again, i would like to express my thanks to you all for joining us and helping to make this part of the project possible. i've spent the better part of the last two weeks logging footage and still have another 10 hours or so to get through. along the way i have thrown together some random scenes and snippets. they have been put together quickly, but i think they all show different aspects of our trip and this surreal, amazing place. and they are sort of fun to watch.
they are little bon bons for you to enjoy and share as you like
hugs
j

GOATS
http://blip.tv/file/2778177

A TROPA
http://blip.tv/file/2776707

NADA DE MUSICA
http://blip.tv/file/2776653

CORN ROWS
http://blip.tv/file/2753326

OPEN YOUR EYES
http://blip.tv/file/2736168

KUDURO BENGUELA
http://blip.tv/file/2736136

NEW YORK SOCIAL CLUB
http://blip.tv/file/2779473

WILKER FLORES
http://blip.tv/file/2730802

CHINESE CARDS
http://blip.tv/file/2730481

JEREMY MEETS TRAIN CONDUCTOR
http://blip.tv/file/2682277

------

LISBON:

ANGOLA PROPOSAL
http://blip.tv/file/910599

THE LOFT
http://blip.tv/file/918363

dear all

i just wanted to give you a heads up that we are a few days out from our deadline and have raised all $2000 in pledges from 33 backers. i just want to thank you all for being part of this phase of the angola project and helping to make it possible.

all the best

jeremy

Hi,
i just thought i would share this little treat.
I am logging footage and every once in a while come across a little gem.

all the best

jeremy

here are a couple of quick video clips from one night in huambo. we went from one place to the other in one night. these are just quick rough thrown together bits, but i thought you might enjoy seeing some footage

http://blip.tv/play/AYGn8AEC

http://blip.tv/play/AYGn8kIC

best

jeremy

Hi all -

I just wanted to give a heads up to anyone who is interested in the blog, there are a bunch of new updates mostly dealing with people we met - Chinese, some Bavarians, a few Cubans, Russians and Vietnamese among others. For anyone who has been following it, here's the next link : http://c6angola.wordpress.com/category/travel-diary/

also we are coming into the home stretch for the fund raising drive here on Kickstarter. We are 17 days out from our deadline and have about $600 left to pull together in pledges. So again, if anyone knows someone who knows someone who...etc... that might find the project interesting and like to throw some money - anywhere from 10 bucks on up - our way, please spread the word.

and finally - I was just accepted to the International Documentary Film Festival Academy at the end of November where I'll go with the first edited draft of the Angola Project footage and pitch the project to producers and industry folks to try to get proper funding for a full film. www.idfa.nl/industry.aspx (and i'll get to meet the documentary luminary Frederick Wiseman)

again, thanks for being part of it all

jeremy

i've been chipping away at the blog over the past few days, updating slowly. there are a bunch of new entries. take a look if you like:

http://c6angola.wordpress.com/category/travel-diary/

and there are more to come over this next week. (then we start the long process of logging the footage. then comes the phase of sifting through it all. and then...)

on the money front: we are 21 days out from our fund raising deadline on kickstarter and are almost there. just another few hundred dollars. please spread the word about the project to anyone you think might be interested. the money will go to the fee for the umbundu translator (paulo mendes - see the blog entry about him: http://c6angola.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/paulo-mendes/ ) and the travel costs for the three of us from luanda to lobito to humabo back to luanda.

all the best from a chilly europe :)

We have landed back in Europe and are trying to adjust to weather and culture.
The trip was phenomenal and full of the most unexpected experiences and glimpses into the mechanics of the rapidly changing global community as well as the constant and enduring shape of human interactions, spirit, confrontations with absurdities, and strategies for survival which seem to bind us all together regardless of where we are. It has been special endeavor in so many ways. Which is by no means finished!

Now the plan is to spend the next week or so going through my notes and scribbles as i update the blog and attempt to give some form to the stories and experiences. Then we'll begin to log the footage we shot and see what sort of film we have in the can. I'm fully expecting we'll need to make another trip to follow up with people and get some footage that we missed, but for the moment being, I am really excited to see what he have.

for those interested in keeping an eye on the blog, check in occasionally here : http://c6angola.wordpress.com/category/travel-diary/
also jim - my travel partner/colleague - started his own blog which can be seen here : http://jimbarnardtravel-log.blogspot.com/
and some pictures here can be seen and shared and maybe eventually some short video clips, whenever we get that far : http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeuxjeux

hugs from a sunny chilly extremely clean and malaria-free vienna ;)

Jeremy

we landed back in luanda today after an extraordinary trip. just to give a bit of the flavor of the last few days - last night we went to play poker with a group of chinese construction workers in their compound next to the railway in huambo. turns out they weren't playing poker, but something more like bridge, but we didn't quite trust ourselves to jump in, so instead we swapped shaolin kung fu forms with them in return for tai chi forms. from there we went to pick up a young angolan musician from a bar called the "novo imperio" right in the center of town. he wasn't there when we arrived, so we decided to get a beer and wait. there we were, sat between a group of lebanese merchants on the one side and a group of british de-mining experts on the other. strangely enough, i had been to the demining compound a couple days ago to try to talk with them and see if we could catch a ride to one of their field operation sites to see what they are up to. no one was there at the time, and the security guard said to come back later and ask for calvin. we struck up a conversation with them in the bar and i realized that the guy i was talking with was indeed calvin. he invited me to come out on friday to kuito to see what they are doing, so i plan to fly out there friday morning from luanda. just then wilkin, the musician showed up. he had to borrow an amplifier from a friend which took him longer to work out than he expected. he jumped into our rented car and we passed by a house in our neighborhood where the managers and technicians of another chinese company are living to pick up yolanda, a young chinese translator we had met the day before and the company's driver who is required to chaperon whenever she leaves at night. we all drove out to the outskirts of town to a musseque where a woman named sonia has a compound for 52 orphaned angolan children. wilkin set up the amplifier in the courtyard which the chinese driver lit with the headlights of his massive suv. wilkin then proceeded to play a solo open air death metal concert for us, yolanda, the driver and 52 angolan orphans who joined in with drums occasionally. it was unlike anything i have ever experienced. really most of the trip - from riding on top of the benguela railway cars though the african countryside to wandering into gay vietnamese communities in lobito, to hanging out in hospitals to deal with jim's malaria and my eye infections, to being invited out by the nephew of the governor of the state of huambo in is two gold colored hummers, to meeting the descendants of the great ovimbundo empire to dancing late at night with ethiopian immigrants in their makeshift restaurant, the trip has been mind blowing, surprising, invigorating and just plain awesome. i will try to update the blog over the next few days if i can make sense of all the fragmentary notes i've taken along the way. in the meantime, here are some pictures i've uploaded. there are many many more....

http://www.facebook.com/album.php...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php...

hi everyone

just a quick update.
we plan to head to benguela tomorrow from luanda after we get jims press pass.
we pray they will give it to us.
then onto a bus
and then filming

here are some more photos from luanda so far : http://www.facebook.com/album.php...

hugs
jeremy

So we leave tomorrow night from Frankfurt and arrive at 4.55 in the morning to Luanda. We then take a taxi (of sorts) to Sissa Bembom's house in Projecto Nova Vida in Luanda Sul - a bit outside of the city. Sissi is a filmmaker from Brazil with a company in Luanda called "Mama Africa Filmes". She was kind enough to offer us a place to stay for the first couple of days. Apparently the traffic is insane so it might be difficult to get downtown. In which case we might have to move.

Anyway, we want to thank you again for the pledges.
Please pass the word on to others as well.

We'll keep you updated as best we can

Jeremy and Jim