Ubuntu Documentary: part 3

Last night the team got together for a Documentary Screening party and it was so much fun! For the most part, this was the first time I'd seen everyone since I was a little ball of tears at the Joburg airport in July, so it was so much fun to see people, hang out, catch up, and watch the short documentaries we recently completed.

Originally, we had "three days" (aka 1.5) to brainstorm, storyboard, interview, shoot, edit, polish, and complete the documentary while in Cape Town. This is an insane request, especially when each group of five students only had one camera and one computer for editing! Needless to say, we were all on edge and INCREDIBLY STRESSED. Honestly, those 2 days were more stressful than all three years of finals combined. We knew the documentaries had to be quality because we received grants and funding from national sources, our directors reputations would be affected by what we produced, from a content standpoint they had amazing potential, and because these would be plastered all over different parts of Arizona State's website. But, in our ridiculously stressed attempts to create something worthwhile we were running around with our heads cut off, forsaking the very essence of Ubuntu, the topic of our documentaries. Luckily, our directors realized this, called a meeting the night before they're due (which was our 2nd to last night in South Africa), and we all listened to each other's concerns.

I had been all over the Western Cape shooting footage that day, didn't even make it back in time for dinner, and was not happy they called a meeting because it was stealing precious time I desperately needed if we were going to start and finish this film in the next 16 hours.

to complete our documentary I was not happy they were cutting into my time. Out of no where I started crying because I saw myself putting the completion of this task over maintaining great relationships and saying goodbye to South Africa in a meaningful way. ...

Our directors ended up extending our deadline, at the expense of their professional reputation with the foundations that sponsored the projects. This was merely another show of their great compassion and belief in living a whole hearted, connected life above all else.

A (singular) result of our time focusing on understanding, dialogues, transitional justice, ubuntu, and the beauty of South Africa were a series of three documentaries, each with a slightly different slant:

Creative- looked to use symbolic and artistic elements to portray ubuntu
Educational- looked to summarize and explain ubuntu

Difficult Dialogues- looked to capture and showcase the charged and sensative discussions between races, ethnic groups, sexes, cultures, and ages in Cape Town

Below you will find the one I helped create:

This is a short documentary that looks into the meaning of Ubuntu.

Created by five undergraduate students during a summer program in South Africa and funded by grants from the Ford Foundation and Arizona State University's The Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, this is one clip from a three part series.