well,
its about that time, where we have to leave Angola, we lived over a month of our lives here and it became big part of our experience.
We are finishing last minute details, finalizing data and meeting some awesome people.
tomorrow me, jay and laucha head out to san francisco, we arrive on the 23rd. Return some gear when i get back, some a bit later in the week. I have to go to LA the next day to finish some film business and attend MUTE’s screening at indiefestusa.
today we are meeting with Heineken for sponsorship, among many that we are trying to tackle for financial assistance. So far we have had a good number of sponsors here in the country from banks, people, travel agencies, etc. We are still working on proposals and have more investors to talk to.
BAI bank is still holding out on replying to us on a YES or NO for there generous offer, its been over 3 weeks, but again, things here go day by day.
we met Jorge Antonio, who is a Portuguese filmmaker currently living in Angola. one of his acclaimed film OUTRAS FRASES won best documentary at Coimbra Caminhos do Cinema Português. Me, Mario, Jay and Laucha showed him a small 2 minute montage that i cut up for the wrap party to see the footage from the film. He was very very impressed, specially knowing the restrictions we worked in. The funny part is he was mainly very impressed that we were able to expose pretty well black and dark skin faces on camera, since he worked with a dp once who couldnt pull any detail from black faces that he shot for his film. I think jay might have a feature gig coming up in Angola, with a great story, so keep your fingers crossed.
Also, had the pleasure of meeting a great and well renowned angolan filmmaker, Maria João Ganga who made the award winning film HOLLOW CITY , first film to be done by an Angolan woman, and only the second movie to be made in Angola since the end of the civil war in 1991. She is currently working on post production of a short film, which looks surrealistic and great. She saw the montage i cut, and shared her own film experience shooting in angola. We told her alot of on set stories, and how crazy things would get in terms of actors who would act as if they are god’s gift to this world, or the police taking the police car when we needed to shoot , or any of the many crazy stories that we encountered. She gaves us some good props and had great things to say about the film.
we met with the IACAM (film institute) in angola, they talked to us about alambamento, and they want us to screen a trailer of the film and the making of at the Luanda International Film Festival in november. He talked to me about contacting the egyptian embassy to try to get egyptian filmmakers to attend and screen their work. That same day i received a phone call from the Egyptian Embassy in Luanda notifying me that they were contacted from egyptian embassy in california about an egyptian director name Hassan Said here and the ambassador wanted to meet up. Me and Mario went to meet mr. Alaa El Din, who was very welcoming to us. We talked about the film and he is very interested in helping us get the film to Cairo for screening, and flying me and mario out to Egypt to attend the screening and network with other filmmakers. We talked about our work in America, and our goals with Alambamento. He has direct contact with the ministries in angola and egypt , which he will use once the film is done to help get us invitations to egypt and promote the film abroad in Cairo. He really is adamant about me going to Egypt to make films, and help this angolan/egyptian co production build bigger relations with egypt and angola and other african countries to collaborate in the future in the medium of film.
For some big news,
today we are meeting an iconic singer here in angola, named Paulo Flores. He was born in Luanda and spent some of his childhood in Lisbon. His music is mostly written in Portuguese though some is in the Kimbundu language. His music is often political dealing with the hardships of Angolan life, the war, and corruption. His Angolan style of music is known as Semba. Some of his music was featured in the French film La Grande Ourse. In April 2007 he performed at the first Trienale de Luanda on 4 July 2008 Paulo flores made a concert at Coqueiros stadium with about 25.000 people, that concert beside that is the second one of Angola history in number of people behind KASSAV, was the most emotional and beautiful. Contemporary Art Exhibition).
the reason why we are meeting him is, we used one of his songs in the montage. hoping that we can use it for the film. However, the writer of other Flores song, Casse , had a great idea for us, which we can’t share now till it is confirmed. But lets just say, Paulo Flores, hopefully will agree to collaborate with us for the film….:p
i know, i am teasing you all alot, but believe me, it will be worth it when you see the film.
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August 21, 2009
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: angola, hollow city, jorge antonio, luanda, maria joao ganga, outras frases, paulo flores . Author: alambamento . Comments: 2 Comments
