The village was just 20 minutes drive out of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, but it felt we went to an other world and another time. The time people lived without electricity and running water in handmade mud houses. But that is Africa. The middle ages are just around the corner. Jakrawal Nilthamrong needed a traditional village for his fiction film Unreal Forest and he did not have to go far. We did had to go early, because in the first scene the village was just waking up.
Movie sunrise over African village.
As told in the previous blog Jakrawal's film follows the making of an African short film made by the young director Juan Watson Mututa (Watson in short). So on the set the film by Jakrawal and the one by Watson were melting into one. Watson had little experience with fiction filmmaking, but was well willing to learn from the young Thai masters. And so were others. The actresses had to run wardrobe- and make-up departments. An actor had the choice between no place in the bus or becoming a boom operator. The laws of South-East Asian low budget filmmaking have no mercy. You do something useful for no money or you are out.
In orange with hat Juan Watson Mututa director of the movie in the movie.
Also present early was Joanna Vasquez Arong. Her subject, the Zambian filmmaker Musola was out of the country, presenting her film in Germany, so she had time for other things. First she did not want to take up space in the bus, but only a little persuasion was needed to convince her that this quite special shoot could use some making of behind the scenes images.
Early morning on location outside of Lusaka. Joanna Vasquez Arong.
All filmmakers came with a bit different tools in this project. Joanna's brand new handsome professional HD camera had a lot of admirers. She herself discovered its many secrets on the way. Not the tallest of the filmmakers she carried a great amount of special gadgets, like the ZOOM H4n Handy Recorder or H4n in short, a sci fi looking sound recorder nobody had ever seen before.
Director Watson trying out Joanna's new camera.
It was remarkable to see how a little film crew, about the size of a the crew of a news reporter, could bring the life of a complete village to a stand still for a complete day. Some villagers might have expected another kind of scenes. Not far from this village was the location of a popular television soap series.Paul Luanga Jr.and Laureen making the Magic Man.
No there was no dressing room. No trailer for the star in full make up. Paul Luanga by the way had prepared the village for the shoot and recruited the mothers for the catering. The aspiring actress doing make up in the picture had by that time just given up on the idea to play a main role in the movie.
The Sick Boy gets his Make Up from Laureen.
The boy had a main role. He was discovered by director Watson who
was called Uncle Watson by the boy. They lived in the same house. The boy grew out into one of the village hero's. One of the little girls I asked if she wanted to be painted white as well. She said yes so enthusiastically that I regretted the question. I knew there were no extra roles in the carefully story boarded plan of the day so why give her hope? So it was the boy who became the star of the village and not her. Sorry.
The Boy that plays The Boy in Jakrawal's film.
In this picture you can see just a few of the many villagers that followed the shoot for the whole day. The filmmakers did not clear the set. They shot a silent scene with the lonely magic man while the little courtyard was filled with at least a hundred people. Just out of the frame. It is for this kind of images and situations I was happy that Joanna shot the making of. A making of that could be as interesting as the movie itself.
Jakrawal as Second Assistant Cameraman with improvised clapper board.
When I first asked Jakrawal to participate in this project he immediately admitted that he feared that Africa could be dangerous, but he also said he was interested. Later he never spoke about his reservations anymore. He just worked on an idea and was clearly motivated to go. Seeing him work in this dusty village I realized he had developed one of the most ambitious plans within the project. In fact he was trying to make an essayistic feature film with money that in fact was not even enough for a short film. To get this of the ground with such little means he needed magic (for this he brought master Go) and a lot of volunteers and free support. Things that in fact don’t exist in Africa (yes, the magic does exist, but not the working for free). So it was up to Jakrawal to convince the locals that he had a wonderful idea, but no money. I guess in the end it was the magic of cinema that helped him. Few things are so seductive as being part of the making of a movie (only being in a rock band can beat that).
African village dog.
At the end of a movie it often says: no animals were hurt while making this movie. But this little dog had a hard time. When the shooting day started he was the skinniest dog you can image. After the lunch the film people left so much shima (maize porridge) on their
plates that he could eat till he dropped. And that’s what happened. According to the villagers he would survive. It is a dog.
Please attach the details of the characters that featured in the movie. For example, names, email addresses and or postal adresses
Posted by: CHANODA NGWIRA | 01/05/2010 at 10:46 AM