon discovers aspects that shake her beliefs and drive her to an unlikely conclusion.

If you are interested in the film, write to me and I can supply more information!

The beautiful poster was made by anna!