DRC is always full of surprises and we've learnt it the hard way this time around. A trip that was suppose to be full of new material ended up being not so fruitful. After a a heavy storm that got us stuck in JFK for 6 hours, a passport lost, a credit card that ended up being worthless in Goma, malaria for the two of us and another delayed flight we finally made it back to New York City with literally no footage from the film. So of course this has been very disappointing in many ways. Moral of the story is while in Congo one has to leave room for the unexpected and accept the unexpected without resisting.

Although we got no footage for Tales from Kin, we still had an opportunity to film some interesting programs run by UNICEF in eastern DRC and got reminded that though the focus of our documentary is the middle class, many congolese are still struggling to get by, living under despicable conditions and that a bright future is nowhere near.

Back in New York now, the main goal is to cut a 15 min trailer of the over 100 hours of tapes that we have. Plan another trip to Congo, this time for much longer. This time with maybe less overconfidence.

N

Bonne Nouvelles

2 months in 2008 , a lot of work, transcribing from English to French to the point that I don't even know which language I speak sometimes, exhaustion, frustrations...etc... but there's a good news, and the good news is the project is still on and is going towards the right direction.

The city's pace is hard to keep up with, intense and awfully stressing at times, that is part of the reason why we didn't post messages for a while. But here we are again, with a newly acquired laptop, a lot of free internet at home, with more information, experience and stories to share we'll be able to keep up the update of the blog. 

The trailer is done, and will be "bientot sur vos ecrans". A new website is in construction, we're expecting delivery soon. NYFA has "endorsed" our project... And another trip to get more stories. Departure is scheduled for April 1st. I am rather impatient to get away from the big apple and head to good old Europe for a month of shooting, from London to Paris through Brussels following our participants wherever they go. And hopefully we'll be in Kinshasa in June to capture that independence day buzz that happens every year since the 1960's. 

But for now we have one month to feed you with everything that has happened since we got back from Kinshasa.

Thank you for reading...keep reading...there will be more.