Onze

February 09, 2019

Onze

Exciting News!

Hello from Conakry, Guinea! It's hard to believe we're already in the throes of 2019. Time just seems to be flying here on the ship. I think my sense of time is so connected to the weather and using seasons as markers for its passage. I keep hearing about 'Polar Vortexes' and blizzards back home in Minnesota, and while I'm not necessarily sad to be missing out on -50 degree temperatures, I do miss the way these weather events offer a linear chronology, adding context and perspective to life itself. Here in the Guinean dry season, I don't need to check on the weather forecast, it'll be 87 degrees and sunny every, single, day. This makes for a kind of time purgatory and so I have to measure this passage with some other context-provider - I just don't know what that should be. Which bag of coffee I'm currently drinking maybe? Last month was the era of German coffee roaster, Coffee Circle. (By the way, thanks for that gift, Jonas. It was really good).

Speaking of time brings me to the exciting news...

Mercy has been officially selected for SXSW Film Festival

Last year, I had the incredible opportunity to join the incredible team of Ruben Plomp, Armando Kirwin, Ryan Kunkleman, and Renée Joubarne to shoot Mercy, a virtual reality documentary about Edith, a Cameroonian teenager and Mercy Ships patient suffering from a growing tumor. The film came together as a collaboration between Mercy Ships and Oculus' VR for Good program.

For some context, you can watch the patient story we produced in-house about Edith and her mom, Valerie. I filmed and the incredibly talented Kat Sotolongo handled post production.

Valerie & Edith from Mercy Ships on Vimeo.

It's a serious honor to be participating in a film festival as progressive and prestigious as South By Southwest and I couldn't be more proud of Ruben, Armando, and the rest of the team that helped put this together. You can read more about the project here.

Here are some 'behind the scenes' photos I shot on one of our trips to Lobo, the Cameroonian jungle village where Valerie and Edith lived.

Driving the Cameroonian National Highway toward Yaounde, the nation's capitol. This road was super dangerous, evidenced by a graveyard of wrecked vehicles along the sides of the route.

Armando Kirwin Directed Mercy. He had a wickedly dry sense of humor and a calming presence that made working with him really fun.

I'm sure our Land Cruiser packed with gear and foreigners was quite the spectacle for some of the people we came across once we got off the National Route and into the bush.

Ryan was the Director of Photography on the project. He had a Leica. I was pretty jealous (of the camera and his masterful eye for composition).

Safety was a top priority for us millennials.

A quick roadside picnic. Here, Renée is addressing Armando as 'Fromage du Chevre' or 'Goat Cheese' (celebrating his taste for the finer things).

Setting up the creepy, Star Wars-esque 360 degree camera at Edith's school while fielding questions about the project from the school's principal.

Ruben drives over a high consequence 'bridge' near Edith's village outside of Lobo.

From left to right; Christiane, Edith, Ruben.

Armando and Ryan fire up the drone for a 360 degree aerial shot of Edith's journey from home to school.

The drone used for 360 degree aerial footage was customized to accommodate two VR cameras. This meant Armando had to catch it out of midair because the drone couldn't land.

Christiane Ada Engozo'o, our endlessly optimistic, kind, and overall fantastic translator. I had the immense privilege of working with her throughout the ten month field service in Cameroon and will always consider her a true friend.

Setting up some of our gear in Edith's village, which consisted of three small huts, yet accommodated something like twenty odd people.

Edith wasn't immediately able to smile after the surgery to remove her tumor, she had to regularly exercise and rehab the muscles in her face to bring it back.