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