My suitcase is open and filling up. On Friday afternoon Erica Rothman and I are taking the Continental Airlines flight from RDU to Oaxaca via Houston. Our documentary filmmaking workshop is set to start in Teotitlan del Valle on Saturday evening. We’re excited, to say the least. Mikel Barton, our other instructor, is already there, scoping out the scenes for B-Roll and gathering last minute items we will need but are too cumbersome to haul. As it is, we are taking tripods, blank DVDs, laptop computers, video cameras, music CDs, plugs, connectors, cables, and lots of good energy.
Six of us will be making documentary films using the pueblo as a multicultural learning experience, teaming up in pairs to direct and produce the film, with the rest of the group serving as “crew.” Our subjects are the expatriate experience, the traditional Dance of the Feather, and indigenous weaving techniques. As the week progresses, I hope to blog about the experience and what it means to interview, edit, select scenes, direct and produce a short documentary film.
Our compadres are from Oregon, Toronto, Chapel Hill, Durham, Knoxville, and Oaxaca. Watch for completed video clips to show up on the blog in a couple of weeks!
